Today is Wednesday and our time in Cochabamba is rapidly winding down. This short post is meant to update you about the children currently being treated in the burn center in the hopes of giving you an idea of the nature of their injuries and the mechanisms by which they occur.
14 year old girl, burned via a natural gas explosion in the kitchen of the family for whom she worked as a nanny. She received burns to her face, both arms, and both legs and for the majority of last week was completely bedridden and hardly able to move. Today we walked in the burn center to find her up in a wheelchair working with a physical therapist and, to our pleasant surprise, smiling.
3 year old girl, just arrived in the burn center today with second degree burns to her buttocks from scalding water. She likely fell backwards into a pot of boiling water or was intentionally placed there. This type of injury is unfortunately often a sign of child abuse. She too is currently bedridden and will undergo multiple wound debridements over the coming days.
Three separate 3-5 year olds, all of whom received 2nd degree burns to their faces, torsos, arms, and legs due to either water or soup that was spilled on them when they reached up and grabbed the pot in which the liquid was boiling. All are currently bedridden and restrained to prevent them from touching and contaminating their open wounds. They will all require similar debridements.
11 year old boy who worked for a power company (at age 11!) and was severely electrocuted by a live wire. He received 3rd degree burns to his right arm and both legs and will require weeks to months of intensive surgical intervention and physical therapy. Miraculously, he is already walking and seems to be improving far faster than one would expect.
5 year old boy who was playing with an alcohol of some sort when it ignited and caused third degree burns to his left leg. We participated in his skin graft placement two days ago and he too is currently bedridden.
There are 4-5 more children who are enduring similar burn injuries and who are being incredibly well taken care of similar to the children noted above.
One of the most difficult aspects for us has been watching the most severely injured children endure intense pain without sedation, spending the entire day in bed with little to no entertainment. Many of the children´s parents try to come by, but visiting hours last only for an hour during lunch, and even then many of the parents are not able to make it due to geographical or financial constraints. It´s such a tough situation for the kids - could you imagine lying in bed almost all day staring at a grey slate wall with nothing to take your mind off your pain? We have been brainstorming trying to think of ways to distract and even entertain the patients, but it can be pretty difficult when the kids are restrained in bed or when both their arms are completely encased in bandages. At this point we agreed that the best bet to help in this way is to purchase 2 flat screen televisions that will be mounted on the walls of the rooms with the most immobile patients. We´re scrambling to do so, but accomplishing such a task in Bolivia in 3 days may well be a God-like feat - With our free time later this afternoon we went by several electronic stores but they were all closed; we finally found one open but they said they couldn´t sell us anything until Friday, and didn´t even know how much their TVs cost! At any rate we´re going to try our hardest.
More to come tomorrow about another donation we completed today...
Thanks for the continued prayers, both for us and for the incredible children with whom we are working!
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