Malnutrition Follow Up.

 Here’s a follow up on few of the babies that have gotten put on the plumps-nut/milk program. They have an appointment, every two weeks, where they come in;  we take the weight and then give them either milk powder or plumpy-nut packets for until their next appointment.

This little girl, Milodia, is 6 months old and weighs, 15lb now. She came in about a month and 1/2 after she was born, and weighed just over 5lbs. It’s been fun watching her grow and get healthy.  She has such a sweet personality  and smiles a lot.  I remember hiding the picture on the left on my phone, because it was hard for me to see her like that, but now she’s chubby with plenty of rolls. ☺️

Roselanda and Roselin are now 13 months old. The twins came in when they were 11 months old and weighed 8lb (Roselin) and 10lb (Roselanda). Roselin now weighs 11lb and his sister, 17 pounds.

Here are some of the other precious little ones that are on the program. When I have an opening in the pharmacy, I’ll go watch Daniella do their checkups. Watching them grow and get healthy, are one of those things that make me stop and thank Jesus for the blessing and gift of life! 

-Michaela

"Hidden Blessings" By Michaela Smith

The tears silently slid down my heart, as a lifeless little body slid into my hands. “God please”, was the prayer that echoed quietly from my lips, as I unwrapped the tight cord three times around his neck. Surveying the little one, I simply saw no trace of life, which them prompted my next move, CPR. Seconds passed, before I grabbed the stethoscope, to listen to a much wanted heart beat. Nothing. I continued, all the while making sure mother was in good condition. Marcile had just entered the clinic gate and soon 

joined me. We continued to work with the baby, but before long it was clear that we did all we could. I had glanced from time to time, at the faces of the parents, as they watched things unfold. Hopelessness was more and more seen, the longer things went on. We had tried our best in trying to get baby to breathe, but it was clear that the little one wasn’t meant to live life here on earth. My heart ached, and the tears threatened to flood my eyes, when I walked into the hospital room where the mother laid on her bed. The tears were streaming down her face, as she mourned for her child. I wanted to reach out to her and make things better, but I knew I couldn’t. So, I just stood by her bed, silently praying that God would be near her through this time. That same day, I assisted at the birth of a different mom who later went home holding her healthy baby girl. 

I will never know the “why” behind some little ones dying in childbirth and others living; but this I do know, that it’s God who ultimately chooses life or death, and that there is always a purpose behind everything he does. 

Although, there are moments of pain, there are still moments of beauty and things to be thankful for. I’m reminded of that daily: through the smile of a child, the music of praise playing loudly just before clinic opens, the laughter as friendships are being made, a flower, the little child running along with excitement as his handmade kite trails behind, and the songs of praise erupting from the mouths of loved ones over the safe delivery of their newest family member. These are a few of those “hidden” blessings, that serve to remind me to be thankful for the gift of life, but also of the sustaining strength, faithfulness and goodness of God. 

-Mis Michaela Smith

Update from Brendan Horner

05/11/20 

       It was great being back at clinic today. Last week we took off Thursday and Friday to go on a little beach outing with Derek and Lori before they leave. There was a funeral in T-Goave that we went to on Saturday then I stayed the night in T-Goave and came home Sunday afternoon. It seems like I was gone a lot the past few days so it was good to be back at clinic today. 

      It was a normal Monday at clinic. Had a total of 72 patients. My days consist of the usual bandage changes and just help out where needed. One of the patients that came in today is a little baby that is very malnourished, it's so tiny and sick looking. It will stay here at clinic till it is up to 5 pounds. 

       This evening there was another baby born at clinic.

 Having newborn baby's around is always refreshing. When you see a lot of sadness and people die it's always refreshing to see and hold a new life. 

 Brendan Horner, EMT

An update from Mis Marcile

 

                                           

Haiti...    the Country I left five years ago, the country I fell in love with... I'm back!

I left Haiti in 2015 not knowing where God would lead me. After going through 4 years of Midwifery training God opened the doors for me to come back to Haiti. I was thrilled and amazed at how God opened the doors. The last couple months at home had been very stressful for as I was preparing to sit for the NARM Exam to pass the test for Certified Professional Midwife. I passed the Test October 31st and then enjoyed a couple relaxing weeks with my family before I left for Haiti. 

