February 23, 2010

On Sunday, a wonderful group of seven visiting us through Middletown United Methodist Church in New Jersey came to Aslan’s Bel Peyi (Beautiful Land) Daniel & Dustin to operate a wound clinic for families who rarely receive any medical care.  Three nurses  with the group brought medical supplies (purchased with $1,000 raised by Linwood Middle School) and were able to see 75 children and several adults ~ cleaning out multiple infections on feet, ankles, legs, knees and arms.  Then came our regular Sunday afternoon program with over 100 bright-eyed children.  During the program, Joseph asked one girl to step forward for prayer for her mother.  Shortly after this prayer, Joseph asked me to bring one of our nurses and travel on our motorcycle about a quarter of a mile away to see the girl’s mother.  Neither Debbie Vincent, the RN who came with us, nor I were prepared for what we saw.

We were invited into a small wooden hut with a tin roof to the bedside of a 37-year-old mother (pictured barely alive below), with huge bedsores on her hip and leg and bleeding from her mouth and nose.  The odor from her infected sores filled the room.  She had been sick for several months, and her mother had taken her to a hospital in January.  But she was turned away because she didn’t have money to pay to see a doctor or to be admitted to the hospital.  6a00e552ed7b75883301310f311388970c-500wiDebbie immediately determined that she had severe edema (fluid retention and swelling of the feet and legs up to her knees).  Debbie determined she was probably also in septic shock with a raging infection.  We told her mother that we would take her to the hospital in Fort Liberte the next morning.  Then we stood by our sister with our hands on her head and arm and prayed hat she would live one more day so that we might help her.

Yesterday morning I awoke at 5:30 am and prepared for our trip to the hospital.  It has rained almost every day since I returned to Haiti a week ago, so the road from her hut (below) to Ouanaminthe was pot-holed, muddy and almost impassable in places.  All of us in the pickup were thankful once we were on the paved road to Fort Liberte.  In the midst of all this indignity, this precious woman had nothing more than a quarter inch thin piece of badly stained, worn and dirty carpet between her and the steel floor of the old pickup.  Carol and JoAnn (two nurses also with us) were in the pickup, and to my left throughout the trip sat her worried and frantic mother. To my right Debbie lovingly held the woman’s arm, prayed quietly for her and fanned the flies away from her bloody face.  To my right sat the woman’s 13-year-old daughter, with one large tear slowly winding it’s way down the side of her face for the entire 45-minute trip. As the wind howled across the back of the truck, another tear would slowly replace the previous one along the same track.

I tried to “will” the pickup to go faster, but I knew our driver Rony was being very careful and safe with all of us.  We all breathed a sigh of relief when we finally drove into the rocky entrance of the hospital.  While our friend lay in the back of the pickup in the blazing hot Haitian sun, I ran from place to place until I found the American doctors in charge (part of our friend, Dr. Juan Padilla’s group).  Then four Haitian men grabbed the carpet beneath her and helped us carry her into a triage tent set up by the United Nations troops.

Debbie quickly explained her diagnosis of what she had learned so far, and two nurses and Dr. McDougal began to treat her.  Her blood pressure would not register, and they could not find a vein in her arm to start an IV.  They quickly located a vein in her neck, and started her on saline solution, a strong antibiotic and something for pain.  Because we had to bring the group from Middletown back to Santiago, we were forced to return to Ouanaminthe.  At this moment, I do not even know if our friend lived through the night.  I can only hope and pray so.  But this one thing I do know.  We did everything possible to give this child of God the opportunity that she deserved to receive such love, care and compassion.  And if she dies, we gave to her the dignity of a hospital bed to die in and wonderful doctors and nurses to care for her as she walks into eternity.

Aslan has been ready for almost a year to build a clinic and hospital.  Our only obstacle is the funds with which to begin construction.  Thanks to an outpouring of gifts for our Haiti Relief Fund, we are closer than ever to begin laying the foundation for our medical center.  Your prayers and your gifts will make the difference!  With proper funding, this clinic and hospital can be built and operational within two years!  I just received a notice that the IRS has decided all gifts given for Haiti before February 28 through a recognized 501(c)(3) organization will still be deductible on your 2009 tax statement (as long as you itemize deductions).  What an opportunity you have.  Rather than carrying this poor, sweet mother some 20 miles away, we would have been able to treat her long before this infection began raging through her body.  One More Life . . . One More Day.

Craig

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