Angel in prison

what i am about to share with you is probably something you have heard before but believe me, it is not the same as living it. it is a story that made us all wonder if we could ever trust anyone, in weakness and in illness, but also made us somehow realize the gravity of the situation, a situation where crimes against humanity are committed, crimes made by white coat \"heroes\" under the name of \"medical faults\" in a country where, despite the fact that it is a developing country, didn't realize yet how much women and children are marginalized and how much it's health system is mediocre .

my name is Boutheina, and i am a medical student in Algeria, my dream since i was a child was and still to help suffering women and children in their most needed moments, did not know until now, that it will be a challenge i am willing to face in my country .

it all started two years ago, when my cousin khalil and his wife asma, discovered that they were pregnant, it was the happiest day of their life since they have been trying for years to have a baby. my cousin lives in Biskra, which is a village in south Algeria with Average living means. the day of the delivery came, and i was there to be with them, we went to the nearest hospital in a hurry, she was checked their and waiting for a doctor to pay her a visit. two doctors came, one examined her, and than the two of them started to discuss how the delivery was to be done: is it a cesarean section or natural birth, of course i had no idea what they were talking about inexperienced as i was. asma was in pain and my cousin was comforting her while i watched the two doctors arguing. then the decision was made, it is going to be natural.

now it is 12:35am, waiting for four hours, asma was ready to go, two midwifes came and started to tell her to push, she pushed but not enough, the second time too, and asma was so much in pain that she couldn't even scream, my cousin waited outside for he can not stand to see blood. \"push asma, stop being sensitive we all been their.. if you don't push your baby will come out dead... push!\" the midwife was not really nice to the poor girl. the head of the baby started to show, it was the first time for me to attend a delivery, i saw his head and i told asma that it is going to be over soon if she just push one more time....she pushed as hard as she could, the head was coming out, it is almost done!! .... all of the sudden we hear screams from another room, apparently a women died delivering and all midwives went to that room in a hurry, i turned my head to find myself, asma and half head of a baby alone in the room...i didn't know what to do, i went running searching for them, meanwhile, asma, kept trying to push on her own because she was afraid to loose her child. they left her during a delivery on the table to save a dead women!!! 8 minutes, that's what it took... the time i got back with the midwifes, asma restart pushing, and the baby came out, it was a boy. asma was, like all mothers, waiting for her baby to scream, but nothing, that poor baby was all blue because he didn't get oxygen sooner, and strange thing was in his head, sort of a ring surrounding it, more like the mark of a bracelet that we find in our arms when it is too tit !!! no one was able to describe that scene to his mother, waiting for him to cry and asking \"what is wrong with him...tell me what is wrong??\" after almost three minutes he started crying, his mother was relieved, happy that her baby came out alive, but i was not.

it is 9:20am, after two hours of sleep,we woke up on asma's mother and my aunt that came to congratulate the couple, the baby was kept away from his mother since the delivery, so no one was able to see it. i asked the midwife to take me to check on him, when we arrived, we witnessed something really scary: the baby was having what it seemed to be an epileptic crisis at that very exact moment, the poor baby could not stop contracting, i thought he was going to die.... about 50 seconds of contraction that seemed to be 50 hours to me, the crisis stopped, the nurse called the doctor immediately, and then took him to Intensive care unit.

it seemed later that the baby lost the majority his brain cells because of oxygen deprivation caused by contractions of his mother during the delivery comprssing his half head when she was left alone, and that she should have done a Cesar delivery because her vagina was too small for the baby to come out, of course, none of the doctors or midwifes did their job, and of course such crimes happen every day in Algeria and no one takes the blame, or try to change things. the result was that \"samy\" the name of the baby, was doomed to live with a brain of a two days new born, he just turned two years, such an adorable child, beautiful hair, cute eyes, but could not even sit, on top of that, because practically all his neural cells died, they turned into gliosis, which made him not only a handicap but also an epileptic child.... he became actually an angel in his own prison.

that was a tragedy for the parents, for me, and for the whole world. to learn that our government did not even bother to protect our rights of having normal children, to prevent death during delivery which is, in developed countries, something we don't talk about anymore. that is why I plan on creating my own company, focused on improving healthcare for developing countries, starting with Algeria my country.