     Life here in Haiti has been as normal as normal gets around here! COVID-19 caused quite the stir here. Unfortunately they blame it on the "whites" for bringing it into Haiti. There are so many false stories and ideas going on around here about the COVID-19. Like if you find a hair in your bible you boil that hair in water to make a tea and drink that to keep from getting the Corona Virus!!! So, people were going through their bibles and looking for hair and making tea out of it!! We of course told them that is NOT TRUE and will do NOTHING. 

     I'm not even sure how many actual positive cases we have here. But thankfully, as far as we know there are no COVID-19 cases in our area. We have been taking precautions though and doing a lot of education to help people understand how it spreads and what to do about it. We have a hand washing station at the clinic gate entrance so everyone can wash their hands. There are a couple other changes we made to keep the virus from spreading, if it does come here. 

Thankfully people have been calming down and we don't hear as much of this craziness. Clinic days have also been getting busier as things had slowed down over the first news of the COVID-19. The government closed all the schools and the churches are supposed to be closed too although many are still having church.

     Emergency runs have been far and few between... which is something we won't complain about! We did have an "almost" emergency run a couple days ago... a pregnant lady came into clinic, I checked baby's heart tones and was very concerned as they were not normal. I quickly did a cervical exam to check dilation and was confused at the position of baby. I was pretty sure it was breech but something still didn't feel right. I palpated her abdomen and still couldn't figure out the position of baby. I called in another nurse and we decided to send her out to town. By the time we got a transfer paper written and mom settled on the machine she was pushing. Here comes a baby's butt. We could see right away that something was very wrong with baby, it was severely deformed. Baby lived for about an hour after it was born. 

Death... so final. It seems like we've been experiencing it quite a bit the last while. Or is it just because it's so draining and heart breaking?????? A mom in labor working extremely hard to bring her dear baby into this world, pushes for one last time as a lifeless little form slides into the world with a very tight cord wrapped around its neck 3 times. We did CPR but baby did not come around. Tears slid down my face as I held the mothers hand and tried to explain why baby died. My heart hurt for her as she cried out "I did all this work for nothing". 

    

     Then there's Sè (sister) Ramon. The mayor of Ti-guave, the mother of many. Died from heart problems. EVERYONE knew her... an extremely influential woman with a big heart of love for everyone she met. Its crazy how the death of one person can affect so many lives. The night she died we could hear wailing and screaming all over the hills, I was wondering how I would sleep. Clinic staff came to clinic the next morning sad and heart broken. I didn't know this lady but being with people that knew her, people that were heartbroken and crying every single day, is wearing. Her funeral will be on Saturday. 

     

      A mom of 4 boys comes to clinic extremely sick. She just had that "look"... a look that tells you she is probably HIV positive. Probably one of the worst things I have to do here is tell a person that they are HIV positive. There's so much hopelessness in those words... so much fear, so much uncertainty, so much pain... I tried to break the news to her gently but she did not take it gently. My heart broke for her as she cried out over and over "its not possible, I do not have it". I checked her 5 month old baby and found the dear little one also positive. We encourage and firmly urged the mother to go to town for treatment but she refused because she was sure she was sick with something else. She died a week later... 

     On a better note there have been beautiful, healthy babies born, bad burns that are healing, wounds that were horribly infected that are healing, sick people getting better, smiling faces greeting you as you walk into clinic happy to see you, a premie baby gaining weight, smiling mamas as they listen to baby's heart beating loudly and baby giving a big mighty kick, laughter coming from the birth room as a god mother vividly and dramatically tells a first time mom how to push, friends that come and wrap you in their arms and tell you they love you, and so much more! 

     I love Haiti. Being here is both extremely draining and extremely rewarding!!! And yet its life... its amazing how your body and mind adjust to your surroundings and what's thrown into your lap. I was asked today if we've had any crazy cases come into clinic and at first I said no, then we started talking and I realized that there was more than I realized! Because its just normal life... Everyday God provides the strength and grace we need to face the challenges of each day. 

I have been doing quite a bit of visiting the last couple days. One of my friends that knows English pretty well, decided to start a small English school and asked me to help her. She has been doing an amazing job and her students are extremely excited about learning English which is helping them learn in leaps and bounds! So I try to hike up the mountain to her house as often as I can to help her out.  The pics below are from some of the visiting we've been doing.  

