Ngonzi Christopher

Can you imagine being 8 years old and being alert and oriented and having your body convulsing uncontrollably? Today Jennifer and I went to the male ward to see an 8 year old boy that the head nurse said was convulsing and Bigui (In Charge Clinical Officer = PA or NP level clinician) was perplexed about how to diagnose/treat. We approach the bedside and from standing at the foot of his bed I could hear the fluid rattling around in his lungs with each breath. His bare torso is a “six pack” flexed like I’ve never seen before, each muscle very sharply defined, he has an irregular breathing pattern marked by a series of rapid breaths and then a few minutes of slow breaths, and then he opens his eyes and is moaning some, Jennifer asks him a question in Lubwisi and he answers, I ask what he said and Jennifer said that he said that his breathing/chest is all that hurts...when she asked is that it, he even managed to do the affirmative eye-brown raising that they do here when answering yes to questions, and then every muscle in his body spasmed and his face winced...Jennifer tried a spinal tap (in case it's meningitis which is doubtful) but his body was stiff as a board and we couldn't get him curled into the position to enable her to get the needle in the right place...meanwhile we're explaining to a conscious 8 year old that we're going to stick a needle into his back when his body is already out of control...I know very little about tetanus, I never saw it at Childrens back home, but evidently the mortality rate is high and it's from what I've seen today a really awful way to go, so pray if you're able, please! I would be terrified if I were him!