Funerals

Here in Mozambique, we attend a lot of funerals . . . and we don’t even go to all of the ones we are “invited” to.  Many, many people die from malaria, sudden fevers (which we never hear a diagnosis for), a gradual wasting away from “that” disease, which is never named, or other causes.  The number one cause of death for babies in this country is diarrhea, and I believe that malaria is second.   A few months ago, Kevin attended the funeral of a local influential Christian man, and many hundreds attended his funeral.  Just the month before, he attended the funeral of the child of one of the pastors, who died from malaria.

In early September, I witnessed the illness and then attended the funeral  of a young man about 17 years old.   He had a high fever over a period of about two weeks and in the end they said he died of meningitis.  However, I don’t believe he received any treatment for that disease until just a day or two before he died.  In fact, his family brought him to the hospital at one point and he didn’t receive any treatment there in the ward for 4 days.  For four days he lay there and had no visit from any doctor.  Finally a doctor came by and diagnosed him with something, but his mother was away getting food when the doctor came, so she never heard what the diagnosis was.  He was finally given IV fluids, and then the family was told to donate blood so he could get a transfusion, which they promptly did.  Then they were told that he would receive no blood because there was none of his type in the blood bank.  I have heard in the past that blood is sold on the black market (I won’t speculate here where that blood comes from).  He died the next day and the family was told it was from meningitis.

What a tragedy.  His girlfriend had given birth to their baby only a short time before.  Now who will support them?  He was a strong young man and should have survived if treated properly.  In cases like these we always feel conflicted.  Should we have taken him to the private clinic for care?  It would have cost over a thousand dollars in the end, money we could have surely raised from overseas.  Probably by the time we realized he was not going to recover at the public hospital, it would have been too late.  We try to help those with long-term illnesses find the care they need, but it is hard to know when to intervene on a week-by-week basis with so many who are ill.  The public health care system here can work, but often it fails due to lack of medication, lack of staff, lack of care.  Many of the people who are ill, and their relatives, do not speak up or ask questions, or understand how to take their medication.  All around, very discouraging.  – C