Evangel Hospital
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Often the sound of crying is enough to point the way to the pediatric ward. Its eight patient rooms hold forty beds for children. Usually there are two or three nurses and an attendant to care for all the patients. Like the other wards, the pediatric ward has rarely been full in in the past year or two. It is not that children are not sick, rather that the economy has become so bad that few people can afford to bring their children to the hospital and keep them there. Of course we do everything possible to make the care more affordable. | |
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Several rooms have large, brightly-colored pictures painted by the students at
Hillcrest School. Vital signs charts hang on nails at the bedside. The corner tables are covered with bowls
and thermos bottles containing food for mom and child. The mother rather than the nurse is
the primary caretaker for the hospitalized child.
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This little boy suffered chronic
malnutrition because of tuberculosis. Poverty, measles, repeated bouts of
diarrhea, and an unbalanced diet all contribute to the problem of
malnutrition. Half of all the young children in Northern Nigeria are
undernourished. While the hospital doesn't provide meal service, attendants
on the peds ward do prepare special food for the malnourished children. "Kwashpap"
is a modification of the traditional starchy "pap" fed to babies and
toddlers. Mothers learn to make this more nutritious food by adding peanuts
or soybeans, a little sugar, and if possible an egg to the babies' usual
pap.
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