Saving life of a little girl ... (November - December 2016)
Her name is Mouse*, she is 13 years old and has undergone two complicated operations......
I used to teach her English, but in fact this little lovely girl conquered my sister's heart when they painted dolphins together on a wall of the first bathroom three years ago…
This time however Mouse was not showing up at school. Slightly worried, I went to visit her and her family to check what was going on. She was such a smart and good student I thought it was a real pity she would drop out. The parents explained that the little one had serious pain on a right side of her abdomen, which prevented her from sitting through the classes. She struggled to finish primary school but due to the pain, did not continue to secondary school. I asked if they knew what was causing the pain, if they had seen a doctor but as there is no doctor on the island, they did not know. A local shaman gave them a bottle with an extract of some root, but it did not seem to help (surprise, surprise). As I was heading soon to Pakse (a provincial city 140km north of the island), I thought I could take Mouse accompanied by one of the parents and go with them to see a doctor at a local hospital. At that moment I did not realise that this offer would change soooo much….
On the day of departure, Mouse and her father waited for me already from the early morning on the boat pier. It was the first time that Mouse would leave the island. She was so excited – everything was new and magical. It was the first time she took a bus and could not stop starring through the window. I let her listen to music on my old iPhone, but she quickly discovered a phone camera and started taking pictures of every single car or building along the road and then she discovered …. selfies :) Mouse also loved the room with an air conditioning and an attached bathroom I booked for her and her dad in the guesthouse I usually stay.
But then we went to the hospital. Spread over numerous buildings of different standard, with small rooms with patients cramped on tiny iron beds under hardly moving fans, the hospital looked a bit scary. With no ID, just telling her first name and age, Mouse was given a patient card and we started a tour through several medical stations for various tests, where I would pay every time a small fee. My presence seemed to attract lot of attention, as doctors thought I was the one in need, but then realizing it was for the little girl, they would immediately assist Mouse. After all the tests, it turned out that she has big stones in her kidney, suffers from an infection as well as anemia. The hospital offered the traditional chirurgical operation a week after and requested to come two days later for some additional tests.
Suddenly my World stopped. I couldn’t imagine leaving the little girl with an infection to be cut in a shabby hospital with no respiratory assistance and then left in a non-air-conditioned sticky and hot room, on hard-bed with no proper care. I realized that if I was not there, the small one would not be assisted as a priority. Also if anything went wrong, there would need to be someone to pay for additional blood in advance, before being it given to the patient . Further most of resuscitation services are simply not available. Plus, I knew that elsewhere there were much less intrusive methods to get rid of kidney stones. That night I hardly slept. Somehow without really wanting it, the life of this little girl was in my hands. I was going through all possible options: Thailand, Vietnam, making more research in Laos.
Next day, I moved heaven and earth.
I knew how hard it would all be, that the time was running out while my flight back to Europe was approaching and I had this small girl looking at me as I had all the answers, which I … didn’t have (at least in the beginning). Mouse was so vulnerable, so scared... even of cars, she would grab my hand very strongly every time we would approach the street. I wanted her to smile so I tried everything: we took funny pictures making faces, went to a colourful market, walked along the Mekong shore, visited a bookshop, bought lucky orange bracelets, which we asked the monks in the temple to bless and wrap around our wrists to ensure protection… We ate in restaurants, where Mouse tasted for the first time in her life toasts with jam, strawberry milkshake and … a chocolate! And after finishing a drawing of her island in a copybook I had brought to ease the waiting in the hospital, next day she showed me with some embarrassment the next drawing: …. full of cars :)
Trapped in a small Laotian town Pakse, using my phone and computer I reached out to everyone I thought could help. With support of a recently met Swiss volunteer nurse, I sent Mouse's results to Switzerland and almost immediately got an expert analysis, who confirmed that her kidney was still ok and that she was eligible for a PCNL (Percutaneous nephrolithotomy – a non-intrusive intervention) and encouraged me to take her out of Laos. With my Thai friends, we almost secured a place in a hospital across the border, but … the problem was that neither the girl not her father had passports, nor even ID cards and the father was reluctant to go abroad.
