Trip to the outerlands part 2

It has been a REALLY long time since I blogged, and tons has happened.  I'll try to write in order.  At the last blog, I was traveling in the outer lands.  I will pick up from where I left off.

While F. and I were working in the CP clinic, A girl of about 12 was brought in.  She didn't have use of her legs, and they were stiff with contractures. Her mom said that she had CP.  The problem was, that she had an open sore on her foot, and the clinic cannot treat children until they are otherwise healthy.  I asked the mom to take the bandage off of her foot so I could examine it.  It was completely gangrenous.  All of her toes, through the middle of her foot was black.  Then there was a diagonal split that was entirely open flesh.  It was one of the worst wounds I have ever seen.  

I asked her mom if she had been to the hospital, and she said they had, but the doctors wouldn't treat her, because she was handicapped.  F. and I bundled her up and took her back to the hospital.  We went into the ER with her, and the ER doc recognized her.  He said it didn't matter, because she didn't understand what was going on.  He said that she had polio and shrugged.  We told him that she was a little girl in pain and that she needed treatment.  He said that they had treated her, but that the parent's had taken her out before treatment was finished.

Honestly, I didn't know who to believe.  It was quite possible that they didn't do anything for her, because of her mental and physical state, or that they were expecting bribes to treat her, even though it is a free hospital.  But, it could be that they were treating her, and the illiterate parents took her out, because they didn't understand the length of the treatment.  

One thing was for sure, the doctor didn't think her worthy of treatment.  We dug our heels in, so the doctor came and cleaned the wound and started and IV.  Then, F. and I stayed with her until she was admitted to a ward.  We made sure she was scheduled for surgery (for amputation of her foot above the ankle), and that she was getting antibiotics.  

We then sat and talked with her and her mom, and though there were some obvious problems, it was clear that the little girl had a good intelligence level, and that she understood what we were saying to her.  

We went back two days later to make sure everything was going well, and she was scheduled for surgery the next morning.  We loved on her and her mom and then had to leave.  They wept hard, as we were probably the only people who had ever shown compassion to them.