Please continue to pray for us! Prayer works and we can often feel it. 

-Marcile

                                             

Twins

This story started a long time ago already, but with all that's been happening at the clinic the last while, I guess we missed blogging about it.  I thought we had, but I can't find a post on it.  So if we did and I'm repeating, sorry!

Toward the end of March this small undernourished but very pregnant looking lady came to clinic.  She had been to the clinic a few times before but hadn't done well with prenatal check-ups, and now she was showing signs of pre-eclampsia.  At this point as near as we could tell she was around 7-8 months pregnant.  After trying to get her pre-eclampsia under control with no success, we decided to send her out to T-Goave.  We were also concerned because she was measuring larger than she should have been for 7-8 months and was suggesting premature labor.  All this combined made it pretty urgent to get her out to T-Goave.

As normal, days past, and we knew no more of her.  Then a week after we sent her out to our surprise Mama, and Babies show up!  Our sneaking suspicion of twins had been true, and she had safely delivered the babies in T-Goave.  Although premature, they had survived.  They were a boy, Deyei, 5 lbs 2 oz and a girl, Deunia, 4lbs 2oz.  By the time they came to the clinic at about 5 days old, they both had badly infected umbilical cords, and Mama still had high blood pressure with a lot of edema.  They spent 5 days at our clinic as we treated them and watched to see if things would start looking up or turn worse.  Upon arrival, they were all in critical condition.  I have to admit, it's a little scary to treat teeny, tiny babies who should be in the NICU in a small mountain clinic.  Mama wasn't responding well to the blood pressure treatments either.  Finally after maxing her out on the meds, she leveled out.

Here is Deunia when she first arrived

And here is Deyei

Carolle feeding both babies

The mother, Carolle, didn't have enough milk either so we put them partially on our Nourishing the Needy program.  After being hospitalized for 5 days, I sent them off with a bit of fear and trembling.  Would they take good care of preemies?  Would the mother keep up on her meds or be careless and still die from pre-eclampsia?

It was April 7th when I sent them home with an appointment to come back April 15th.  Just this past Sunday, April 21st, I told Rhoda that it was nearly a week past their appointment and I was concerned that the twins hadn't made it.  You can only imagine my excitement when on Mon, someone came to my room at the clinic and told me the twins had come!  Carolle, was looking much better, and the twins were doing well.  Deyei now weighs 6lbs 1.5oz, and Deunia 4lbs 8oz.  Carolle always says that Deyei is fussier.  I tell her that she needs to make sure Deunia gets enough too even if she doesn't complain as much.  :-)  It seemed like they were taking good care of them as we found them clean and in good health.

All of the nurses, Carolle, and the babies when they returned for their check-up this week.  

Do pray for them.  Taking care of such fragile babies in this land is no small task.  Carolle really appreciated the care she received here, but I don't know that she is a Christian.  I'm glad they could find good healthcare, but most of all pray that she would be willing to let the Great Physician direct her life.






There has been a lot of other things going on at the clinic that got missed in the busyness of the cholera surge so I could help but at least drop a picture on of one of the other babies born at the clinic lately.

                                                         Baby with her happy mama

Poor Little Girl

This blog post isn't as cheery as the last one.  Here is a little two year-old girl that got burned badly yesterday.  Somehow she got hot corn meal mush all over her.  Her right cheek, forehead, chin, and right arm got most of it.  It has to hurt her pretty badly, but she does well when we clean and bandage it for her.  She'll be coming in frequently for a while.  

Her and her Daddy

A close up of her face

Patient Send Off

Well, here is the medical team with Efadel and his mother.  It was a sad and happy day when we sent them off.  He is now walking some on his own, and the infection sights are almost totally healed.  They are still changing the bandages every day and coming back for check-ups every few days.  

We kind of got attached to him and them to us so it was hard to see them go, but it's so exciting that he's doing so well AND that his parents found the Lord while they were here.  

Mis Rhoda, and my brother Jere taking vitals in the waiting room.  

Jere and his family were here for 6 weeks.  Jere worked in the shop mostly and in the clinic a few times.  He's a volunteer EMT in WI so enjoyed getting his hands in on a few medical things.  

