Baby ER... another baby that couldn't breathe,

Last night there was another lady in labor at the clinic.

When the baby was born, it was not breathing, so we had to do CPR and oxygen on it.

It was a little girl!

Steve, Anita, Thea, and Virginia all are gathered around;

Steve was operating the oxygen mask, Anita was checking vitals,

Thea was supporting the baby's head, and Virginia was about to clip the heartbeat/o2 sensor on.

The poor little girl looked very uncomfortable!

But we knew that she wouldn't make it without the oxygen and stimulation...

As time went by, she began to make some noises, and soon quiet squeaks could be heard!

We were very excited, because that meant she was breathing!

Thea or Anita were frequently checking her heart and lungs with the stethoscope.

Pastor Darwin and Pastor Levy were there for much of the time,

praying and singing out in the hallway.

Here, Anita prepares the blow-by oxygen mask.

As you can see on the vitals monitor (to the left) her o2 level was at 88, which was pretty good.

The second number was her heartbeat; for a newborn,

142 beats per minutes is within the normal range.

Another shot.... Occasionally the o2 levels would drop into the 70's, but we never

saw anything as bad as the last case, where the baby's o2 was often in the fifties

and sixties.

But under the watchful eye of the nurses, all was cared for.

Here she is, under the blow-by oxygen mask...

Far into the night, and into the early hours of the morning,

we took turns holding the mask and keeping watch.

As of this morning, the baby was off the oxygen, and got her to eat a little, and by this afternoon, she was eating well.

Please pray for the baby's strength, and that it would continue to nurse well.

God bless you, thanks for supporting the work down here!

The boy with the lacerated lip...

The other night I was going into the generator room to do a few things when one of the ladies called out from Steve's front porch. They said that I should get my camera.

It was getting dark, so I couldn't really see what was going on up there on the porch. However, not asking any questions, I went into the house to get the camera. Proceeding to the porch at Steve's house, I found Anita, Thea, and Shana inspecting a little boy...

The little boy had a bad cut on his upper lip, apparently from a fall.

So, after some deliberation, they decided to stitch it up!

Anita agreed to do the stitching, so they got right to it!

The little guy was very brave...

He hardly flinched, and didn't even cry.

He seemed very interested in the camera... :)

Finally the last stitches went in. In all, he had 5 in his upper lip!

Though he hardly flinched at all durning the entire procedure, he still looked relieved to be done!

All finished! It all turned out very well. They went on their way joyfully :)

A normal day at the Clinic!

People wait their turn outside, sitting on the wooden benches.

As they are called inside, the patients have their
blood pressure and weight charted.

It's very VERY hard work... :)
Fre Direk takes a snooze towards the end of the day.

This dear lady asked to have her picture taken.
She was just so thrilled when she saw it :)

Inside one of the exam rooms,
Thea gives a consultation.

After hearing the patient's issues, she checks her over
and prescribes medicine.

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.