You only need to sit for a few hours on one of the colourful pediatric benches to see how hard Lacor’s staff works to save so many lives.
Every year, Lacor and its peripheral centers treat 840,000 children under the age of six; 8,000 are hospitalized in the paediatric unit.
In the middle of the room, Sister Ayot Grace Flona, the Head Nurse in a signature bright yellow belt, never stops. Robust and smiling at Lacor’s paediatric patients, she juggles emergencies with confidence and competence.
Today, Sister Flona began work at 8.30 am. Four children had to be transported to the Gulu Regional Hospital to see a cardiologist who comes from Kampala once a month. “These children are small and vulnerable, with a little tube attached to their oxygen bottle,” says Sister Flona. She checks that everything is in order before sending off the children and their mothers in the precious ambulance.
As Sister Flona prepares the children, a little boy named Okello arrives needing urgent care. He had swallowed disinfectant he found unattended at his aunt’s house. Fortunately, thanks to contributions from a generous donor, another ambulance was available to rush Okello to Lacor, where an antidote allows him to recover quickly.
In the ward’s prenatal section, Nurse Aryemo Frances welcomes future mothers, as she does every day. Frances has worked at Lacor since 1987. She still clearly remembers the dedication of Dr. Lucille Teasdale, and considers the impact of Lacor’s founder on Frances’s own commitment to her patients: “Lucille spent a lot of time to help us grow; she was completely dedicated to patients and wanted the same from us.”
Today, Nurse Frances arrived at 7am to clean the wing. From 9am, she began to receive women sitting patiently at her office door. Frances describes how she helps these women: “I illustrate the correct diet to follow during pregnancy, I administer folic acid during the first trimester, and I explain how to prevent malaria and HIV.”
Laboratory tests carried out in the paediatric unit identify a patient’s blood group, the values of haemoglobin, and whether a pregnant woman has HIV. If she does, Lacor’s neighboring HIV clinic cares for her, initiating her to antiretroviral therapy. This way, the virus is kept at bay and prevented from transmission to her infant at the time of delivery.
Part of Frances’s work is to meet and train community representatives who travel to villages to educate women about the importance of going to the hospital for check-ups and childbirth.
From the center of the thriving paediatrics ward, where Nurse Frances and Sister Flona—as well as many other healthcare workers—ensure patients receive expert care, you can witness the impact of two dedicated women on the wellbeing of children and mothers at Lacor.
