Dying in Pain – Abdoulaye’s Story 
By Angela Chung
When Abdoulaye’s mother left his hospital bedside to pick up medicine from the pharmacy, I helped fan him. Temperatures in Senegal reach the 90s in November, and the air in the ward for children with advanced cancer hung hot and still. Flies buzzed, landing on the faces of patients who were too tired to swat them away.
Abdoulaye, age 4 ½, had a type of cancer that caused tumors to form on his bones, and is extremely painful.
For six months Abdoulaye received no morphine – a standard part of treatment in many parts of the world. When he arrived in the cancer ward, he received a few doses of the painkiller. Then Senegal ran short of morphine.
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