Princess Marina Hospital

This morning we were hosted by pediatrician Dr. David Goldfarb at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone. He first showed us the neonatal unit where infants under 1 month are cared for. There were about 60 babies with various conditions including premature births. I had never seen a neonatal unit or a newborn baby before and my initial reaction was shock at the size of the newborns. Some were so premature that their arms were barely larger than the size of my thumb. There were babies everywhere in the 5 or 6 rooms of the unit (behind the doors in the picture below) wrapped in blankets lying in bassinets positioned end-to-end.

The neonatal unit at Princess Marina Hospital

Next we went to the pediatric ward, filled with mothers comforting and playing with their sick children. Here we met a young woman working as a medical officer. Having grown up in Francistown, another town in Botswana, she returned to the country after studying medicine in Norway. She is now doing research on gastroentiritis at the hospital. Gastro is the most common cause of admission to hospital for children under 5 (excluding newborns).

Drs. Goldfarb and Singer in the pediatric ward

She told us that in peak rotavirus season (which is happening right now), 5 to 7 children with gastroentiritis are admitted to the ward each day. I learned that, between the NNU and the pediatric ward, there is about a death a day. My experience showed me the importance of neonatal and child health. There were a lot of sick newborns and children, and they represented a big part of the hospital.