Charles Akena
6 October 2008
Gulu — Barely three months after she first started feeling throbbing pains in her stomach, seven-year-old Stella Lalam's tummy has grown so big she can barely sit upright.
Every time she makes an effort to sit up, Lalam groans in obvious discomfort. Lalam's mother, Ms Sunday Lanyero, says she has spent numerous sleepless nights and lots of money in hospital but her daughter's condition has only continued to deteriorate.
"She started complaining of stomach pain on July 18 and the following day her stomach had become swollen," said Ms Lanyero. "I took her to St. Mary's Hospital, Lacor, the following day and she was immediately operated. The doctors that operated her said they found some black particles in her stomach."
But even that operation has not improved her condition. Ms Lanyero says the doctors have now told her to take her daughter to the Mulago Hospital - a trip she has still not been able to make due to lack of money.
A former Lords Resistance Army (LRA) abductee, who conceived her only daughter and son while still in captivity, Ms Lanyero now ekes out a living selling cassava at Cereleno Market in Gulu District.
She says the earnings are so meagre they can barely support her family, let alone sustain her and the sick girl in Kampala.
"It is a difficult moment. I cannot afford the cost of treatment in Mulago Hospital because I do not have the money yet day after day her condition gets worse," she said.
In the meantime, Lalam's life has come to a standstill as she has become incapacitated by the swollen stomach and legs. She cannot sit for longer than a minute and therefore has to lie on her back nearly all day and night.
"She has dropped out of school, and cannot even go out to play with her friends," said the mother, who added that she had taken her daughter to a herbalist at least once out of desperation.
The medical staff at the hospital declined to discuss Lalam's condition with Daily Monitor. But Hospital Medical Superintendent, Dr Agel Akii, told Daily Monitor on Friday that abdominal swellings in children are caused by different factors, including malnutrition and liver infections. "If you visit our children's clinic, you will find such cases," Dr Akii said.
Another source at the hospital, who preferred anonymity because she is not authorised to talk about hospital issues said, "If you report it as you see, you may even scare the public that it is an epidemic.
"This problem in children has been there and its not on an increase as some people think," the source added. At the children intensive care unit in St. Mary's Hospital Lacor, three other children with similar cases were waiting for medical attention when Daily Monitor visited the ward.
One of the children, nine year-old Kevin Ayat, has suffered even longer than Lalam. Ayat's mother says her daughter started experiencing abnormal pain in 2006. She was taken to Anaka Hospital in Amuru District but later transferred to Lacor Hospital in Gulu.
Results of an X-ray carried out on Ayat at Lacor Hospital show that she had developed a problem in her liver. Ayat's mother says doctors at Lacor Hospital said they could not do anything beyond the X-ray so the girl was discharged. She is now supposed to be brought to Mulago Hospital, just like Lalam.
Ayat's mother says she tried to get financial help from the Catholic Mission in Anaka to no avail. The fate of the two girls now seems to be out of their mothers' hands.
The irony is not easy to miss.
Having survived more than four years in the harsh bushes of northern Uganda and South Sudan, while her mother was an LRA captive, Lalam could fall victim to a disease that doctors could well treat if only her mother had the money to pay the medical bills.
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