badru goes back to school

As everyone heads back to school, we would like to shine a light on one of our former patients, Badru.
 
At the time he came to our attention, through an email request from the Go Campaign in the spring of 2015, he was a four-year-old boy from rural Uganda suffering from Tetralogy of Fallot – a heart condition marked by four congenital heart defects. Screened in a rural health clinic by a visiting cardiologist, the little boy with blue lips and clubbing fingertips spent most of his days crouching in a squatting position with little energy to do much else. The prospects of him making it to his fifth or even sixth birthday were slim. The challenge was that we had no surgical outreach to Uganda, and he was too complex for us to send to India through our Individual Surgical Care program. We did however have a scheduled cardiac mission in Northern Tanzania in the summer, a few months away. If our surgeon would agree to treat him and the Hospital would allow us to mend a foreign patient, we might be able to help.
 
After getting the hospital to agree to allow us to do the surgery, ​Badru was placed on the patient roster for the cardiac mission that would take place at the Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza, that June. The logistics to get Badru from Northern Uganda to us began in earnest and involved a village of do-gooders and pastor Robert Nabulere, of the aptly named Miracle Center to make it happen.

Badru’s mother, a widowed subsistence farmer with 5 other children, only spoke a Ugandan dialect, so a translator nurse (Eve) and a male chaperone (Peter) were recruited to travel with Badru. It took a 12-hour bus ride across Uganda to the shores of  Lake Victoria, an overnight ferry to Tanzania, another 2-hour bus ride to Mwanza, and a taxi to the hospital to get Badru to us, all timed with the arrival of the Mending Kids team on the same day, the mission’s surgical scheduling were to happen.
 
Alarmingly, ​Badru arrived with a fever, which meant he could not be scheduled for surgery until his infection was under control. He was put on a course of antibiotics that would take 24 hours to have effect. While we were doing his bloodwork, it was revealed that he had O- blood, and 4 units were required for the surgery. Panic set in when the blood bank came up empty. So we reached out to the local airways who agreed to broadcast a public service announcement seeking blood for him. Mwanza donors came through but only yielded 2 units. Our surgeon adjusted his needs and said that if we could get one more unit of blood and use plasma, he could still operate.

As luck would have it, I am also O-. There was no question in my mind as to what needed to be done and I walked over to the blood bank to donate the unit needed. My main concern was my high cholesterol and how this could impact Badru. With a one-day window left to operate, Dr. Salvatore Agati and his excellent ancillary team proceeded with the surgery. I promised myself that if he survived, I would fund his education.
 
After a two-week stay in the hospital, Badru and his entourage made the long trek home, where he rejoined his five brothers and sisters. Worried about his welfare and his mother’s lack of support, I purchased 3 goats for her to help the family.

In 2016, Badru began attending a good regional school some distance from his village. Since then, his mother turned her three goats into a herd, which allowed her to purchase cattle. This allowed her to purchase land and build a house for her family. One community, one pint of blood, one surgery, one life, and one universe that comes with it. A veritable snowball effect is the result of hope, love, and mending.
 
Badru is now 12, with good grades, and looks forward to school this term. And I still have high cholesterol.
 
- Isabelle Fox,
Executive Director

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