This baby was constantly forgotten. By chance, the speech will come, and the nurse or sister will throw up her hands: The Bear has not been fed! They didn’t change the kid’s clothes. And it’s all about a separate box away from the rest.
Mishka was barely six months old when he was admitted to the infectious diseases department. Caught the infection in the baby’s house, here, take care of him now, tiny, not needed by anyone. As the mother wrote a refusal, so the baby was left alone. Not knowing either warm hands or gentle whispers.
A friend told me about him. A very young girl, enthusiastic. Of those who believe that this world can still be saved.
She doesn’t just believe. She saves.
Silently, no one really needed her either. But one day we started talking in a neighborly way, she stopped being shy. And she told me: she’s a hospital mom now. Gives warmth to children who are unnecessary to anyone, helps to preserve their soul.
She somehow got into practice at a children’s hospital.
Very young patients were lying with their mothers. Every baby felt: Mommy is near. Everyone heard their own voice, everyone was dressed in clean clothes, they were looking for the most gentle and comfortable diapers.
Moms watched every movement of the nurse, fought for their babies, as in a war.
And the kids knew: they had power behind them.
And they started screaming as soon as they became uncomfortable, or the breeze blew. They wanted to eat, something itched — it means that mom will guess, feed, scratch.
And in all this fuss in the far corner lay a forgotten living man. He reached for the nipple that had fallen out of his mouth.
I dragged myself in vain. The bottle has been empty for a long time. The baby didn’t even want to eat, at least to drink.
Dehydration does not help recovery, dirty diapers, too. But the Bear just squeaked hopelessly.
I knew no one would come. The nurses just cursed: tired of these refuseniks, at least do not feed them, so as not to change diapers.
That’s how my neighbor froze near a stray cradle. She felt sick.
It was as if she felt how the baby felt alone. In a thin official diaper. Hungry.
The situation was like a nightmare. In the 21st century, in a well-fed country, there was no bottle of milk for a baby? Even during the revolution, newborns were provided for them. And here are doctors-women, mothers and grandmothers, all around. Do they even regret cooing a couple of phrases, stroking, turning more comfortably? Don’t swear, after all.
Keep hungry so as not to change the diapers of a sick child?
The intern approached the nurse, but received such a rebuke that she was confused. I realized: if he opens his mouth in front of the doctor, the practice will not be counted.
And not such broke off. The girl did not fight the system, but began a personal struggle for the baby.
Every minute of practice and all her free time she disappeared in the hospital. I was messing with the boy.
I bought him good mixes and the most delicate diapers. And Mishka began to recover. It was only thanks to her that I got out.
The friend was already thinking, what will happen to him next? The practice will end someday. And they won’t let her take the child away: alone, in a rented apartment, there is no income.
But fortunately, a woman appeared in the hospital who had been applying for adoption all this time. She took the boy home, everything is fine.
And the girl firmly remembered the story, and became a volunteer. In his free time, he comes to the place where he needs to deal with abandoned children. They wither away without emotion and touch. So she messes with them, hugs them, massages them. So that the babies wait for their man healthy and calm.
