Adwina...

This Monday I had a gorgeous little girl admitted to the ward. She has hair tied in little plaits sticking right out of her head in all directions. Adwina, has a bouncy little walk and a coy head tilt. I went and introduced myself to her and her family and she asked me 'wha yor nam', I answered and she giggled, burying her head into her mothers lap. She has the sweetest countenance.
Her next question was, 'give me your hand', see Adwina is 4 and she has bilateral cataracts! She is virtually blind, barely being able to see light and dark. Her mum guides her everywhere, but still he leaps and skips everytime she has to go to the bathroom (though that sometimes does cause a few mishaps!). Right now we have an eye surgeon, who does between 25 and 30 cataract extractions everyday...the record is 36! We don't have all of these patients on the ward but some like Adwina, need to stay overnight at least. It is such a simple operation, yet here so many people are literally crippled because of cataracts, rendered unable to participate in the labour of society.
I looked after Adwina for a short while after her surgery yesterday afternoon. Not surprisingly she was a little scared. she understood her surgery and I explained she would have patches over her eyes, but her insecurity showed. I had to be careful to call her name as I got close so she would know I was there. After gently coaxing her from her sleepy state to eat and drink, she fell back to sleep.
Adwina will probably be going home today. I can only imagine the excitement she gets to experience when she finally gets those patches off and can experience, colours, shapes and seeing her Mum's face again.