Mobile Clinics: Daycare #4

The schools where we have gone have been hugely different. Sometimes I wonder why these kids are even in school, they look so sick, and other times I wonder how much we're needed there. Primeros Pasos has been widely successful in lowering the rates of malnutrition in the community, though. That is largely due to screening the kids in programs like this, and giving out the doses of Albendazole. Kids with GI infections (like worms, which are killed by Albendazole) are not able to eat and grow as well. But today I must admit that I felt useful. Daycare #3 was pretty healthy, but at Daycare #4, we saw some much more serious stuff.
When we walked into this daycare, things were a little chaotic. There was a little boy laying on a mat on the ground, and others gathered around. The teachers said that he had had a seizure about 15 minutes before we got there. He apparently had fallen from his chair and had a tonic-clinic seizure, lasting just about 5 seconds. We couldn't figure out much about his history, because there was no way to get in touch with his parents, though we knew that he had seized once before.

After we checked him out, and talked to the teachers, we ended up treating him for an ear infection and febrile seizures. We gave him some acetaminophen and Bactrim. We also referred him to the clinic to come talk to us on Monday, for a more careful assessment, to determine if he needs other medications or a referral to a neurologist. A couple of us also spent some time talking to the daycare teacher about safety during a seizure.



But we got on to working with the rest of the kids, while the boy rested and tried to sleep off some of his exhaustion. My first patient was a three-year old girl who had a nasty cough and pneumonia. She hung around me long after I gave her her medicine. She seemed not to be traumatized by the exam process at all, unlike many other 3-year olds.


This is what most of our patients looked like (though this guy certainly was exceptionally cute).


And as usual, the kids were thrilled to be in photos!