ICU

The 18-year-old took 30 pills to induce abortion. That wasn't the worst she could do. Others used sticks covered in battery acid and herbs, a traditional practice known as the RPG "because it's so quick," as one doctor explained. Some died of toxic shock.  Dr. Celia Kohn at the James N. Davies Jr. Memorial Hospital treats about 60 unsafe abortions each month. Thirty to forty percent of the time, it's girls between 14 and 18. Two patients each week seek abortions after being raped. Abortion is illegal in Liberia, except in the case of rape or if the pregnancy poses a serious risk to the mother, and only up until 12 weeks. Liberia has among the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world. Infant mortality is also high. In the pediatric ward, Dr. Torsou Y. Jallabah treats burn victims whose dressing has to be changed under general anesthesia because the pain is so intense. He sees malnourished babies who weigh under a pound. In the ICU, there was a baby who wasn't breathing but whose heart beat. She was three months and was sick with complications from malaria. Within an hour, the baby's mother streamed out of the hospital. The baby had died, she said flatly, without betraying emotion.