Update on Pneumonia Patient

Good day to you all once again.

Thank you for all your prayers for the elderly man who came in yesterday.

A few hours after he was admitted, his heart began to fail, and his breathing got even shorter.

Michael went out to check on him again, at 2pm, and realized that the man wasn't going to make it any longer. He died shortly after.

Michael said he was really bad to begin with. His conditions began Monday, but they didn't bring him in until Thursday. He had lots of fluid in lungs and an irregular heart beat. They treated him for the fluids and gave him antibiotics for the pneumonia; however, despite our best efforts, he passed away...

The family came in the evening to carry him back to their home.

Such are the harsh realities of life in a 3rd world country... In the States they may have been able to save his life, with much effort. But not so down here. We don't have the equipment or facilities enabling us to do such advanced operations. But God knows, and His plan will be accomplished.

Pray for the family. The eternal dwelling place of the elderly man has already been determined in the heavens, and unchangeable; but the family's has yet to be. Oh, that they would hear the voice of the Saviour and turn to Him for salvation!!

Here are some pictures of the family carrying the elderly man's body away...

Happening now...

Greetings to all in Jesus' name.

I was over at the clinic just a few minutes ago (about 11am, Haiti time) when they had an older man come in. His breathing was very labored, with short breaths. After checking his lungs with the stethoscope, Anita determined he has pneumonia. Michael also came over and confirmed it.

Apparently he had Cholera, and was in another CTC that is nearby (called Basis). He was discharged a week ago, but yesterday came down with this bad cough, shortness of breath, and such conditions. So, he came to the clinic.

They said it's a pretty bad case, so i thought i'd post some pictures here and ask for your prayers. Pray that he would be healed, and that if he isn't a Christian, that he would see the light of Christ through the nurses there.

At first they only had him on a nasal cannula system to deliver oxygen.
Later they switched to a full mask, called a non-rebreather mask,
because he kept breathing through his mouth, instead of his nose.

I'll be giving updates as we get info!

Stay tuned...

Extra help and a Cholera surviver visits!

Things continue to get busier at the Clinic!

Jonathan and Lisa Widowski have come down to help with the CTC, but in their off time, they've come over here to help with various things! The extra help is nice, considering the amount of people we've had coming through recently!

The benches are packed! 

People come from far away for care here;

some have come as far as 15 hour walk! 

 The hallway is overly crowded as people come in, 

and wait at the pharmacy at the same time.

 Jonathan and Lisa checking blood pressure outside!

The newly-wed couple seem to be enjoying themselves :)

What's this? Is it high, or low? 

Hmmm...

:) 

Keeping track of the patients' numbers inside!

Jonathan in action! He was getting really 

good at it by the end of his time there!

This man had bad case of Cholera. He survived the sickness, 

but he said he is having a hard time recovering strength.

Anita checked him for pneumonia after asking him a few questions.

She told him take a deep breath, giving him an example.

Apparently he didn't get it, and started

breathing sharp, short breaths through his nose!

Eventually, she determined he didn't have pneumonia :)

Fre Adolph checks people in, weighs them, and keeps things in order

until people are seen my the nurses.

A new baby!

Greetings in Jesus' name!

We had another birth at the clinic the other night!

The labor was somewhat difficult, and we had to put the mother on oxygen towards the end of the labor. When the baby was born, he wasn't breathing, so we administrated CPR and oxygen, and kept him on it through the night. In the morning, he was doing much better, and we were able to take him off the oxygen and send them home!

It was a real blessing to have everything turn out well :)

 Here's the little guy, the night he was born, on oxygen.

A precious bundle! The little guy weighed 8lbs 14oz... Quite the little tub!

Anita, her sister Lisa, and her husband Jonathan were there to deliver the baby.

Here he is, next morning, waving for the camera :)

Is he smiling??

The happy parents! The left with smiles on their faces, 

and the father told us he was "Very happy!"

-------

Many of you probably remember, back in July, we had another baby put on oxygen. The full story is here if you want a refresher.

The parents came back the other day, and we got some pictures of the little guy. He's grown up a lot!

It's such a miracle! What a blessing to see all our work coming to fruition in these little lives. It makes the long days, late nights, early mornings, much more rewarding... To God be the glory!

Farewell to Thea...

Yesterday we said goodbye to Thea... She is going back to the States for a furlough. We will miss her terribly while she's gone... at the Clinic, at the CTC, around the compound, during meals... she was always a willing helper, and a joy to be around.

Lisa says by as Thea prepares to go...

Steve gets ready to head out with his passengers.

Shana has some last words with Steve...

There they go! So long, farewell!

Pray that with Thea going back for a season, we would be able to fill in the gap she leaves. God has been very good to us so far, and we trust He'll continue to make it so!

Club foot baby update!

Hello to all you faithful supporters! It has been a few days since we gave you an update, so it is high time to do so!

Anita and Thea have been so busy with the CTC work recently, they have not spent much time at the Clinic. Today was a very busy day for the Haitian Staff, as there was only one nurse on call, and over 40 people to see! But it sounds like she was doing well, and got through everyone well.

We had a nice surprise this evening: the club foot baby came back for a visit!

Many of you probably remember him. We posted two stories about him recently. To refresh your memory, you might want to read the first by clicking here, and the following update by clicking here.

He underwent surgery and now has a brace of sorts attached to his feet. He's looking great, and is as sweet as anything :) His recovery seems to be going very well!

Here are some pictures from their visit today...

He's grown up quite a bit since last time!

You can see the apparatus on his feet that is helping correct his foot.

His mom was more than happy to have his picture taken! 

Cute little guy. I like his hair doo :)

Shana held his foot up, after his mom took it out of the brace.

Looks almost normal! What a miracle!

It's a little swollen-looking, but other than that, it could pass as 

a normal looking foot! Simply amazing...

Here he is with his mom again.

She seemed so happy and thankful...

And we are so very thankful to all of you who contributed to make this little boy's foot normal again. We are so blessed to be able to witness these kind of things, made possible by the people of God following His leading, and giving what they can.

God bless!

Beautiful Sunset

Sometimes one just has to stop and take in the beauty around them!

A sweet little girl and her grateful mother--came with a gift of eggs for the nurses!

Yes, my medicine book which gets used quite a bit! :-)

A neighbor lady was sick last week so we trekked to her house 15-20 min away to check her out.

Do check out the cholera blog again as we've had a re-surge of cholera and are up and running full force again! Also pray that we have the strength we need as we're short staffed right now.

Still hungry for more????

Here the little guy is all stitched up! Better be careful now!

It was a back breaking job--getting the dirt out and, numbing him without exciting him too much and then stitching. Seeing it was that deep and to the bone I wanted to be extra careful to have it clean. There were little bits of what appeared to be gravel that I suppose he picked up when he landed. He can be thankful that he wasn't hurt worse!

Zaboka, Anyone???

"Zaboka" is the Creole word for avocado, and this young man was way up in a tree picking this delicious fruit when he lost his footing and took the shortest path down! He ended up with this rather nasty memento of the event on his face; it was such a deep split, one could easily see all around his jawbone. Very interesting, but it sure looked ouchy!!!

In the cleaning- up process...

Ouch.

Poor little guy, he was pretty scared. But other than this wound, he was
in pretty good shape- considering...!

T

The longest process in a stitch job, is generally all the cleaning and
preparation... Here Anita is giving Lidocaine...

Oops, another piece of dirt or gravel in there!!!

Jared helping to hold the little guy down as Anita gets started...