Sunday, November 21, 2010

Malnutrition Kwashiorkor Marasmus


Atleast 25% of the world's pediatric population is undernourished, a contributing factor to more than half of the deaths of children younger than 5 in less developed countries.

No Milk

Exhausted, ailing  mother, breasts dried up, wrinkled
Wasted, septic, half-starved, listless infant twin
No milk, no F75, no F100, no supplements,
No energy, no food, no resources
to the market, IV in place
missed medications
morbidity rising
inevitable
demise
making milk
in the blender, F100
according to a WHO recipe
walking in the dark back to the hospital
jars still hot for NG feedings to begin and continue
"He will deliver the needy when he cries for help. The afflicted also
and him who has no helper. He will have compassion on the poor and needy.
The lives  of the needy He will save and their blood will be precious in His sight”
Psalm 72:12
Nutrition Center at Embangweni Hospital, Malawi

 A poem remembering Rebecca Morton who made F100 (a milk supplement for severely malnourished children) in her blender one night, after the electricity came back on. I walked back to the pediatric ward to deliver it around 10pm.
 To learn more about what's happening in Malawi http://www.mbfoundation.org/

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