tragedy in the village

Late last week, Madu (our driver) was unable to help us for a day.  He was helping with funeral arrangements for the child of a neighbor.  The baby was born three months ago, but he never left the hospital because he hadn’t fully developed part of his digestive tract.  Most families in Sri Lanka do not have the money to pay for ultrasounds or other tests during pregnancy, and most general hospitals are not as well equipped as they could be to handle cases like this.  Had there been more tests, the complication might have been discovered in time to address.  And had the hospital the proper resources to correct the problem, Madu might not have had to help his neighbor bury her three-month-old baby.  This is not an extraordinarily rare event here.  This is a harsh reality of life in Sri Lanka.