Jean Franz (Jah Frahs)

...is the 16 year old boy who first showed up at the clinic Jan 7th, with a very badly burnt foot.   (I think Rho briefly mentioned him awhile back)  They said he fell into the fire.  At first we couldn't tell how deep the damage was.  We cleaned it and bandaged it with B&W creme and gave him a rendezvous to come back again very soon.  I think it was the third time he came back for re-bandaging that we decided he would need to stay in the hospital room for awhile.   All the skin slipped right off like the skin off a boiled tomato, exposing tissues we don't like to see exposed.   It was particularly deep right on the top of his foot, deep enough that we could see the white tendon running to his big toe.  At that point we decided we would need to go sterile to clean and re-bandage him every day.  So that's what we've been doing.  Every morning we pull off the slimy bandages from the day before, and with a sterile set of scissors and tweezers, I carefully cut away all the loose dead skin, fat, and tissues.  
This was a couple weeks ago...

Thankfully that doesn't hurt him at all since it's dead.  The washing part does hurt him quite a bit.    We're down to healthy red flesh now, which is a good thing except for the fact that it hurts him more.  We gently wash and wipe his foot with iodine and gauze, and then irrigate it with sterile water.  After that we re-bandage it with more B&W, making sure we put guaze with creme between all his toes to keep them from sticking together.   The past few days there are what look like red blisters on the most raw areas that bleed really easily.   We weren't sure what to think of them, but the Doc came and looked at his foot and said to just keep doing, so we were glad to hear that!
A few days ago...

Most recent shot, taken today...

His dad and mom take shifts staying with him in the hospital, occasionally along with one of their other five children.  It's been a blessing for us to have them around and get to know them more.  We often find them reading their Bibles or singing when we come in.  It's not very often that you see Christian families like theirs who seem always ready to serve in any way they can, whether by sweeping, mopping, burning trash, or wherever else they see a need.   At this point it's hard telling how much longer he's gonna have to stay at the hospital, but it sure looks like he has a long road to recovery ahead.   We're hopeful that B&W will be true to it's reputation though and speed the journey! 
Continue to pray for us here!  We need the grace and strength and wisdom of God each day to deal with each new situation as it comes.  Ro mentioned the little boy and the mother we took out to Ti Goave yesterday.  We made it safely to the hospital with them and left them in the care of good Doctors.  The Dr was ordering an x-ray for the boy when we left, but we haven't heard anything more about how he's doing yet.  
God bless you, each in your special slot of service for Him! :) 
~Whitney