Samaritan Care Centre Patient Profile: Cynthia – Samaritan Care Centre, South Africa

Samaritan Care Centre Patient Profile: Cynthia – Samaritan Care Centre, South Africa

Cynthia sits in her bed at the Samaritan Care Centre and she is awake, alert, and in tune with every motion at the centre. She is HIV positive but she is not a quitter.

Cynthia sits in her bed at the Samaritan Care Centre and she is awake, alert, and in tune with every motion at the centre. She is HIV positive but she is not a quitter. She came to the centre in 2007 and could not move her arms, her legs, and she weighed less than 70 pounds. She was not eating, taking no medication, and her family had given her up to death. But today she is eating healthy, taking her ARV’s (anti-retroviral medications for HIV), can move her hands, and is actively working on moving her legs again. She soon will begin physiotherapy. We joke with her now that she is the manager of the Centre because she is so active these days, social and talkative to everyone that visits. She told me the other day:  I am so sick and tired of sitting in this bed. I want to walk again and be with my children.   She is well on her way now and she is motivated with the photos of her children taped next to her bed!

Story from Global Ministries Dawn Barnes
March 2008

Samaritan Care Center project