All the guys stared at her for a minute, and then the real arguing started.
Isaak yelled at Alfonso, “You just want free field-testing for your NICU micro-clinics so you can get a tax write off.”
“Calling for a helicopter would take too long,” Alfonso yelled over the din. “With a NICU incubator on-site, you could place an infant in the incubator within minutes. Arranging helicopter transport might take hours, if one is available at all. I don’t know that Chandannath hospital even has a medevac helicopter.”
Maxence argued, “One medevac helicopter and a few dozen satellite phones would be a hell of a lot cheaper and more effective than scattering NICU micro-clinics all over the mountains.”
Alfonso yelled, “If they don’t have the education to fix a broken neonatal incubator, they can’t maintain and fixa helicopter!”
Isaak pointed in the general direction of down the mountains and yelled, “There’s an airport and a heliport at Chandannath!Weflew in there! They must have trained airplane and helicopter mechanics in that much larger city that is several hours away by car!”
Alfonso turned to Maxence. “Paying local people for construction work on these micro-clinics would infuse needed capital into these villages, too. There are multiple levels of benefit to these communities for this project.”
Maxence shook his head. “That’s one and done, Alfonso. Yes, they know how to construct buildings here, and your charity will pay them a pittance to build one more. But they still can’t maintain a NICU and a solar array.”
Dree piped up. “The most important thing is that these villages don’t need a NICU unit like they need a lot of other things. They probably have three pre-term infants born in a village this size per year. Maybe one of them would be so premature that their life would depend on an incubator.” Like that baby a week or so ago when they’d arrived a day too late that Dree still couldn’t get out of her mind. “But they have probably a dozen cases of cancer every year that, without detection and therapy, are invariably fatal. The people here have constant outbreaks of preventable, communicable diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella. Secondary pneumonia is one of the most common reasons people die in all of Nepal. If you want to save the most lives, instead of constructing a whole building for one premature infant, place a box of antibiotics in every village and send a nurse with a trunkful of vaccines to make a stop here twice a year. That would probably save fifty or more livesevery yearplus greatly reduce long-term disabilities like deafness from congenital rubella.”
“But, thebabies,”Alfonso said.
Dree lost her cool. “Saving thebabiesdoesn’t meanshitif you’re going to let them die of themeasleswhen they’re two!”
Alfonso dismissed her concerns with a wave. “But by the time they’re two, it is their parents’ responsibility to get vaccines for them.”
She wanted to wring his rich, stupid neck. “Their parents can’taffordvaccines, and they don’t haveaccessto them if they could! That’s why Sister Mariam and the Little Sisters of Charity raided their supplies and sent up boxes and boxes of vaccines with us because they knew it was theirone shotto get vaccines up here!”
Alfonso’s eyes widened at her rant, but Dree was not stopping now.
She said, “Rich people like you keep talking about the importance of personal responsibility when there isno waythese peoplecantake personal responsibility. That’s like criticizing my parents for not having internet access for their kids’ educational enrichment when there were nocablesanywherenearour sheep ranch, and we couldn’t afford satellite access or even computers, at all,ever.They struggled to keep food on the table, and we were all pretty skinny. These people are even skinnier! Half the kids I see have stunted growth, and half of those arewastedfrom malnutrition. How can you expect their parents to pay enormous amounts of money and travel forweeksto get somewhere there is a doctor and get a vaccine!”
Alfonso shrugged. “It’s not my fault they aren’t educated enough to understand the importance or make enough money to afford proper health care.”
Dree was the veteran of a thousand schoolyard scraps, and the rage in her body did not notify her brain before she leaped at Alfonso to knock his stupid head into the ground. She was just suddenly flying through the air, fists outstretched and teeth bared.
Maxence caught her around the waist, and they spun around like they were square-dancing the Virginia Reel.
She yelled at Max, “Thatasshole!How dare he blame these people who arejust doing their bestabout things that they have no control over!”
Maxence pushed her behind himself and held his arms back to contain her.
Dree tried to get around him, swinging wildly, but he was a concrete wall of muscle in front of her.
Beyond Maxence’s waist, she saw Alfonso had stepped backward. Shock widened his eyes. From Alfonso’s vantage point, Maxence must look like an eight-legged, writhing monster as Dree kicked and punched and tried to fight her way through Max to knock some sense into Alfonso.
She yelled, “How dare you look down on these good country people who are making a living by growing food for their families and doing the best they can. It’s not their fault that they never had a chance. They never had aSister Annunciatawho told them they could go to college and be a nurse and helped them get financial aid so they could. They never had aFather Moseswho gave them clothes so they wouldn’t freeze to death. They had to do it all on their own, and they’re doing the best they can. What’sthe Churchdoing to helpthesepeople,huh?What’s yourstupidcharity and theChurchand everybody elsewho should be responsibledoing to helpthesepeople out?”
Batsa had walked over. “I admit, I have had concerns about the long-term commitment to these NICU micro-clinics. I have seen too many charity projects begun and abandoned. Would it not be better to run this project through the Nepali government rather than relying on the continued involvement of individual people and your small charitable organization, Alfonso?”
“That won’t work!” Alfonso yelled at him.
Batsa raised one eyebrow and planted his right foot behind himself. Yeah, he’d gone to junior high in the States.
Dree dodged to go knock the hell out of Alfonso, but Maxence caught her.
“Don’t,”he whispered. “You’ve made your point. Watch what happens.”
Father Booker had followed Batsa over. “Batsa was partly raised here and has visited relatives over the years in Nepal. He has strong cultural ties to the area and local knowledge that none of us have. Batsa, give us more of your thoughts on the ramifications of establishing these high-tech, single-use clinics in isolated, rural villages.”
Alfonso spun and glared at Father Booker. “Asking the question that way isn’t fair. Besides, the Nepali government and other governments have had their chance to lower the mortality rate of premature infants in Nepal. They didn’t do it.”