Next step was to check the clinic Mr Vong used in the capital of Laos. It was a Vietnamese private clinic, which for difficult cases would bring a team of doctors from Hanoi. It looked promising but I could not reach them, the telephone I had found online was not working and there was nothing I could do. I went through all possible contacts I had in the Laotian Save the Children’s office. My closest colleague moved to the Thai office few months ago, but then I found an e-mail exchange with a colleague I had met once on a conference in Bangkok and without thinking I called him. Not really leaving Peter much choice, I dragged him into the story. He was extremely helpful, took his bike and cycled to the clinic. In the same time I sent him all the results. Again, our origin made miracles. Peter got received immediately by a doctor, who looked at the results and confirmed that PCNL was available and could be done. The little one had to come for some additional tests and week later team of doctors would fly in from Vietnam. It looked like the solution! The little girl's father was happy to travel to the capital, dug out a number of a cousin there and they were ready to go.
Another thing was the money. The entire procedure is very costly and I would need to get back to Europe to organise it. I left the rest of money I had to the father and Mouse for their trip, further tests and some support for their stay in Vientiane. Luckily the director in the clinic speaks well English and has an email. Building relation of trust, he allowed for a derogation so that the family did not need to pay half at the registration and accepted the payment to be done just before the operation when I would be already back in Europe. Peter was to be travelling, but Loyda - his wife was ready to help bringing in cash I would transfer her...
Having organized it all, I was ready to leave Laos. I have to admit that these were one of the most challenging days in my life. But I learned so much: I got again proven that it pays off never to give up, I learned that miracles do happen, that with my basic Lao - if I really need - I can communicate in all kind of situations, even if I really wished I could know it better. I learned how it is to be responsible for somebody else, I learned how it is to have a child, how it is to mean everything for the small girl who held me tight and didn't want to let go. When I walked across Pakse with Mouse, everybody looked at us smiling, we would get the best tables at the restaurant, people (both locals and tourists) would approach and talk to us and when they got to know the small one is ill, they were all moved ....
I used to teach her English, but in fact this little lovely girl conquered my sister's heart when they painted dolphins together on a wall of the first bathroom three years ago…
This time however Mouse was not showing up at school. Slightly worried, I went to visit her and her family to check what was going on. She was such a smart and good student I thought it was a real pity she would drop out. The parents explained that the little one had serious pain on a right side of her abdomen, which prevented her from sitting through the classes. She struggled to finish primary school but due to the pain, did not continue to secondary school. I asked if they knew what was causing the pain, if they had seen a doctor but as there is no doctor on the island, they did not know. A local shaman gave them a bottle with an extract of some root, but it did not seem to help (surprise, surprise). As I was heading soon to Pakse (a provincial city 140km north of the island), I thought I could take Mouse accompanied by one of the parents and go with them to see a doctor at a local hospital. At that moment I did not realise that this offer would change soooo much….
On the day of departure, Mouse and her father waited for me already from the early morning on the boat pier. It was the first time that Mouse would leave the island. She was so excited – everything was new and magical. It was the first time she took a bus and could not stop starring through the window. I let her listen to music on my old iPhone, but she quickly discovered a phone camera and started taking pictures of every single car or building along the road and then she discovered …. selfies :) Mouse also loved the room with an air conditioning and an attached bathroom I booked for her and her dad in the guesthouse I usually stay.
But then we went to the hospital. Spread over numerous buildings of different standard, with small rooms with patients cramped on tiny iron beds under hardly moving fans, the hospital looked a bit scary. With no ID, just telling her first name and age, Mouse was given a patient card and we started a tour through several medical stations for various tests, where I would pay every time a small fee. My presence seemed to attract lot of attention, as doctors thought I was the one in need, but then realizing it was for the little girl, they would immediately assist Mouse. After all the tests, it turned out that she has big stones in her kidney, suffers from an infection as well as anemia. The hospital offered the traditional chirurgical operation a week after and requested to come two days later for some additional tests.
Suddenly my World stopped. I couldn’t imagine leaving the little girl with an infection to be cut in a shabby hospital with no respiratory assistance and then left in a non-air-conditioned sticky and hot room, on hard-bed with no proper care. I realized that if I was not there, the small one would not be assisted as a priority. Also if anything went wrong, there would need to be someone to pay for additional blood in advance, before being it given to the patient . Further most of resuscitation services are simply not available. Plus, I knew that elsewhere there were much less intrusive methods to get rid of kidney stones. That night I hardly slept. Somehow without really wanting it, the life of this little girl was in my hands. I was going through all possible options: Thailand, Vietnam, making more research in Laos.
