Armenia: Baby dies of pneumonia “within a week”
Winters are harsh in the northern regions of Armenia, and spring arrives late. Colds and influenza are easily contracted, especially since many families can’t afford to heat their houses. Little children are particularly vulnerable, especially as their colds can quickly turn to pneumonia.
That’s what happened to little Hayarpi, who died from pneumonia when only eighteen months old. Photographs are all that remain now, and the memories her mother holds close. Here, World Vision interviews the child’s mother, Hamest, to learn how it happened.
World Vision: How many children do you have?
Hamest: I don’t have any. Hayarpi was my first and only child.
World Vision: What was she like?
Hamest: She was a very joyous and lively child. She started speaking from the time she was eight months old. She was very sociable. Everyone in the village adored her. She would never whimper or complain about anything. She was only one-and-a-half years old, but she had the wits of a five-year-old child.
World Vision: When did you understand that she needed to see a doctor?
Hamest: Everything happened within a week. She had caught a cold. She told us she had a sore throat. We could see she was breathing a bit heavily. We took her to the community doctor nearby. He didn’t find anything serious. He said it was flu and prescribed medicine.
Two days later, her situation deteriorated. We had to take her to the regional hospital. There they told us they couldn’t help us, and that we had to take her to the capital, Yerevan. We had to pay 80,000 Drams ($220 Canadian) for the ambulance to take her to Yerevan.
In Yerevan, they took her out of the critical situation and then she was okay. But two days later, her condition deteriorated again. After examining her once more, the doctors told us she had a hidden pneumonia they hadn’t encountered before.
World Vision: Did it cost you money to receive healthcare in Yerevan?
Hamest: At first we had to pay…then we learned child healthcare is free of charge, and that we shouldn’t have paid anything. Then when our daughter was in the hospital room, we were to pay for a nurse to look after her. I said I would take care of my child myself. I was staying in the corridor. She would wake up and call me during the night.
World Vision: What happened on the day she died?
Hamest: She didn’t sleep during the last night at all. She wanted to sleep with me. I was trying to convince her to get a little sleep, but she didn’t want to. In the morning the doctor told me that my daughter’s heart was beating too slowly. He told us there was no hope she would survive. He advised us not to enter her room, because any noise could harm her. Then we learnt she had died…
World Vision: Do you plan to have any children in the near future?
Hamest: Yes, I want to have three children.
World Vision: How many boys and how many girls?
Hamest: It doesn’t matter for me. Let God decide it. I love girls though.
