Update about Himba
You may recall the note we sent around in October about baby Himba, who was rescued by a wood collector in Central Kalimantan. He had brought baby Himba to Nyaru Menteng in a small cardboard box.
On an old blanket inside the box, lay a dirty baby orangutan – lying in his own filth, absolutely helpless and clearly in excruciating pain. It was heartbreaking.
We were told that she tragically died in a fight with a wild dog, leaving her young son alone and vilnerable.
Nyaru Menteng immediately took the infant to the medical team, who took the baby to the clinic and immediately ran intensive health checks and named him Himba.
At the time, it was thought he was around six months old and weighed only 3.3 kg. Himba suffered from a high fever and serious burns to his hands, feet, head, neck, mouth, eyes and anus. Parts of his burned skin were flaky and had to be cut and cleaned. Two of the fingers on his right hand were broken and required surgery, which had to wait until his condition was stable.
Himba spent a good deal of time in intensive care on intravenous fluids and oxygen, antibiotics and painkillers to minimise discomfort, indigestion medication and vitamin injections to increase antibodies and promote the healing process. He was looked after around the clock, by the dedicated team at Nyaru Menteng.
Now, you wouldn’t recognize little Himba!
His scars from the horrific burns are barely visible, replaced by nice new smooth skin. He is also a lot more cheerful and drinks milk by himself.
He now weighs a healthy 5.4 kg, which is slightly more than other nine month olds, probably due to all that loving tender care. Now his special nanny will replace regular milk with a soy milk formula to get him into shape ready to start to play.
He has now just started to walk alone, and in the near future, will be learning to climb in the branches of small trees with some orangutan friends.
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