Next day, I moved heaven and earth.
I knew how hard it would all be, that the time was running out while my flight back to Europe was approaching and I had this small girl looking at me as I had all the answers, which I … didn’t have (at least in the beginning). Mouse was so vulnerable, so scared... even of cars, she would grab my hand very strongly every time we would approach the street. I wanted her to smile so I tried everything: we took funny pictures making faces, went to a colourful market, walked along the Mekong shore, visited a bookshop, bought lucky orange bracelets, which we asked the monks in the temple to bless and wrap around our wrists to ensure protection… We ate in restaurants, where Mouse tasted for the first time in her life toasts with jam, strawberry milkshake and … a chocolate! And after finishing a drawing of her island in a copybook I had brought to ease the waiting in the hospital, next day she showed me with some embarrassment the next drawing: …. full of cars :)
Trapped in a small Laotian town Pakse, using my phone and computer I reached out to everyone I thought could help. With support of a recently met Swiss volunteer nurse, I sent Mouse's results to Switzerland and almost immediately got an expert analysis, who confirmed that her kidney was still ok and that she was eligible for a PCNL (Percutaneous nephrolithotomy – a non-intrusive intervention) and encouraged me to take her out of Laos. With my Thai friends, we almost secured a place in a hospital across the border, but … the problem was that neither the girl not her father had passports, nor even ID cards and the father was reluctant to go abroad.
Next step was to check the clinic Mr Vong used in the capital of Laos. It was a Vietnamese private clinic, which for difficult cases would bring a team of doctors from Hanoi. It looked promising but I could not reach them, the telephone I had found online was not working and there was nothing I could do. I went through all possible contacts I had in the Laotian Save the Children’s office. My closest colleague moved to the Thai office few months ago, but then I found an e-mail exchange with a colleague I had met once on a conference in Bangkok and without thinking I called him. Not really leaving Peter much choice, I dragged him into the story. He was extremely helpful, took his bike and cycled to the clinic. In the same time I sent him all the results. Again, our origin made miracles. Peter got received immediately by a doctor, who looked at the results and confirmed that PCNL was available and could be done. The little one had to come for some additional tests and week later team of doctors would fly in from Vietnam. It looked like the solution! The little girl's father was happy to travel to the capital, dug out a number of a cousin there and they were ready to go.
Another thing was the money. The entire procedure is very costly and I would need to get back to Europe to organise it. I left the rest of money I had to the father and Mouse for their trip, further tests and some support for their stay in Vientiane. Luckily the director in the clinic speaks well English and has an email. Building relation of trust, he allowed for a derogation so that the family did not need to pay half at the registration and accepted the payment to be done just before the operation when I would be already back in Europe. Peter was to be travelling, but Loyda - his wife was ready to help bringing in cash I would transfer her...
Having organized it all, I was ready to leave Laos. I have to admit that these were one of the most challenging days in my life. But I learned so much: I got again proven that it pays off never to give up, I learned that miracles do happen, that with my basic Lao - if I really need - I can communicate in all kind of situations, even if I really wished I could know it better. I learned how it is to be responsible for somebody else, I learned how it is to have a child, how it is to mean everything for the small girl who held me tight and didn't want to let go. When I walked across Pakse with Mouse, everybody looked at us smiling, we would get the best tables at the restaurant, people (both locals and tourists) would approach and talk to us and when they got to know the small one is ill, they were all moved ....
Back in Europe, I got in touch directly with the director of the Vietnamese clinic in Vientiane to agree on a date and a method of payment. Then I sent all the necessary money that meanwhile I had collected through a call for help on Facebook as well as circulating this story to my network in Brussels, to Loyda who brought it to the clinic.
When the operation was taking place in Laos, I could not sleep. It took sooo long. Finally around noon Belgian time, I got the message that it was over, but also that Mouse had so many stones in her kidney, that it was impossible to keep her so long under narcosis (given that she is so small), so that she would need to have another operation in two weeks. It was heartbreaking news. Mouse was very brave but did not cope well with anesthesia and once awake burst into tears. Lying under oxygen, with intravenous drip and kidney catheter, she looked so vulnerable.
