“You made me.
Yet you left me.
This is where I am. In this cold room. All the time. Why? Because you made me.”
This is what a child felt. Two years old. And five months in the ward. Not a single soul came to claim him. Nobody visited him. No family members fed him. Day in and day out, he was kept in the ward. Waiting for placement in special welfare home.
According to the officer, paperwork takes 3 months to half a year. Placement is subject to availability. So we wait…
It started when the child was brought to us by a referral from district hospital. A child from aborigines in Pahang came down with odd symptoms. He kept on have repeating bouts of cough post feeding, fever and was unwell. On top of that, the child lacks facial expression. At two years old, he is still unable to vocalize, nor responds to his parents. There is a problem with his swallowing mechanism. The secretions pools everytime. He can’t swallow. He can’t cough. The is paralysis to his facial muscles due to defect in the cranial nerves. He gets bouts of aspiration leading to pneumonia. Feeding tube were made.
The parents is of the lower socio-economy group. Apart from this child, they need to take care of more kids. They need to work. They need to feed a family of 10. Staying in hospital is out of question. Taking care of a special need child is totally impossible. Bringing the child for follow up is a no-no. There is only one road. Disowning him.
Fate is a strange thing. Some are lucky, some don’t. I guess this is survival of the fittest.
