Harry, Echo and the TLC team must be ready for anything. That’s apparent at every clinic.
A man and his wife sat down in front of Dr. Harry and shyly unveiled their medical problems. The husband was suffering with an abscess behind his right ear; his wife hurt all over because of abscesses in her armpit.
Echo operated behind a blue tarp. The pain was intense in both cases, but the abscesses needed to be incised and drained.
The operating room is a makeshift room behind a tarp at a TLC bush clinic. It’s hot and stuffy, but Echo drains the abscess on Vusi’s ear. He needs relief from pain and pressure, and he needs it now.
Such relief registered on their faces that when asked, the couple agreed to test for HIV. They were both HIV positive. The abscesses, Echo said, may have started from simple infections that their immune systems could not fight.
Vials of blood were drawn and taken to the Manzini hospital where Harry and Echo have established a relationship with the Swazi laboratory supervisor. After some bush clinics, this supervisor will stay up all night to process TLC’s blood draws on HIV-positive patients. How’s that for a pertinent partner in God’s work, an integral portion of the puzzle?
The couple’s results: The man had a CD4 count of 4. It was surprising that he was still alive. His wife’s CD4 count was 150, still perilously low. Patients are advised to begin taking antiretroviral drugs when their CD4 counts drop below 350.
TLC staff immediately contacted the man and his wife and urged them to the come to the mission house, promising to reimburse them for public transport costs from their bush home.
In the weeks and months to come, Echo performed more minor surgeries on the weak, ill couple. The OR was usually the outdoor front porch of the mission house.
Two of the couple’s three children were tested and found to be positive. The youngsters were listless and quiet. The family spent many days lying on cardboard on the TLC lawn, waiting their turns for help. They were patient and persistent.
Follow-up care of the family has lasted through 2010 and well into 2011.
How’s this for health, strength and gratitude? Smiles replace pain and sickness in the Mabuza family, as they return for checkups and thank TLC for rescuing them from the ravages of HIV.
This summer the family came back to report that the man is working as a supervisor for a brick yard. His wife is in great health and all three kids are back in school. They were almost unrecognizable.
Tears flowed as they told of renewed health and hope, thanking TLC for giving them more precious days together.