Incredible – the case of the month

Respect for a seven-year-old young lady

Curfew.  No public buses or taxis.  For most sick people it is a sheer impossibility to get to any hospital.  May I present our star-patient Mariela*.  The girl is seven years old and lives with her parents in Abancay, the capital of Apurímac State.  Both mother and daughter desperately need medical treatment.  But how and where should they get it?

Early on Wednesday morning the family set off, Papa, Mama and Mariela.  They walk on foot up the hill heading towards the 4,000m high mountain pass after which they descend steadily bound for the valley of Curahuasi.  That evening the three of them reach the hospital absolutely exhausted.  By car it is a 75km journey from the Hospital Diospi Suyana to Abancay.

Yesterday mother and daughter were seen to at the hospital and treated accordingly.  Today, Friday, the three of them will walk back home.  We have never heard of any such case either in Europe or America.

A German folksong is called “Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust” (‘Hiking is the miller’s delight’).  But our patients did not hike for fun or simply just to pass the time away.  Mariela and her parents did the two day-hike, 12 hours each way, for health reasons.  It was an absolute necessity. (*Name changed) – Picture caption of the photo taken by a mobile: Osteopath Markus Rottler next to his thankful patient.

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