Case Study

Moussa

Moussa had been sick with diarrhea, a fever, and a cough for about a month, and he was showing signs of malnutrition. His parents had taken him to the local healers several times and he had received traditional medicines, but his symptoms still did not improve.

His worried parents took him to a peripheral community health center where he was examined by a doctor and treated with modern medicines for over a week.

Despite this treatment, Moussa started to get worse and was referred to the Pediatric Hospital at Hopital Gabriel Toure, Bamako where he was seen by a pediatrician who diagnosed him with pneumonia and malnutrition and offered hospitalization. Unfortunately his parents had no choice but to refuse for financial reasons – they could not afford to stay at Moussa’s bedside constantly as they had to continue working to feed their other children. Unfortunately, his parents had no choice but to refuse for financial reasons—they could neither afford to pay for the daily transportation to and from the hospital, nor could they afford to stay at Moussa’s bedside. They had to continue working in order to feed their other children. Moussa was discharged from the hospital.

Later that day, when the hospital realised Moussa’s test results indicated streptococcus pneumoniae in his blood, they sent their social worker to inform the parents and try to convince them to admit their child to the hospital. Tragically, by the time the social worker arrived, Moussa had died.

Moussa is one of many real cases from the outpatient clinic at the Pediatric Hospital at Hopital Gabriel Toure in Bamako, Mali which follow the same pattern. Children are misdiagnosed or do not receive the proper medicines. Parents are unable to hospitalize their children because of cost or responsibilities at home, and these children die swiftly of a disease that could be prevented with a simple vaccination.

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Stories and photographs of the case studies are courtesy of the families and children with permission to PneumoADIP for use in educational and non-commerical purposes only. Reproduction or translation of the case studies, requires explicit, prior authorization in writing. Applications and enquiries should be addressed to pneuadip@jhsph.edu.

* not his real name