Small Small

A paediatric mortality rate of 6% for the first quarter of 2014 was one of the results we presented this week in the hospital. The target of staying under an 8% mortality rate was achieved. Just looking at the numbers you want to clap in your hands and congratulate each other on the good work. 

But when I was walking back to the office, I saw a young father carrying his deceased child out of the hospital. For a second I thought he was holding a small gift, trying to show it to the people around him. Wrapped in a beautiful blue-yellow lappa, he was holding the child in front of him and with a certain grace he walked out of the hospital. 

At the exit, the paper put on the small bundle said that it was indeed his child and that he would appear in my statistics as ‘exit outcome: death diagnosed as severe malaria’.

All of a sudden you feel that this 6% is nothing to congratulate each other on.

Attempt to play tennis in Bo Club, Sierra Leone [2014]