Head wound

You never know what it will be next. This lady received a nasty head gash.

Here is Mis Leda stitching her up

Mis Joselaine rechecking the wound a day or so later

More on the babies

Well, the first baby was born around 7:30 pm. It was a little boy. He was born with the cord around his neck, and it took some suctioning and stimulating to get him to breathe. Yes, I’ve delivered quite a few babies, but that is still scary. Thankfully he was soon breathing well. He weighed 8 lbs 4 ozs—pretty big for Haiti.

By that time the other lady was getting closer. It appeared that I had plenty of time to at least grab a bit to eat so I headed off for supper. We hadn’t much more than started eating when they were knocking franticly at the gate. I really didn’t think they could need me yet, but I was wrong!!!! The baby was born by the time I got there! He cried vigorously so no worry about his breathing capacity—another little boy weighing 7 lbs 3 ozs.

We got things finished up and headed back to finish our supper—around 10 pm by then.

Here is the happy little family of the first birth

Andrew and Abigail helped dress the baby

(They are brother and sister from WA. Andrew is here as mechanic.)

This is the second little guy

Abby and I with both babies!!!

Babies

Right now I have two ladies in labor at the clinic. (Michael and Virginia are out for the weekend so it's up to the Haitian nurses and I.) Last Sat was crazy with emergencies too, and this one hasn't proved a lot different. I'm expecting a call about any time again that I need to go check on the one lady. I've been running back and forth from my house to the clinic all day, but I can say that I didn't my house cleaned and my dishes washed anyway! :-)

Tomorrow Mis Leda is on call so maybe she'll get to deliver one of the babies!

Such is the life of a nurse!

Try to get some baby pics when they arrive. . .

Mis Leda at work!

This man needed an infected wound cleaned and bandaged so Mis Leda set to work

Often times we only put the "big" things on the blog, but normal clinic work consists of many small jobs--dressing small wounds, treating someone's cold, or even talking to a worried mother about her baby's health.

Our desire is to do it with Jesus' love flowing from our lives!

Update on rock injury patients

Just a shot of our head pharmacist at work!

The man who had the rock injury on his head is doing very well! When he returned for his check-up, we were happy to see that the injury didn't affect him mentally as it could have from the magnitude of the hit.

The little girl who was also injured from a rock is doing well too! She was back several times this week. From the force of the rock hitting her, it was a bruise as well as a cut, but it's looking great!

It's also been interesting because we realized that the girl's parents were both through our cholera treatment center. We made so many friends at the CTC, and it's fun to see them come back through the clinic.

Remember those rocks??

Right on the heals of the little girl with rock injuries came a man with a large cut on his head... caused by (you guessed it) a rock!

Apparently he had been in his garden, sharpening his sepid (a curved tool, used for lightly tilling the ground and chopping weeds- similar to a small scythe) when a large rock came tumbling down the hill. It came crashing down onto the back of his head, knocking him out, and splitting the scalp open.

When he came, he was still pretty out of it, but as he rested, he began to come to, and could speak better.

The stitch job took just a little longer than an hour, from cleaning the wound to the last stitch.

The cleft rock...

Depending where you live in the States, it may seem strange to have people coming into a hospital with deep wounds caused by falling rocks. Down here in Haiti it is pretty rare when we don't have patients coming in with serious injuries caused by either a rock falling on them, or they falling on a rock!

Yesterday we had such a case: an eight year old little girl was carried from 3 hours away, having several bad scrapes and cuts on her foot and ankle. Her parents told us she was on a hill, when a large rock tumbled down, heading straight for her. Right before it hit, it must have clashed into another rock, because it split in half, dividing in two before it hit her; only her ankle was injured, suffered large cuts. 

The family was very thankful that she wasn't killed, but there was a lot of work to be done on her foot. She was very brave, but was in a lot of pain, so she cried frequently. 

The whole operation took almost 2 hours, and was very tedious!

When they came, it was lightly wrapped in a white cloth,

with a lot of dirt and grime all over her foot.

The father was out working when the incident happened,

so as soon as he heard about it, he headed this way.

Apparently this was some friend or relation that brought her in, along with the mother.

Once they got here, Mis Anita began unwrapping the bandage, and started to clean it out.

Ah, yes, a very nice gash there, don't you think?

Thankfully, no bones were broken... it was just a really nasty set of gashes!

At first the poor little girl was very scared and cried a lot.

Once the majority of the cleaning was done, she was able to relax a little...

After washing it out really well, Anita had to pick bits of dirt and gravel out...

Once she finished up, the job was handed over to Michael...

Inside, Michael was preparing his stitching equipment.

They brought the girl in and had her lay on the operation table.

He had to clean up the edges in a few places, but once that was done he was able to begin.

Once the local anesthetic began to work she was even smiling and grinning at us :)

A job well done!

Her foot was still very scraped up, but at least now it will heal well!

She will be coming back in a few days for a checkup...

Please pray for the family, that they would see the light of Jesus and be saved!