Four-year-old Guy arrived in a coma. He suffers from type 1 diabetes – a disease that requires lifelong injections of insulin. His parents brought him to Bangassou from Bao, more than 100 kilometres away, because the hospitals near his home did not have insulin.
Newborn René* was admitted for the third time to intensive care due to severe malnutrition, as the malnutrition prevention programmess in Bangassou formerly run by an international nongovernmental organisation were discontinued.
Twenty-year-old Fanny was transferred from Bakouma, 130 kilometres away, because Dr Louis-Marie Sabio and his team lacked the medicines and equipment needed to treat the wound on her back.
“In a normal situation, patients like Fanny should be treated at my hospital,” says Dr Sabio, who was visiting Bangassou hospital for an MSF training session. “But you've seen the state of the facility I run. I still send patients to Bangassou who shouldn't need to be referred.
“Sometimes, I even have to refer patients without being able to stabilise them beforehand, unsure if they will survive. The other day, I had to make an emergency transfer of a baby to Bangassou by motorbike, as we don't have an ambulance. We couldn't stabilise him, and he died a few kilometres from here, on the motorbike,” says Dr Sabio.
*Name changed to protect identity.