Today's BOR (Bed Occupancy Rate) in the hospital is 112% (220 patients for 196 beds). There are now 89 children in the hospital (the children's ward has 37 beds), 53 of whom are suffering from dengue fever. Yesterday morning (Sunday) I was awakened by the sound of wailing and crying which means that a patient has just died - I found out later that it was a four year old child who had died (dengue again).
Still on the subject of sick children, I am delighted to hear that my friends in Bray Sailing Club have offered to support my presence here by having a fund raising dinner to pay for the redecoration of Ruang Melati (the children's ward) in the hospital. Although far from being the worst part of the hospital, it's a pretty grim environment for the children and this money will go a long way towards brightening it up. The event takes place on Saturday 27th February and you are guaranteed to have an excellent meal and lots of fun, all for €30. Bookings to my sister Rosemary or call or SMS her on 087-6864322. Thanks to everyone in advance for your support !
Naturally, donations will be gratefully accepted if you would like to help but can't attend the dinner. Rosemary will accept these also !
I'm so sad reading about the deaths of the children. It must be very hard for you when it happens. Yet again I realise how lucky we are in this part of the world.
ReplyDeleteOur swine flu "pandemic" pales into insignificance compared to these numbers. Dengue fever is becoming a huge problem and the increasing nos. in Indonesia feature on the Travax site I use. What can we do about it?
ReplyDelete@ B: I'm not sure what "we" can do about it - unlike malaria, you can't take preventative drugs for dengue. The Health Department here does carry out "fogging" to get rid of mosquitoes and also has some health promotion staff who do awareness raising in the villages and they provide mosquito nets for children. The problem is that many of the children arrive at the hospital far too late in urgent need of transfusion with their thrombocyte levels already through the floor. If you need blood here, you have to bring your own donors along and often, out of 10 willing donors, only one is a good match (many are HIV positive which is only discovered at screening for donation). This causes more delays and so on...
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