Thursday, July 26, 2018

Angel Baby 

Well, hello!:) It’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me- back in February I do believe, but somehow that doesn’t seem that long ago!

I thought I would share a happening from the beginning of this month that I still remember very well.



On July 3rd we had a woman in labor at clinic and the baby ended up arriving before we could get down there! Of course we rushed down as fast as we could and we found a tiny baby laying on the bed. I believe one of my first thoughts was how tiny the baby was! We had thought the mother was close to full term but from how the baby looked he had come early! He was not breathing the greatest so we took him to another room where we were able to give him breaths with the oxygen bagger and continued to moniter him closely. He appeared to be stable for the moment; he weighed a little over 4 pounds!
During our clinic day I was in the emergency room when Kayla rushed over holding our little baby boy- he was blue and not breathing at all! We immediately started doing chest compressions and giving him breaths. It felt like a long time. I know we were both praying hard. Finally, he started taking some breaths on his own again. But it appeared as though he had turned a corner for the worse.  Every now and then he would have spells where he would just stop breathing. We were beginning to think that this baby’s lungs were not developed like they should be and he needed higher help than we could give him. I sat there on the emergency room bed just holding him- watching his little chest rise and fall as he struggled for each breath. His chest would sink far in and it looked so pitiful! We decided that our best option would be to drive him to the nearest hospital with a good NICU. We didn’t trust to send him on an ambulance so the only other option was to take him ourselves. Before we left a special moment was when the mother came over to where her baby was. She gently laid her hand on him and began to pray. Her mother heart was hurting and yearning for her baby to live. We had her hold the baby, too, and it felt so right. Not so long before she had birthed this baby and now things  were not going the way any of us had expected...... Eventually, we were on our way out the trail. It took us four hours to get there and we had to give the baby breaths the whole way there. By the time we finally arrived at the hospital we could see that he was just about done fighting. The poor dear. After we had the baby and mother dropped off at the hospital there was nothing more to do except leave; we felt he was in good hands and we hoped for the best. Around midnight, Kayla got the call from his mom that our little baby had died. I think it took it a while to really sink in. The past 24 hours had felt crazy and now he was gone. I was sad. I grieved for his parents and the loss they were feeling. But I also knew that he was no longer suffering on this earth; he was well!!!! He was no longer struggling for each breath and most of all, he was safe with Jesus! Yes, it was sad, but that hope gave me something to hold onto. The Lord giveth and He taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Also, I thought I would give an update on a certain little girlie that I wrote about in February. She was the baby(Jiana) that was born at clinic not breathing and with no heartbeat. She came in for monthly checkups with her mom and we were  always so happy to see them! Every time we saw Jiana she was bigger and chubbier and just seemed to be doing extremely well! I can so clearly remember the day she was born and it was just a miracle to see her thriving! Not long ago some of us actually went to visit her and her parents. It was really nice to visit with them and they all seemed so happy. Jiana was of course the center of attention. She is certainly a miracle baby. I have attached a picture of her below- you don’t get much cuter!!!!

Thank you for your support and prayers! Pray for us as we strive to shine our lights brightly here in the mountains of Haiti!

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Rest in the unrest 

I’m sure many of you all have seen news articles and posts on social media about the current unrest and protesting in Haiti. It’s not a joke or just a big story.  I can’t promise that everything you saw is accurately presented, but it is real stuff. Real lives and real unrest. We’re very thankful to be tucked away back in the peaceful mountains where we’re basically completely unaffected by everything. Life goes on as normal, for the most part. Recently, as I was think about the “unrest” here I was reminded of the verse in Matthew “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”. It’s a verse that probably most of us have memorized but often forget. Rest, spiritually is a beautiful thing and very tangible and yet it’s easy to live in spiritual unrest and be more worried about the physical unrest around us than the unrest inside. Today, I’m thankful for the beauty of Gods rest in the unrest and his peace in disaster. 

I was on call Sunday, and it started out very “normally”. I had one child who came in before we all went to church. When I left, i told a friend of mine close to clinic to call me if any emergencies come to clinic. Right after church, I got word that there was someone with a machete wound so I went back to find a laceration in a girls hand. She told me her father had been hitting her younger siblings and then picked up a machete and sliced her hand open. I was completely astamished, and once again reminded of how blessed I am to grow up in a peaceful home with a very loving dad! <3 I stitched her hand, and it wasn’t very long before someone else came to the gate saying that someone had gotten injured at the Mollier school fèt (party). I found a young man sitting outside of clinic with a rag wrapped around his head that was completely soaked in blood. He and his friends told me that he’d been sitting at the school fèt when a rock that was supposed to hit someone else happened to hit him. I brought him into our emergency room and did a quick assessment. His vital signs were all normal. I started him on IV fluids and proceeded to take the blood-soaked rag off. He had two lacerations (pictures below) on his forehead. Nothing too serious looking. Skull seemed normal and in-tact. He seemed a bit out-of-it and complained of a bad headache. Shocking, huh?! 

I had just finished putting in my last stitch and was again, checking to make sure his skull wasn’t fractured when I saw his eyes roll up in his head, he turned to his side, started foaming at the mouth. He seized for a minute and I had just enough time to be very thankful for the IV port and grab some meds when he started seizing again. I pushed IV meds and he seized again, I gave more meds. He seized 4 times in that next hour. His friends were convinced that he was dying and Kayla heard their cry’s from out on the street and came to see what was going on. I wanted to transport him to a hospital with higher level care and made a lot of phone calls but there were several problems, the biggest one being that because of all the political unrest, all the roads were blocked. It was dark so I couldn’t request a med-flight, and last but not least, all of the hospitals I called said their CAT scan machine was out of order and they wouldn’t accept a head-injury patient. The one hospital with a working CAT scan said their beds were all full. 

I felt stuck. Absolutely helpless and obligated to keep him and just give the best care that we knew how to give. Kayla and I spent the night with him. Taking turns monitoring him and trying to catch some sleep. By morning, he was responding and answering our questions coherently. Praise the Lord! He’s still at our clinic and we’re keeping a close eye on him but he’s doing much better. 

 

This is a pic I took of his lacerations yesterday when I rebandaged them. 

This is the hand that I stitched right before the head-injury patient came. 

And this is a before pic. 

Pray for peace in Haiti! 

Thanks for all your prayers. They make a difference! -Mis Emma

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