A determined TB nurse, and the impact on a young mother
Posted on Feb 15, 2012
On January 25, Global Post reporter John Donnelly highlighted the work on PIH's sister project Socios En Salud in "A determined TB nurse, and the impact on a young mother". In it, he follows a nurse as she finds and treats a woman living with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the shantytowns of northern Lima.
The young mother wanted to die.
Melissa Vargas, 23, a mother of two, came down with multi-drug resistant TB last year. Soon after beginning treatment, she lost her will to live. But thanks to continuing treatment and the actions of a nurse, Ruth Espinoza, she has regained her health and now is thinking of going back to school. (Riccardo Venturi/Courtesy).
She had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB. The TB drugs made her sick and depressed in a way she had never experienced. She couldn’t sleep. She had no energy. And she was just a few months into two years of taking this awful medication every day.
Ruth Espinoza, a nurse, had other thoughts. She weighed the situation carefully. She believed that the deep depression felt by the mother, Melissa Vargas, 23, was partially a byproduct of the TB medicine. She made an appointment for Vargas to see a psychiatrist.
The next morning, the nurse appeared at the young mother’s house. She said she was there to take her to a psychiatrist. The mother refused. The nurse demanded it. The mother went.
Today, the mother wants to live.
Read "A determined TB nurse, and the impact on a young mother" in its entirety.
