20. Malaria, wood and drug traffickers

The meeting in one of the Tres Vías restaurants with the representatives of the Ministry of the Environment brought together the most influential figures of the community.

We are here to tackle the problem of illegal timber trafficking. We know that the wood is stolen from the Mache Chindul Reserve, which is the property of all Ecuadorians, because it is a protected area. That the wood goes down the rivers, Sucio, Repartidero, Sálima and Cojimíes. We want to stop this illegal traffic and we need your cooperation. We will carry out an operation with the national army, we want to thank Dr. Máxima for her cooperation.

At that moment, the president of the parish council, and most of the attendees looked at the doctor with a look between surprise, anger, and discontent. Máxima felt rejected by the attendees, since apparently everyone was involved in this illegal activity.

The doctor's father told her that in Esmeraldas province, illegal logging and drug trafficking were the two most profitable activities. In 2005, she stopped a truck at the Esmeraldas checkpoint for not having legal permits. The press, his friends from Radio Antena Libre, and from the newspaper La Hora de Esmeraldas came, but the province's police commander was involved, as was the director of the Ministry of the Environment, from Limones canton, who was a graduate forest engineer. at the University of Esmeraldas, and many of those graduate engineers were the ones who granted the permits.

In le Canton Muisne, the forestry director was the most important timber trafficker, but he did it through the drug traffickers who owned the large trucks from Chamanga and Pedernales, according to patients and residents along the Sucio River.

The capture of 4 trucks by the army complicated the situation for the doctor. The chiefs of the town began to mortify her. The owner of the house where the dispensary was located stopped supplying them with water, justifying that the rents were not paid on time by the Rural Social Security.

"We're going to the new dispensary," Máxima told Carmen, her assistant.

- But, doctor, we don't have water there either or security.

- But we can't work here. We need a truck to get around.

On the appointed day, the doctor helped load the equipment, she felt a real relief when she left that office where there were even days when she did not open the door to work.

Soon the members came to paint the new dispensary, the electrical installations were made, and through cane channels the rainwater was collected, especially for the hygienic services whose stench in the old dispensary made it impossible to work. The patients had to go out to a nearby pasture to relieve themselves.

But the board of affiliates, in which there were timber traffickers, and they had even made a great deal, with the price of that unfinished house, which was now the new dispensary in operation.

The members of the board of directors went to present a complaint against the doctor in Esmeraldas.

The doctor's situation was complicated by her bad relationship with the Boca del Sucio dentist, who was the secretary of the association of doctors and dentists, and by a malaria that almost killed her.

In those days, the government announced that the World Health Organization presented an award to the government for the elimination of malaria.

In that house of the promoters, mosquitoes were abundant because the population had to keep the water in tanks. Maxima had several tanks with water.

When she returned to Quito, she was presented with a brutal chill, then a fever, and finally a sweat.

These episodes were repeated times before going to the hospital.

In her hospital, her parents admitted Máxima. She was in pre shock. Soon, she was receiving blood and serums, to compensate for the severe dehydration and anemia.

She was admitted, the tests showed a great loss of red blood cells. Fever episodes began to occur regularly 3 times a day. After each there was a temporary resurrection, after profuse sweating, then a new agony a few hours later, with a chill that shook the bed.

-Doctor, I am also a doctor and I know that this is malaria.

- We are running tests. but so far there is no evidence of plasomodium so we will try to stabilize it and repeat the tests when the fever spikes come.

-I have been here 5 days, every day I feel weaker than the day before.

-I know.

That night, while the chill announced an implacable fever, between reality and delirium, in the front bed a feverish patient like her got up to go to the bathroom, but lost her balance and hit her head on the edge of her head. bed. The doctors and nurses turned on the lights, it was early morning.

She was admitted, the tests showed a great loss of red blood cells. Fever episodes began to occur regularly 3 times a day. After each there was a temporary resurrection, after profuse sweating, then a new agony a few hours later, with a chill that shook the bed.

-Doctor, I am also a doctor and I know that this is malaria.

- We are running tests. but so far there is no evidence of plasomodium so we will try to stabilize it and repeat the tests when the fever spikes come.

-I have been here 5 days, every day I feel weaker than the day before.

-I know.

That night, while the chill announced an implacable fever, between reality and delirium, in the front bed a feverish patient like her got up to go to the bathroom, but lost her balance and hit her head on the edge of her head. bed. The doctors and nurses turned on the lights, it was early morning.