“Tawes’ son is sick, and the family wants to take him to the hospital. Can they go back to Natitingou with you?”

He was about 10 and looked like a famine victim. He’d always been skinny even when he’d been eating enough. He had gotten a bit sick, and, thinking he was constipated, his family had given him a natural tea that is a strong laxative. Apparently it had been too strong, causing sores in his mouth and throat. Thus, he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for a day and a half. He showed signs of dehydration and was obviously quite sick. The tea had caused serious diarrhea, compounding his dehydration. He was very weak, and his breathing was very shallow and rapid, another sign of dehydration. So we took them into town and dropped them off at one of the hospitals. We also ended up paying for his stay. Despite treatments, he kept going downhill and began passing and vomiting blood.

Returning from a village one Sabbath, I went by the hospital and found Uli there. She told me the boy had died. Reviewing the hospital’s record of his symptoms, we decided he’d probably died of schistosomiasis, a waterborne blood fluke. The hospital hadn’t tested the boy’s stool, so we will never know for sure. The river near the boy’s village seems to have a lot of the snails that carry this fluke. I have treated three other people there with the same symptoms.

The next morning, we went to the hospital to transport the boy’s body and the couple who was taking care of him back to their village. We will work to educate this village about schistosomiasis. It’s an easily treatable disease, and the medication costs only a little more than a dollar.

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