Nathan
April 7, 2011
The first time I met Nathan, nearly two years ago, he was in a tiny, mud hut just off the main road leading into our village, Kazembe. I had been called to this home by his great-uncle, Kennedy.
Nathan’s mother was suffering from an enlarged heart due to an infection. She had been in the hospital for a month and had been sent home by the hospital because “they had no medicine to help her”. She was now on hospice care (alone) with no stronger medicine than Tylenol to relieve her symptoms.
Looking over at Nathan’s mother, who was lying on the floor on a thin mattress, my heart broke. Unable to bear the weight of clothing on her chest, her shirt lay open. Every few minutes a spasm would come over her and she would clutch her heart in pain. I felt completely helpless. And not for the first time, I wished I had some type of medical training, some way to relieve her suffering. She needed clean, soft bedding, strong pain relievers and comfort.
All she asked of me was that I take her baby. When he saw his mother, Nathan wanted to nurse and be held, feelings understandably caused her immense pain. Obviously it’s not our normal practice to take in a baby that has a living mother but I could see she really was incapable of caring for him.
First promising that as soon as she got better we would bring Nathan back home to her, I took Nathan in my arms and carried him home. Two weeks later, his mother passed away. I firmly believe that her final hours were peaceful as she knew that her little baby boy was being cared for and loved. That much I could do.
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