Pandora's Box


Who said that this is a traditional story? Here in Budimex hospital, almost daily, I open that box and find it so full of requests all so varied but never ending!
Firstly, a crying need for pampers emerged and to give comfort to so many little abandoned children the shopping started! Years passed
and the need has grown. But more "wants" grew from this caring. For example, creams and ointments for the little bodies which suffered
various skin problems. To cover and dress these bodies of course, we had to provide suitable clothing.

Then, especially in the Oncology Department, mothers saw the "procession of pampers" and came with requests for their more grown-up children (books to read or color) - and this too has grown through the years.

Providing support for a grieving family whose child had died here in
the Oncology Ward meant travel-to-home expenses and funeral costs
but, having once provided this, numerous requests for the same help
have been made. How can we refuse in a hospital which has very limited revenue?!
The needs have grown by the day. Many mothers struggle to take their paralyzed or crippled children to the toilet or even out into the fresh air. Again, out of Pandora's Box comes the request for granting of wheelchairs and push chairs. In the department for asthmatic patients we were able to provide nebulizers and nebules. Surely the box must be empty of requests by now - but no, a mother who had a problem feeding her child because, with cleft palate it was difficult, begged for a mixer for his food. One, two, three mothers... with a
similar problem came, explaining how a food mixer was beyond their
means but very necessary.

One long-term patient in the Oncology Ward begged for a
"walkman". Traian kindly obliged but never dreamed that a long list
of similar requests would follow. Soon the shop was "sold out"!
Requests for pyjamas for mothers and children appear from that box too. Of course towels and toiletries are often on the appeal list especially when the children or adults have traveled very far - maybe a hundred miles, and are coming either from an orphanage or a very poor home.

"Pandora's Box" still exists and I am guilty of opening that box!


Sister Mary Aloysius