Mu Mu arrived semi-conscious at the antenatal clinic, if you could call the humble bamboo dwelling a clinic. She was seven months pregnant and riddled with malaria. We started her on intravenous quinine and began the 20-kilometre-long journey to our hospital, carrying her on a bamboo stretcher.
Her husband and two young children came with us. He, rather than a nurse, tended to her needs, as is often the way here. When she regained consciousness after 72 hours, Mu Mu was able to eat a small meal. It felt like we had won. But the joy was short-lived. She became short of breath and her condition deteriorated. Mu Mu died of