On my request, Loyda and her daughter visited Mouse and brought some presents. I kept on mailing with the director of the hospital inquiring about Mouse’s state and the next operation. The family was relieved as apparently after each communication, the care given to Mouse was stepped up. On Sunday 18 December, the second operation took place and was successful. The surgeon said that he had never taken out so much dust from a kidney. However the doctors do not know why she had such big stones inside her kidney in the first place. They confirmed that there was no congenital abnormality of her urology tract. She was given prescription for some medicine to help cleaning the dust from her kidneys, which she should take every 6 months. Mouse stayed still a week in the capital for follow-up checks and catheter removing and then finally came back home. She and her dad were back after more than a month since a trip that was supposed to be a one-day visit in a local hospital in Pakse. In the meantime Mouse’s mother had to finish rice harvesting and take care of younger siblings on her own. She was very tired but never complained saying it was her way to contribute to saving her daughters’ life.
THANK YOU so much for all the support! The donations come from all over the World, Japan being the most remote source, from people of more than twenty nationalities…. And then a Polish girl sent it from Belgium to Laos to a Spanish girl - wife of a Brit met in Thailand, who delivered it to a Vietnamese clinic located in Laos – the best example that globalization and working together can save lives, in this case life of the little Lao girl.
The money collected was enough for the two operations and Mouse’s stay in the clinic afterwards (1200€ + 300€) as well as for support of her family (food, water, medicines, transport within the capital as well tickets back to the island -> in total 500€).
I will keep on working in Laos, supporting Mouse’s rehabilitation, raising her family's life standard so that they can afford decent nutrition and Mouse's further education. I will travel there as frequently as I can to see what else can be done for this community, so if any of you wants to help, the following bank account remains open in my name for Laos: IBAN: BE32 1030 7215 1702 BIC NICABEBB.
* the name has been changed to protect the girl's identity
When the operation was taking place in Laos, I could not sleep. It took sooo long. Finally around noon Belgian time, I got the message that it was over, but also that Mouse had so many stones in her kidney, that it was impossible to keep her so long under narcosis (given that she is so small), so that she would need to have another operation in two weeks. It was heartbreaking news. Mouse was very brave but did not cope well with anesthesia and once awake burst into tears. Lying under oxygen, with intravenous drip and kidney catheter, she looked so vulnerable.
On my request, Loyda and her daughter visited Mouse and brought some presents. I kept on mailing with the director of the hospital inquiring about Mouse’s state and the next operation. The family was relieved as apparently after each communication, the care given to Mouse was stepped up. On Sunday 18 December, the second operation took place and was successful. The surgeon said that he had never taken out so much dust from a kidney. However the doctors do not know why she had such big stones inside her kidney in the first place. They confirmed that there was no congenital abnormality of her urology tract. She was given prescription for some medicine to help cleaning the dust from her kidneys, which she should take every 6 months. Mouse stayed still a week in the capital for follow-up checks and catheter removing and then finally came back home. She and her dad were back after more than a month since a trip that was supposed to be a one-day visit in a local hospital in Pakse. In the meantime Mouse’s mother had to finish rice harvesting and take care of younger siblings on her own. She was very tired but never complained saying it was her way to contribute to saving her daughters’ life.
THANK YOU so much for all the support! The donations come from all over the World, Japan being the most remote source, from people of more than twenty nationalities…. And then a Polish girl sent it from Belgium to Laos to a Spanish girl - wife of a Brit met in Thailand, who delivered it to a Vietnamese clinic located in Laos – the best example that globalization and working together can save lives, in this case life of the little Lao girl.
The money collected was enough for the two operations and Mouse’s stay in the clinic afterwards (1200€ + 300€) as well as for support of her family (food, water, medicines, transport within the capital as well tickets back to the island -> in total 500€).
I will keep on working in Laos, supporting Mouse’s rehabilitation, raising her family's life standard so that they can afford decent nutrition and Mouse's further education. I will travel there as frequently as I can to see what else can be done for this community, so if any of you wants to help, the following bank account remains open in my name for Laos: IBAN: BE32 1030 7215 1702 BIC NICABEBB.
* the name has been changed to protect the girl's identity