Newsletter
October 2020, Issue 10
When I told people that I was going to do Paediatric Palliative Care; caring for children who suffer from incurable disease and are dying, I felt like an alien. Yet death is a part of the life process. Death is something that touches every individual and family but the reality is that we live in a contemporary death....
CENTRAL COMMITTEE 2020 - 2022
Sept 2020, Issue 09
"I want to help others who are going through what I went through. Many children and parents are suffering alone at home. We need a group of people to work as one to help them."
I looked at her, my mind trying to take in the words that I had just heard. I knew her personally and the death of her child had affected her greatly....
To Journey the Life of a Stateless Child
August 2020, Issue 08
"The best love for a child is simply giving them a citizenship, a place where they belong, a place where they can be cared and educated."
I first met “Alial” at the end of 2017. She was a cute little 6-year-old girl with a sweet smile who was always alonein our ward. She was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome one year ago but her....
Utilising the Power of the Mind
July 2020, Issue 07
The pain has become your constant companion, and with each passing day, it increases in intensity with no end in sight. Relief only comes when you fall asleep and that is becoming even harder to come by. Mentally exhausted, life loses the sparkle. Food taste bland, it could be from the medication or from the anxiety of not knowing how to cope with your current situation. Even if food is managed to be ingested, keeping it down long enough for the body to absorb any nutrients form it is another challenge....
A Little Reminisce
June 2020, Issue 06
I remember him vividly for he was a 16 year old boy at the peak of his youth. He was a known “mat rempit” in his neighborhood and I was just delving into paediatric palliative care, my very first year. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the most common primary malignant bone tumour in children and young adults. Despite radiotherapy and multiple lines of chemotherapy over the span of 1 year, the cancer remained aggressive. It had spread to his lungs and the primary tumour at his left knee started growing into a fungating wound, corroding into half of his leg....
They need to learn that there is another way
May 2020, Issue 05/001
“I wish someone could’ve told me that there was another way, so that my child did not have to suffer,” said a mother who had been taking care of her son with severe cerebral palsy.
Her 26-year-old son suffered from severe cerebral palsy since infancy, due to birth asphyxia. He was bed-bound and fed through a nasogastric tube for the past two decades. Curled up, he was only the size of a 12-year-old boy. Over the last two years, he was admitted several times due....
The Challenge of Palliative Care in Pandemic Era
April 2020, Issue 04/002
My medical officer asked me repeatedly to review a 10-year-old girl, A, who has been chronically ventilated for 2 months due to central apnoea. This could possibly be from a repeated insult to her brain; initially from a traumatic motor vehicle accident and followed by aspiration pneumonia. She is in a persistent vegetative state. Around the corner. 'Covid-19' has been in the word of mouth of every person in the country...
Managing Uncertainty
April 2020, Issue 04/001
While we were chatting among ourselves ; doctors, nurses, music therapist and counsellor, this pregnant lady walked into our clinic. She sat in front of us, without her husband at her side. Her hands were laid on her tummy, getting ready to listen to what I was going to tell her. I asked, "Do you know what is this clinic for?"
She said, "My baby has a very abnormal heart. I was told that I should come to see your team." She smiled in silence...