An Act of Kindness

Since I began serving at this hospital I have observed a fair amount of occurrences that break your heart. There was the case of a 70-year-old male asthmatic patient with a closed right femur fracture who wouldn’t agree for us to transfer him to the big hospital in Kumasi for surgery. He didn’t have money for the corrective surgery. So, he was discharged against medical advice and we later learned that he went in for herbal treatment to fix his leg. Then the case of a 4-year-old with severe anemia (hemoglobin level of 2.2g/dl) whose dad refused to sign consent for us to transfuse blood. The dad took his boy home against medical advice and there was nothing we could do. The law addressing such issues is murky. We are still looking into that law.

Then there are cases of children, mostly infants, who are kept at home for a long time after they become ill. Eventually, the parents will bring them after exhausting herbal medicine options and finding no solution. By that time, the disease/infection process is so advanced that the child patient is at an increased risk of becoming a mortality.

Last week we admitted one of those prolonged home stay cases where the parents were resorting to herbal medicine for a cure. By the time they brought him in, the one and half year-old male patient was severely ill and septic. He had a high white blood count with a very low hemoglobin level (2.1g/dl) in addition to a low level of consciousness on presentation. Thankfully and by God’s grace, after 2 blood infusions and multiple rounds of antibiotics, he began feeling better. He regained full consciousness and began behaving like a regular kid again. He was finally discharged when we felt that he was well enough to go home. Unfortunately, his parents didn’t have health insurance thus, the child was not insured. This meant that they had a huge bill (approximately $160) to settle before they could leave the hospital premises. In the past, patients could go home and come back to settle their bills. But, most people took advantage of the hospital and absconded. So, that policy was nullified. As a result, our one and half year-old boy had to sleep at the hospital with his mom while his dad went and looked for funds to come and settle the bill. After 3 days he had not showed up. The boy and his mom had no food and their shelter/bed was a bench in the out patient department. We were all saddened by this event.

Mosquitoes are everywhere, especially at this time of the year, and we were afraid that the boy and his mom may become infected with malaria or worse if we didn’t find a solution to the problem. So we (Dr. Nkansah and I) began going around and asking the hospital staff for money to help pay off their bills. Surprisingly, we were able to raise enough funds to settle the bill so they could leave the hospital. I am really thankful for the kindness and support shown by the hospital staff when the call for help went out. They exceeded our expectations and the family of the little boy was thankful and overwhelmed by all the kindness.

It is my prayer that more people will continue to stand up to ease the burden of those who are less fortunate. Wherever you find yourself on this planet, there are always people in need of help. What will be your act of kindness today?