Orphaned

More deaths today. Almost ninety percent of the patients in the Confirmed Ward now are from a single village. Pie died while her husband remains sick in the Confirmed Ward. The family of three admitted to the Suspected Ward, not surprisingly, Magbla, the sickest of the three is positive. She perked up after vigorous hydration. Her husband and her daughter who are not ill are negative and discharged home. Baby Jackson was inconsolable this morning, crying loudly bothering his very sick mother Fatu, demanding to suckle. Fatu was too ill to care for him, she was struggling to breath. Her lungs seemed wet and in her restlessness, she had pulled out several of her IV lines. In the early afternoon, she expired, leaving Jackson, an orphan. Comfort, the nurse’s aide will come tonight to care for the baby. In the early afternoon, an ambulance from Phebe Hospital delivered a man for admission. Upon arrival he jumped out of the truck and ran into the jungle. A quick round-up did not locate him. The sight of the ETU must have frightened him to cause him to escape. Saad is finally free of Ebola. His brother, the six-year-old J. Godpower is doing poorly with bloody diarrhea and bleeding from the mouth. This morning a nurse had asked Saad if he would remain in the ETU to take care of his little brother. He cried and said no. This place must have been hell to this ten-year-old who is too young to bear the burden for caring for his gravely ill brother and to see more sufferings than he has witnessed thus far. Saad and his brother have different surnames. Family ties are often a tangled web. Men could have many wives and women also could have children with different men. In the mid-afternoon, I walked outside the ETU and took the forest winding path to the cemetery. The grave diggers are off on Sunday. All was quiet save chirpings from a few birds. Since I last visited twenty more grave markers were placed, now there are about sixty of them: In Loving Memory of Alfred K Sunrise: date of birth Sunset: date of death Fifteen more graves have been dug. Death hovers.