Although Tara, Teresa, and I have been huddled in front of computer screens and patient records for the past eternity, we still try to remain active throughout the hospital. We don’t get to see patients as often as we’d like to, but we make up for that by hearing about all sorts of crazy happenings during morning report, when the nurses report on the notable events of the previous night, and the doctors discuss bizarre cases. And so we learned of the case of the woman who delivered a rock:
A woman came in to the hospital, saying she was pregnant. She was walking with her back arched and her stomach/abdomen sticking out, as if she were pregnant. So she goes into the labor ward to give birth, and manages to convince the clinical officer to ensures that all women who enter are about to give birth that she is indeed pregnant. She climbs onto an examination table, undergoes “contractions,” and delivers a rock. To make a strange case even more outlandish, the clinical officer noted that her cervix was sealed shut: she was nowhere near pregnant. She had come to the hospital twice before over the past six months, and both times, she was told that she was not pregnant. However, here in rural Malawi, traditional magicians (healers) are sometimes esteemed more than physicians, especially because doctors don’t always tell you want you want to hear.
Apparently, a magician in her village had convinced her she was pregnant by placing a stone inside her, and telling her that its magic would allow her to deliver… All she had to do was pay him a few kwacha and go to the hospital to have a baby. Of course, she was not pregnant, and the whole affair only served to deprive the patient of her money and health. Traditional medicine is widespread throughout Malawi, and its implications on health can be felt by everyone involved in the healthcare process. Patients might believe that a disease is a result of witchcraft, or that modern medicines will harm them. Sometimes patients forego medical treatments because a magician convinces them that cancer or HIV can be cured by a concoction of herbs. Even though it is difficult to convince patients of the advantages of modern medicine, sometimes the results speak for themselves. HIV-positive children given anti-retrovirals (ARVs) live until their teens, outliving those who didn’t receive treatment by years. Vaccines render once-fatal diseases harmless: We have managed to eradicate smallpox, which killed millions until its reign of terror was brought to an end in 1977. The future of medical advances looks bright: we just have to solve our problems one at a time.