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I want to sob at the hope and gratefulness in his eyes. I squeeze his bony shoulder. “Are you hungry?”
He shakes his head. “Not really.”
“Well, you should still eat something.”
“Okay, Dak.”
I move on to the next patient, a little girl waiting for surgery. We’re in a small village outside of the main city so when the kids here need more medical attention than we can provide, we keep them here until a spot opens up. In her case, she needs a heart murmur fixed, so she’s going to have to be sent to a hospital that can do that sort of advanced surgery. Until then, we keep her away from the public in general. An infection could harm her heart.
“How are you today, Eshe?” I ask.
“I’m A-OK, Dak!” She gives me a thumbs up and I laugh. The kids heard me say it a few times and now they love to repeat it back to me. “You feeling okay, though?”
“I just tired,” she replies.
I reach into my bag and pull out a brand-new coloring book and box of crayons. “Do you want to color?”
Her eyes brighten. “Yes!”
I set the items down in front of her and squeeze her hand before going to the next patient.
After I’m done with rounds, I go back to the main part of the tent.
“Hey, we’re doing a vaccine clinic tomorrow, I’d like for you to be here,” Dr. Alsworth tells me.
I grin. “Where else would I be?”
He chuckles. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“Have you ever given a vaccine before?” Clive asks.
I shake my head. “A shot, yes. Not an actual vaccine.”
“Good, it’ll be easy,” he assures me.
I’m not too worried about it. I’ve given cortisone injections into major large joints, I can handle a little stick to the arm. “I’m sure.”
“A little tougher on kids because they’re scared of needles and cry.”
“So do adults,” I quip.
They both chuckle. “That’s true.”
Though, seeing a kid cry and making them hold still will be a lot harder.
I look at my watch and see it’s almost 7 p.m. Except for the inpatient people, the clinic is quiet. The 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. doctors and nurses have already arrived for the night, so I walk the dirt road back to my tent.
I open my laptop and am happy to see an email from Declan from about an hour ago.
From: [email protected]
Subject: Sources
Hey – sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I had to ask quite a few people around here if they knew how this worked, and finally got an answer. I had my secretary compile a list of sources at the major pharmaceutical companies. I hope these will help. These aren’t public record so keep the phone numbers and email addresses to yourself, please. I practically had to bribe someone for them.
Let me know if any of these help. If not, I’ll keep digging.
