Another positive child

I was assigned to a new client last week – Amy, a 19 year old unwed pregnant girl. On Friday, I called the number given and managed to speak to the sister, the one Amy is staying with. Amy’s boyfriend left her when he found out that she’s HIV positive while his test results came out negative.

According to the sister, the family has no problem accepting Amy and her baby. So basically, it didn’t seem to be too complicated a problem. However, she had yet to start on her ARV medication, and was supposed to go back to the hospital for an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday (today) so they could get her started on the ARV.

Although my clinic duty will be on Wednesday, when Amy’s sister told me that Amy would be going to the hospital on Tuesday, I figured I might as well meet up with Amy face to face so I could assess her case better.

So yes, this morning I went to the hospital just to meet up with Amy. The nurses were surprised to see me, they weren’t expecting me until Wednesday. But when I told them I wanted to see Amy, they confirmed that yes, Amy was supposed to come but was not there yet.

While waiting, I had a chat with SN. SN then informed me about another case needing attention. According to her, the case had already been referred to Buddies last month (I wasn’t on duty then) but so far I have not heard of her case. New cases would have been brought up during our monthly board meetings, but nope, I have not heard about her case before.

SN mentioned that Ain, the patient she was talking about, is a young single mother, never married, And she has a child who has been confirmed HIV+.

Apparently during her pregnancy, Ain never went for any check-ups at the clinics or hospitals. She only went to the hospital when she was about to deliver, immediately sent to the labour room, and delivered a baby girl. Since nobody, not even herself, knew she was HIV+, no precautions were taken to protect the child from being infected. It was only after the delivery that her blood was tested and was found to be positive. And eventual tests showed that the child too had not been spared.

After delivery, Ain came back to Perak to stay with her mother. Then only both she and her child were referred to the hospital for further treatment. The problem was, after more than five months, the child still didn’t have a birth cert. SN herself didn’t quite know what the problem was.

Since I was already at the hospital and Ain was there for her appointment, SN got Ain to see me first to see how I could help out if needed.

Ain came in the room with her young mother (I think the mother may be in her early 40’s), and her 9 month old baby girl. I asked about the birth cert problem and was relieved to find out that they had finally submitted the necessary documents to JPN and their application is already being processed. Ain even showed me the acknowledgement letter.

Ah well, at least that is done now and so I don’t have to worry about the child’s birth cert anymore. Once the birth cert is obtained, then only financial assistance can be arranged for the child. Since the child herself is positive, she should be able to apply for monthly assistance from MAF’s Paediatric Aids Funds.

I gave Ain my name and number so she could call me if need be.

And what happened to Amy? SN called up the sister to find out if Amy was coming, and was told that Amy had gone to Seremban to a relative’s house. WHAT? When she knew way before hand that her appointment was TODAY??

Aiyo, I think we have a very likely non-compliant case in our hands. Our main concern now is… what will become of the baby if no proper care and precaution is taken? We don’t want to end up having another HIV positive child like Ain’s do we?