Roselyn Banda's story

Faith Banda (18) from Somba village, Blantyre in Malawi tells Aspire  about her baby daughter Roselyn becoming sick in May.

Roselyn became sick on 1st May , she had a really high temperature for three days so I gave her carfimol as I thought she had malaria. On the third day she seemed to be getting worse and she fainted so I walked to Lirangwe health centre to get some medical help. 

The clinic doctor didn’t tell me what was wrong with Roselyn but they gave her some drugs and told me to take her to QECH for further treatment. We had to use public transport to get to the hospital since there was no ambulance to take us and they always take so long.

When we got to the hospital they weighed Roselyn and she was given panadol then taken into the emergency room where they did a lumber puncture and she was put on oxygen. She was then taken to the ward and was still alert but had difficulties in breathing. She was stable when she was on the oxygen but could hardly breathe without it. 

The doctors tried to make Roselyn better by finding out was wrong with her and by giving her some oral drugs and injections. The results of the lumber puncture showed that she has meningitis.

We have spent one month in hospital and we are not sure if Roselyn has suffered any after effects as she is still small but she does not cry and cannot breast feed. She can only feed through the bottle and most of the time does not move her body. 

Roselyn’s sickness has had a huge impact on the family because a lot of people are now focusing on her instead of doing their day to day business. I am not sure what the future holds for Roselyn because she is still young and not fully recovered from the disease, but I hope she will be fine. 

Since Roselyn caught meningitis I think I would be able to spot it if anyone caught the disease. I am planning on telling everyone I know when I get out of the hospital. 

Faith Banda
May 2015