Mis Breanna and I draining a nasty abscess

Michael, Virginia, and I were able to attend a radiology class that Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) offered at their base out by Port Au Prince.  We really enjoyed the class, but needed to get back yet Thurs evening so we could be here for clinic Fri.  It was probably 4:30 pm or so till we left the CAM base.  We still had some stops before hitting the trail out of T-Goave toward home.  I was about 8:30 pm when we were leaving T-Goave.  It looked like we should be home before 11--not so bad--but half way home, the picture below is what met our eyes!  Notice the angle at which the truck is setting.  To his right was a steep bank, and he was barely 2 feet from it, to his left was a 3 foot drop off into a river.  He was stuck in the river with his empty two wheel drive dump truck--couldn't back up or go forward.  Thus we were stuck too on the "away from home" side of the river.  We tried pulling him out, no success.  After a while some of us got in the back of the dump truck for a little weight and bounced as the driver rocked the machine back and forth.  Finally after pulling, rocking, filling in ditches with rocks, we were successful in getting him out, and we all went on our merry way.  

Stuck dump truck

This is the view from the bed of the dump truck looking down toward our Land Cruiser after we got the trucked backed up.  They were filling in the ditches for him to try to go forward again.  We finally got home just before midnight.  

~Mis Anita

You never know what you'll see next!

This is a case that came in yesterday--a 14 day old baby with an odd lump on it's head.  We're not sure what is is, but it's beyond us so we told them that they need to go out to a bigger hospital.  The lump started a few days after birth and has been growing.  Other than that the baby seemed fine.   

Called to the clinic. . . What will we find?

It was Wednesday about 2pm or so. Clinic was over for the day. Breanna and I had left clinic and I believe had lunch as well when Polvert, our guard, called me saying someone had come to clinic with a sick child. He said the child had been fine in the morning, but now wasn't doing well. With Michael and Virginia visiting in the States right now, I send some afternoon stuff to Mis Leda but decided to go check this one out.

Breanna and I headed out to the clinic. What I saw when I got there set me into quick action. You can see in the first pictures that the little guy just kind of has a glazed look on his face. He was amazingly alert, but his color was scary. He was kind of an ashen gray with white lips. I quickly checked his oxygen saturation--78-81%--heart rate--255 bpm. That told me enough to decide to quickly get him on oxygen. Very shortly thereafter his oxygen level was up to 88% or so and his heart rate down to 150 bpm. He was much better off, and I could check out other things to decide what he had and how to treat him.

Upon listening to his lungs I could tell they weren't clear. I treated him for a respiratory infection, and kept him on oxygen. As the afternoon progressed he continued to do well.

Now I just needed to know if by morning I could take him off oxygen or if we'd have to send him out so he could stay on it longer as we don't have a huge supply of oxygen. Steve was going out in the morning so we got up to check on him early. I took him off the oxygen and checked his saturation. He was doing well so we didn't need send him out. I kept an eye on him throughout the morning as we had clinic, and he continued to do great.

You can see from this picture that he's doing pretty well.

By mid or late morning I sent them home. It was so good to see him head home in much better shape!

Jacqueline--Amazing--before and after

Do you remember?

I believe we had posted about this little boy back in Dec or so. This is how he was when he came into our clinic last year.

We took them to a children's hospital in Port au Prince. They were in Port from Dec till May or so. This was the first I had seen him now since his surgery. As far as I know it was probably a tumor that they removed.

Just today his parents brought him here to see us and give us a gift of eggs! You can see the scare, but you'd hardly know it's the same boy

Jacqueline with his mother and father

It's SO exciting to see the difference that was made. He has a brother with a deformed foot that we're hoping to be able to help now too.

Tumble on the Way Home From Church...

Uh-oh- another tumble!!! Not as serious as sometimes though;
this one merely resulted in a small slice on the head of the
young chap involved.

The nurses decided it was a good idea to stitch it though, just
to be on the safe side...

Anita and Virginia Rudolph tackling the project.... He showed up
just after church on Sunday...

All better, careful on those trails sonny!!!!

Cute Babies...

We sure get some cute little (or not so little, as the
case may be) babies that come through. I'm not
certain which of these babies are on the milk program,
or whether all of them are...

Wide eyed little girl there!!!! It's a big world!!!

"Oh yum!!!" (I like the blue ones myself... )  :)

Physician, Heal Thyself...

