Ama was sent to a nearby clinic unable to swallow solid food. Some first aid measures were administered and she was later sent on to the regional hospital emergency department. She was admitted and placed on intravenous drips of fluid and some medications but by six weeks, although the pain in her mouth and throat had subsided, her inability to swallow was total. She had lost weight markedly and was a pale shadow of the vibrant playful child she had been.

Her diagnosis was an easy one; the proposed treatment however entailed two major operations some three months apart, both requiring one to two weeks of hospitalization. ‘How could this happen to my child’, the mother asked. ‘Well, it happens to many children as well as adults’ came the reply. The mother shook her head in disbelief wondering how such a fate could befall a child whose only “crime” was an attempt to quench her thirst. It would take her a while to grasp the problem of corrosive burns of the oesophagus (gullet).