By Dr. Jonas Rigodon
August 2006 and Mofao Mapoloko was 21 years old and living in Maseru. She was 8 months pregnant and had just started to suffer from fever and chest pains. She didn’t go to the hospital because she didn’t believe it would be a very serious problem and she couldn’t afford to pay to see the doctor or buy the medicines. She didn’t get better. One month later her baby was born and lived only a single week.
A friend from her home in Nohana told Mofao that there was a new organization working in Nohana now, an organization that provided good health care for free. She went home to see for herself. Mofao came to the general clinic in Nohana in October of 2006. M’e Moso referred her to the ID clinic where she was seen by Dr. Jen and sent for counseling and testing. By that time she had beco me very weak and had such severe shortness of breath that she could barely walk. Her feet were swollen and she had lost a good deal of weight. She says she wasn’t scared when she went for testing because she was so sick she just wanted to know what was wrong so that she could get help. Her HIV test came back negative. The next step was to accept the money from Dr. Jennifer to go to Mohale’s Hoek for an X-ray. When she returned to the clinic with her X-ray she saw a new doctor named Dr. Jonas. At that time he was with another American doctor named Dr. Corrado. Mofao remembers waiting as the doctors discussed her X-ray. The longer they talked the more she knew that something was very w rong. She was afraid she was dying.
After reviewing the X-ray, I told Mofao that she had a massive pleural effusion in her left lung and that I would help her. I removed 700cc of fluid from her left lung and she felt better immediately. She could breathe and walk more easily. I started her on TB treatment right away. When she came back to the clinic one month later she was very much improved and now able to work around her house again. I enrolled her in the food program and she was able to take home enough food for herself and for her family.
It is 6 months later now and Mofao has completed her TB treatment. She is here to pick up her last food package and to say thank you to everyone. She is happy to see the patients who are still very sick receive the food that they need. She is so happy that she is healthy now and doesn’t need to depend on anyone for her food. She can once again work in her fields.
When I asked her if we could share her story and her pictures with other people, I wanted her to talk about what she thinks PIH is doing for people here in Nohana. She said “I think PIH is doing a lot for me because I got medicine for free and the most important thing is when I felt sick after my medicine there was a village health worker who came every day to support me and to encourage me to take my medicine. PIH gave me food when I didn’t have money and I was too sick to work in my fields. I didn’t have anything saved for something like this.”
Mofao has a message now for other people in the Nohana community. She wants to encourage everyone to come to the clinic- not just for testing but for regular check-ups because PIH is not only working on infectious disease but also delivering very good primary heath care in Nohana. When I asked her what more she would like PIH to do here, she said “they do a lot but one thing is we want them to stay for a long time here in Nohana.” She also wanted to say to everyone reading this, “now I am healthy and I can do everything I could not do before. I can go to my fields to work. I want to thank Jennifer and Jonas and PIH for everything they have done.”
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