TB father

Sorry my posts have been sad lately but I had another heart wrenching experience.  Lately I have been seeing very malnourished children, women losing their unborn babies and extreme poverty but this particular experience really affected me. This past week I have been doing so much TB research, which means hiking to villages, finding your way around and with the use of a translator find the patients that have TB. Once you find the patient the questions typically go as followed. What is your name, what is your age, the medication you use, where you received treatment, have you relapsed, do any of your family members that have TB, and do you know anyone who you could have gotten TB from? I have seen so many TB patients in the last 2 weeks all the cases are starting to blend together. But this one particular patient has stuck out so graphically.  He was a forty year old but looked about 70. He was very thin, and extremely frail. He had to walk down the stairs to talk to me and his body looked like it was going to fall apart. He seriously looked like her could die any minute. Once he made it down stairs the interviewed began in the usual way. From his interview I learned that he was forty, previously had TB but relapsed and currently has TB. He told me how he received his first treatment at a government hospital. When he got TB a second time he said he started his treatment at the government hospital but stopped because he no longer trusted the government. Now he is getting treatment at a private hospital. A private hospital can literally mean anything in India but regardless a government hospital would be able to provide him a more effective treatment. The interview was almost over when a young boy came to the house. We began to have a conversation about his relationship with this man. He said he was his son and he was sixteen years old. I asked him if he or any in his family had any TB symptoms. He said both his younger siblings were fine and he was fine as well. I asked what about your mother. The boy said his mother had died a couple years back. I then encouraged him to convince his father to seek treatment at the government hospital because it father was very sick and would die if he did not receive the adequate treatment. Right then staring at this young boy it slapped me in the face how similar we are. He is the oldest of three and had lost his mother a couple years ago. All the boy had left was his father. I empathize with this boy; I know he is probably scared to lose his father. I’m sure he thinks if he loses him what will he do, what will his two younger siblings do? Although he lives in a small village in India and I live right outside of DC in the U.S. It’s amazing how people can connect over similar experiences.