Sunday, May 27, 2012

baby Kevin starving eventually to death

This is baby Kevin a month or so before his death/diappearance from Shishu Bhavan in Royapuram Chennai in 1998. I write this with much sadness as I recall how little I could do to stop this. Though I spent from 8am to 5pm or later everyday I could not convince the nuns to feed this dear baby more milk. He was being fed about 3 times a day from 8-5 only 20mls of milk each time in a syringe. There was another little boy similarly suffering from being underfed. I used to feed both at the same time as they were starving and crying- they were so tiny they easily fitted on my knees. I often think of kevin and wish I had been brave enough to run away with him. The nuns locked up the milk in a cupboard and gave very small amounts out to share between the other 15 babies. One adoptive mother begged me to make sure her child was OK---- we couldn't do enough to save them - the nuns did not want to learn how to treat malnutrition-instead by believing malnourished babies did better on less protein they created more suffering and failure to thrive... I fear it may still be the same---- please assist these children if you can..