The baby that couldn't breathe...

On Friday night there was another baby born at clinic (seems like the season for babies around here!)

Unfortunately it wasn't breathing once it was born, so Steve, Thea, and Anita had to do CPR (compressions and ventilations by bag valve maske with oxygen) for a while. The heart beat was good enough then that we were able to stop compressions and only do ventilations. The baby was hooked up to an oxygen saturation and heart rate monitor. It was finally decided that they should take it to Ti Guave, because we were almost out of oxygen. They headed out around 4:30am Saturday morning and made it to the hospital around six. Anita continued ventilations the whole way down the trail. Once they reached the hospital the baby was admitted immediately. We have not heard how it's doing so far...

Here's the "life support" team in action.
Steve operated the respirator and Thea supported the baby.

Amazed--is he actually breathing?

The stats are much improved--oxygen saturation at 98% and heart rate at 140
(that' normal for a newborn).

Now just blow-by oxygen and Thea is monitoring heart and lung sounds.

We gave him a break with assisted ventilations from time to time.

By-standers, assistants when needed! :-)

Dear little guy!

A view outside the clinic.
There were some men out there praying and singing most of the time.

Breathing on his own a little.

A weary nurse.

Mama getting to hold her son--first child.

Update on a Patient!

This is the lady we took out to T-Goave a little over 2 weeks ago for a C-section because of complications during her labor. Click here to see the blog post for that trip.

We had the opportunity to bring her back to Aleg on Sunday and snapped a few pictures! She was so happy, and it's so rewarding to see healthy Mama and baby!

A cut above the rest...

Yesterday (after the clinic was closed) a lady and man came over to Steve's house, needing some medical attention. The lady had a very bad cut on her shin that was about 3 inches across and pretty deep. They claimed that she had fallen onto a rock...

Ugh... looked like it hurt pretty bad!

Thea took the job of stitching it closed.
After cleaning it out, she began the tedious work.

She started by numbing the area with local anesthesia.

Then she went to work!
After a few stitches, she noticed something was wrong with her needle...
The lady's skin was so thick and leathery, the needle had bent!!

After about 30 minutes of painstaking work, it was all finished up!
Good job Thea...

After closing the wound up, the general area needed to be cleaned and
have a bandage put over it.

New baby!

Two babies have been born recently here at the clinic!

The first was a little girl, and the one this morning was a little boy! :)

Just a note to those who send baby packages...
Most babies are small here, so premie outfits are just perfect,
as opposed to the outfit on this little girl :) :)

Ready for the big world out there? :)

And now the little guy from this morning...

Moto tumble...

Good morning everyone!

Over the weekend a troubled moto driver arrived at our gate, bearing an elderly lady on the back and calling for us to open the gate for him.

His distress?

Apparently on his way to his destination he lost control of his moto and crashed, throwing his passenger (the elderly lady) off; she was then promptly (supposedly) run over by another moto!

We opened up the gate and let them in. They set the lady down on the porch so they could examine her injuries and assess the situation. Obviously the most important thing was to make sure there were no broken bones and no internal injuries and then go from there...

She was groaning and letting out cries of pain as Michael examined her. After checking for the aforementioned conditions, he determined that she was probably ok. She was just very upset and shook-up!

So, to help her calm down and feel better, they took her down to the clinic and gave her a shot for pain and some medicine for the next few days... After that she seemed to be doing just fine, so they set her on the moto and they were on their way!

Pictures below!

While we were at clinic a little boy came in needing his toe re-bandaged, so Thea took upon herself the responsibility of taking care of it :)

Announcement

Today we have some very exciting news!

For a few years now we have been doing a program called “Nourishing the Needy”; a ministry in which we provide milk for babies here that are in need. Maybe their mother has died, and the family needs to care for them; maybe the parents have cholera, and the mother is not well enough to nurse; or perhaps the mother has another ongoing physical condition that prevents nursing.

Whatever the situation has been, we have seen tremendous results from this program. Today we have a more interactive, enjoyable way for you to learn about, and be involved in, the program!

Before, we would send out small information cards to our supporters; now you can just come online and get current information, pictures and updates, all on our new site. Information will be updated as often as possible, usually monthly, so you can check up on the little one you’re supporting. We have some extra stuff on there too: information on how the program works, and a donation button for those of you who just want to make a one-time donation to support the program.

Check it out, get informed and get involved! The fact is, we would love to branch this program out to something much bigger than it is… but we need people to support the babies in order to do that!

So click the link below, bookmark it in your favorites, and help us feed these little babies in need. AND- please forward a link to your friends that may be interested in helping, so that they too can have the opportunity to reach out to these precious little ones- in a substantive way!

God bless you for your interest!

www.NourishingTheNeedy.blogspot.com


Note: if you experience problems viewing this new site, try opening it up using Google Chrome. Not all the features work with Explorer or Firefox...

A trip to Petit Guave

Greetings in Jesus' name!

Yesterday morning we had a lady come into the clinic that was going into labor. She was having complications, so we decided to take her to Ti Guave. She had high blood pressure as well as the possibility of needing a C-section because of other problems. The trip down the mountain went well, and upon arriving in T-Goave, we first checked to see that they had a doctor available for a C-section should that be necessary. If there wouldn't have been a Dr. available we would have had to take her on to Grand Goave or Leogane, but thankfully they told us there was. So we helped check her in and headed on our way.

This time, we decided to take you along with us on our journey! Hopefully through these pictures you'll get an idea of what it is for us to take someone out to the hospital; all the time, effort, and energy that it takes, all the bumping, jostling around, the sights, scenes... thankfully not the smells :)

Join us as we started out at the clinic, and finish up in the hospital compound in Ti Guave...

Here we are, getting the Gator into position for our patient.

Steve waits outside the clinic, as the woman
gets ready inside.

We gave her a mattress, pillow, and blanket to rest on.
One of her relatives rode along with also.

Everybody is ready to go!

The road was very muddy.
Rainfall from over the last few days has soaked everything.

Thankfully Jackrabbit hill wasn't muddy at all.
The cement tracks added earlier this year make all the difference!

As we got higher, the road dried up quite a bit.
That was a blessing, but the rocks were still very bumpy.

Here's a small stream we crossed.
The man in the picture was washing his feet :)

And here's a bigger stream/river.
This one was a lot sloppier than the rest of them.

Here's another view from the river.
VERY muddy.
Thankfully the Gator made it through just fine.

Another shot from the riverbed...

Ah! Dry land again!
Here's a nice stretch of road which, for about 75', is actually paved!

Here's a look at Ti Guave from up above in the mountains...

Entering the busy city life is very energizing,
especially after being back in the mountains for weeks!

This is the entering drive of the hospital.

Anita went inside to check the patient in
and Steve backed the Gator up.

After dropping her off we had to make up a dossier for her
and give them some contact information, in case they needed further help.

With the mission completed, we headed back.

The Aleg valley... home, sweet home :)