Mercy Muya was slowly fading away as doctors remained perturbed by her symptoms. Only a mother's last ditch effort and a brilliant doctor's brainwave saved the situation.
Symptoms of tuberculosis (TB) in children are difficult to detect and that is what would have killed my one and half year old daughter, Mercy Muya.
I am a mother of four and I live with my family in a small manyatta in Kakuma within Turkana County. I have a little food business at the shopping centre and many times I would bring Mercy along with me.
Because spitting on the dusty ground is very common among my Turkana community, I highly suspect that Mercy may have acquired the TB bacteria from the dust. Mercy's illness was abrupt but the symptoms were slow and gradual.
Heath volunteer workers in the nearby Kakuma mission hospital have been educating women especially mothers on how to identify TB symptoms but Mercy didn't have any of the symptoms. She was just dull and fatigued most of the time.
The usually playful girl was asleep most of the time. For a week, I thought that she was just teething.
Confusing symptoms
I however realised that her health was deteriorating. I took her to the Kakuma Mission Hospital where she was admitted immediately. Several laboratory tests were carried out but none was positive. Regrettably, there is no pediatrician in the hospital.
The poor child was weakening by the day and by the third day after admission she couldn't even breastfeed. She was wheezing hard and had started getting seizures.
The medics suggested treating possible illnesses. First they prescribed anti-malarial treatment, then pneumonia and when these seemed to be making her worse, they put her on a respiratory inhaler in attempts to treat asthma.
All this time, I was looking on helplessly and praying that at least one test would turn positive so that the doctors would get something to work with because as it were, she was getting worse.
Lucky stroke
After a week, the child's eyes started rolling and I was so scared I would lose her. I asked my husband, who was out looking for pastures to come home to figure out a plan for action. We decided to take Mercy to Kitale General Hospital.
Mercy had several convulsions in the seven hour journey and though a paediatrician came in to attend to her immediately, she was so motionless that I thought I had lost her.
I explained to him what we had gone through and he quickly requested for a chest x-ray and other laboratory tests as we were ushered to the wards.
Moments later, he explained to us that the child had tuberculosis. However because of the delay in diagnosing the illness most of Mercy's lungs had been destroyed by TB.
Mercy was immediately started on treatment which lasted for six months. The doctor said that her situation wouldn't have been this dire if we hadn't spent precious time taking the wrong treatment. We were admitted for another two weeks for monitoring.
My daughter is back to her normal playful self only after one month of the TB treatment. She has another five months to go but so far she's the cheery girl she has always been.
Whenever I imagine what would have happened to my daughter had I not risked going to Kitale, I shudder in fear. I am also glad that my NHIF card covered Mercy's treatment otherwise the admission and treatment would have been very expensive for us.
I hope this does not happen to any other baby especially those who may not afford even the travel expenses in search of a second opinion.
