Left to die.

This week a woman was brought to our clinic. She was very ill and had been that way for quite some time. She was in shock when she arrived -- not having eaten in days and suffering from severe diarrhea. She hadn’t been cleaned in ages and was basically skin and bones.

What was most unusual was she had no care taker. They came and dropped her off then ran away. We stabilized her and treated her for severe intestinal problems... but she needed more help than we could offer. She needed to be tested for tuberculosis as well as for HIV but no one was there to take her to the other clinic.

So once she was stable, we took her to Don Bosco ourselves. It specializes in TB and HIV patients. But they were closed for the day. Meanwhile, we tracked down the man who drove her to the clinic and found her family.

They were rumored to be skipping town the following day because they didn’t want to deal with her anymore. So we took her to them in the middle of the night.

I’m told that the family was furious that we gave her back after treating her. They argued and made a fuss. Imagine that!

They had left her for dead on our doorstep. They wanted her to die. We kept her alive. They were angry.

This woman is somebody’s mother. She is somebody’s child. She is precious in God’s eyes... but not her family’s.