Apparently, a rock throwing incident caused this young gentleman to seek
refuge on the front porch. It wasn't too serious, just a little bandage job.

Andrew Klewin from WA is staying down here for a little over a month...
He's not here to work with the clinic, but does happen to be an EMT
so he enjoys getting in and helping with the medical stuff every now
and then.........

Unfortunately for Andy, his thumbnail got smashed by a piece of steel,
and that really "put the pressure on!!!!" He finally sought relief....

...With a needle heated on our propane stove. A very effective
pressure relief system for fingernails....

....Obviously! That's gross Andy, but glad you feel better!!! :)

Gravity Wins...

This young gentleman had a problem with gravity; apparently
gravity won. :( You guessed it- he fell out of the garden.

The nurses had a hard time telling exactly what was wrong with his arm;
there was obviously something not right, but they weren't sure whether
it was out of joint or broken. So we took him out to the hospital in Ti
Guave; there we were informed that, since they didn't have any current
at the time, it would be impossible to have an x-ray done that night.
We decided to run on out to Leogane to the Medicin San Frontier
hospital there. (Doctor's Without Borders). We dropped him off there
and stopped in the next day to check in on him........

As you can see, he also has an eye difficulty. He's had
that since he was two years old, apparently....
The next day, we found him sitting in a hospital bed
with a full arm cast. The arm was broken in two
separate places, but had gone back together well.
His parents told us that the doctor said he wanted
to check out the eye problem as well; they seemed
pretty happy about that!!! Pray that God's will be
done there....

Foot Problem...

This little guy spent several days in a hospital room; unfortunately
I didn't get any pics of HIM-only this nasty looking foot... He came in
with a respiratory problem, and this badly infected foot. After treating
him for several days, it seemed that his oxygen level had improved,
but he still breathed with some difficulty. We wondered if there could
be an underlying issue, and so we took him out to the hos[ital.
Hopefully they can help the poor little chap... He was very sweet
and patient, but sometimes he was obviously miserable...

Actually, rocks DON'T belong in ears...

Uh-oh- surely not the old "rock in the ear" trick again!?
Unfortunately, yes it is.

But thankfully for little Daniel, it wasn't in there too
deeply; (although you would have been CERTAIN
that it was looking grim for the little chap, judging
from the hearty opinions he expressed during the
stone-removal operation..... :-)

A real community effort! Shana's running the forceps, while a crowd of
interested helpers alternately yell at Daniel to "Be quiet and hold still",
and at Shana to "Be careful!!"; and, "Wouldn't a little oil help?"

Ah, that wasn't too bad Danny! Just don't experiment
down those lines again... Daniel's parents go to the
church here in Ailegue, they have a nice family...

Mountainside tumble III !

This 9 year old little girl came in on Wednesday afternoon at around 3...
The story we were told was that she had fallen down the mountain a little
ways, then falling rocks had slammed into her head. The evidence was
certainly there- several severe gashes on the top and back of her head,
along with various scrapes and lacerations elsewhere. At first, the nurses
weren't particularly worried; it looked nasty, but she was very alert and
"with it", and didn't seem to be in as bad a shape as several similar cases
we've dealt with. But then, through feeling the back of her head, they
discovered a rather large "soft spot" in a wound area, that seemed to
indicate a more serious fracture than we had realized before. So it was
decided that it would be best for her to go out to see a doctor, and be
where there was the possibility of getting an x-ray if that was deemed
necessary. Since it wasn't an immediately critical situation, and we've
been having difficulty with several vehicles here at the mission, we opted
to send her out with a "moto" (motorcycle); so we hauled her and her
parents up to the closest market and sent them on their way- dad
sitting behind to support her on the way...............

Here she is with her mom, just before heading out. Her head is already
bandaged up and wrapped in a cloth to keep the dirt out, always a
problem in this dusty, dirty environment. Please pray for their family,
 they didn't profess to be Christians and the dad had obviously
been drinking. God can use anything to
point people to Himself!!!

Mountainside tumble II

Another tumble down the mountain; thankfully this little boy
(Manno St. George is his impressive title) was much less damaged
than the last gentleman who experimented with this dangerous
hobby, and got hauled out with a fractured arm as a result.
Still, it is a nasty cut Manno has....

Mis Leda did a great job of repairing the damage; hopefully it
heals up nicely now...