JUBA – It was supposed to be a celebratory occasion when, suddenly, the opening of a classroom at the Mangateen camp for displaced families turned into an unexpected rescue mission.
“When we left the new classroom, we heard strange sounds from across the hallway prompting us to turn around and check the situation. We were not prepared for what we saw next,” shares Thorben Westgaard, United Nations Police (UNPOL) Advisor with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
In the room, a girl was lying on the floor, suffering from violent seizures. The teachers and fellow students surrounding Nyakul Gahga Gatlualo were doing their best to help but seemed to be unintentionally suffocating her with their efforts and close presence.
Without hesitation, Westgaard asked the small crowd to give her space and applied the first aid knowledge he had acquired during previous extensive trainings while his colleague Eriqo Kusuma secured the scene. They quickly realized that her condition was too critical to be stabilized without proper medical equipment.
“After being completely focused on applying emergency first aid, we decided she had to be moved. But when we looked around, everyone had left the room. Suddenly it was completely up to us to save this girl,” remembers Kusuma, still shivering by the thought of her not making it.
Swiftly, they arranged for Nyakul’s transport to a nearby hospital. Following the arrival of the 17-year-old’s mother, they were informed that she had not been diagnosed with epilepsy or any other condition specifically relating to the seizures but had been suffering from typhoid, malaria and an ulcer as her family wasn’t able to afford treatment.
It took three days of intensive care until she was able to reunite with her mother and her 13 siblings. It was another few days before she was well enough to return to school.
Until it happened again. Seeing her condition worsening, her protector, brother, and teacher Gabriel Chotdieng Gahga Gatlualo remembered the contacts of the two UNPOL members who had told his family to call them if they needed further assistance. He didn’t have to wait long for their arrival.
“There are moments when protocol doesn’t matter anymore. Moments when all you need to do is be a human seeing another human struggling,” explains Westgaard.
Since then, he and Kusuma have used their free time and personal finances to ensure that Nyakul gets professional care at the Juba-based Egyptian Hospital.
And as a recent follow-up visit at the hospital revealed, kindness can be contagious.
Moved by their and her family’s commitment to do all they can to ensure Nyakul lives life without pain, the clinic has offered to provide her with free care and medication.
This promise came at just the right time, as she had just suffered a medical setback caused by a shortage of medication. Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, her condition is now stable albeit unpredictable.
With her shy smile, she is constantly surrounded by her siblings who make sure she’s safe. As before her condition, she enjoys cooking traditional food for her family and reading all about science in her free time, while looking forward to visits from her new UNPOL friends.
“She’s finding joy again. It almost feels like our little girl turned into a woman embracing her new-found strength,” smiles brother Gabriel.
Embracing what doctors describe as her second chance in life, she uses every day as an opportunity to get one step closer to her dream of becoming a doctor. To make miracles happen, like the one she experienced.
By Jaella Brockmann
