Difficult Veins

This child is typical of the patients I've been seeing at Sikoroni Clinic. This little boy is around five years old (his mom was unsure of his birthdate), and was born HIV infected. His mouth was full of thrush, was dehydrated, had text-book marasmus baggy-pants and acute malaria.



Two nurses, a doctor and I tried to get a vein for twenty minutes. Each time we got a line in and started a slow slow drip, the vein would go. Both arms, both hands, both feet, and finally, his thin skinned little head. All the while he screamed and screamed, which I could only take as a good sign, and a show of his staunch determination to live against all odds.