Ive never heard a baby scream with so much intensity for so long.
Moises had taken in a baby with a disease where her skull holds fluids. The child has a 17-year-old mother. The child got out of the hospital last night and had a tube to drain the fluid from her skull to her stomach. Her nose is clogged with blood.
The child must be in intense pain judging by the way she shivers. I held my hand on her chest and her heart rate was increasingly rapid. She had Genu varum which is a way of saying her feet were bow-leg and she had an operation on them as well so both feet and legs were in a cast. I think she is only 3 months old.
She woke every hour crying and this morning when her mother tried to wash her face she cried unlike any 3 month old baby has cried. I actually thought that the baby had died and her mother was hysterical. I was afraid to come downstairs.
Right now I am in central park, Honduras. This place is poor. The poverty hadn't fully hit me yet until I came here.
The child's name is Gabriella and the Mother is Maria. Maria feels shame because when she was pregnant on the bay islands of Reyna, she didn't want her mother to know she was pregnant. She tried to flatten her stomach with belts and then she took a pill for an abortion but the pill didn't work. She feels the baby came out this way because of her actions. When the baby was born a woman offered to take it and care for her but she thought, "I already am responsible for ruining this child. After all I have caused how can I abandon her?" Much spirit for a 17-year-old.
Maria lived with her mother but after a while the neighbors complained about the crying ans she had to move out. So she found Moises. Moises hooked her up with missionary doctors who took care of her surgery for free.
I wonder what will happen if Maria runs out of patience.
3/16/2008
