Family

We have a family at the JSK centre this week. A whole family. Father very ill. Has HIV. From the North. Has been working as a truck driver. Mother also HIV positive.

Our staff have been meeting this family for a few weeks in their home. Things were going from bad to worse. The government ART centre had started him on ART because his immunity was very low. But as we are seeing in many cases these days - they started him without ruling out whether he was sick with other opportunitistic infections.

Everytime our staff met him, Mr. Balbir (as we will call him) was sicker and sicker. And it looked like our old nemisis TB.

Sheba took the call to bring him and the whole family here. When we met him we found he had 4 children. After admission we heard of another child. Recently another has been talked about.
Currently we are hosting Mr. and Mrs. Balbir and 3 of their 6 children. The kids range from the almost 20 youngsters who are out on their own - to a lively 3 year old.

The day of Balbir's admission we did the tests. As expected Sheba found tuberculosis.

Now the problem - the basic TB drugs to be given will 'interfere' with the basic ART meds that the government gives. We need to shift his ART meds a bit to another regimen, but will the government centre do so?

The next day Daniel takes Balbir to the govt. centre along with a letter and the tests we did. Miracle. They shift him to the other regime.

That night Sheba starts TB meds on Balbir.

During the day we have had the children tested at our testing centre. The bad news is that the youngest one is also HIV positive. We don't give the results immediately. In this case we need an evening to pray.

On the third day we tell the family about their son. He is so lively - and hard to control at times - but here he is with HIV in his body too. Its hard for the mother to take.

One of the things that sets the JSK inpatient experience apart is prayer. Every morning we spend time worshipping God. We share from the living hope we find in the Bible. We share our lives.

Today one of our staff shared about how her father was very sick. He also has the sickness that we are dealing with in our work. Last week he was ill again. They prayed. He got better. His statement was that God had helped him. As our staff member told this I looked over and saw Mrs. Balbir's sad face. Was there some hope growing in her eyes? Hard to tell.

We do know that many who we have admitted at JSK have been blessed by prayer. And the love that they receive.

Last night Sheba came back from her nightly visit to the centre. It was almost 10 PM. Balbir was not doing well. Laboured breathing.

Its hard. But we have to move forward. A whole family is being treated.