Thursday Thoughts and Things---- Pictures and Descriptions by Jon Hofer

   "I fell." That pretty much sums it up. And that is why when I come in with a bloody shirt, and a mangled up head, I don't really care how it happened, I just want that cut shut up.
   But unluckily, the nurses look at it different. They begin plaguing me with questions like, "When did this happen? How did you fall? How old are you? When did you eat last? And on and on....
   If my head hadn't already been hurting, I am sure it will start to now, because of these questions.
   So, sparing you all the important details, we will give you a little summary of a Thursday afternoon when Katie is on call and Rhoda stops in to visit her.

Rhoda stitching away. Your learning how to sew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good for you:)

   We were singing to the Grandma in the hospital room and having a fun time. Her little grand daughter is a joy to the soul, and we were having fun helping her sing her little heart out, when a stretcher appeared at the gate.
     Katie and I found some gloves and let our little friend to her own devices for the next five hours. Then we stared at the man with a gouged up face, and a bloody turban hat who was lying on the stretcher.

Me and Katie hard at work cleaning wounds.

     The man that came in did not seem quite normal. He hardly spoke, and seemed to have a hard time understanding us. His head was covered with a horrible crusty, yellow coating that made it extremely difficult to get anything to a satisfactory point of cleanliness. Thankfully, after awhile, our olfactory nerves stopped working so well, and we were able to get on with the poking and pricking necessary to close up the six or seven more major cuts on his face.
    Fortunately,Nate walked in to help us as we finished the stitching on that man, because meanwhile people were stopping by and wanting to get meds or have Mis Katie take a look at them.
     And then, another man seated himself outside. He had a nice long gash across the dead center of his head, and a blood soaked shirt and face. Here comes stitch job number two.The gashes were not as dirty this time, and the man did a very good job of holding his head still.
     In a couple of hours, we had the twenty-one stitches in place, and were wiping down the exam table.
     Then it was time to say good-night to the Grandma, who has been in our hospital for a week. Her stomach keeps filling up with fluid, and it is hard to see her suffering so much. She really enjoys when we sing or pray with her. Her daughters and other family do a very nice job of cleaning up after her and making the hospital a pleasant place for her to be.

This is our sweet christian lady, with her daughter and grand child! There are only 3 options for this lady, and all will end up the same way. She will die soon, it's so sad that there is really no help in all of Haiti for her, not even help to make her comfortable to the end. We need a doctor to come basically every two days to drain the fluid of her stomach and that is basically impossible to do. She is alive in Jesus and her daughter is very kind and helpful. That is the joyful part, the fact that she is ready to meet her Maker.

This little girl has been such a blessing. It's such a stark difference between a God fearing person and one who doesn't know anything but the horrible lashes of the devil.

     So,we went home, and ate mashed potatoes. After a few hours of letting them digest, we heard a knock on the gate. This time it was Anita and Whitney who breezed down to the clinic to check things out. After a few hours with that lady, they got to pose with a brand new baby girl, and welcome the week-end in with a positive note.

Whitney and Anita with the baby.

      Just a quick note before I publish this post. As we were starting supper Friday night, there was a knock on the gate, Nathan went to see what's going on, "cheers", just what we were looking forward to, another lady in labor. So Rhoda and Katie (Team B) quickly ate and went down to clinic. The baby was born around 12:30!!!!!!!          Jon

The JOY of progress...

               

 She was carried in by her father...laying limp in his arms. Her face was swollen and the skin on her entire body was flaking off like the scales of a fish. Her abdomen and extremities were swollen tight with edematous fluid and her hair was brittle and discolored...another sign of her severe protein deficiency. I saw no hint of a smile in her face. 

 We gave her a box of Herbalife protein powder and another appointment. Over the next 2 months we slowly saw a miracle happen. Every appointment she cried as I inspected her flaking skin and flaccid extremities. Slowly I saw improvement. Still no smile on her sad little face. A few weeks later however, after still another box of protein powder, I stared in amazement as a little girl bounced into the clinic. Suddenly, I recognized her. Her face was shining, her skin was smooth, her limbs were strong! And best of all she wore a beautiful smile.

Before and. . . 

After!

Eternity awaits

Yesterday afternoon/evening was very sobering and sad for us but also very exciting!

This is just a little update about the lady that we blogged about yesterday with heart failure.  As was mentioned, when she came in, she was in bad shape.  I quickly got her on oxygen in an attempt to stabilize her.  She soon calmed down significantly, and after checking a few more things out, I went home.  Mis Joselaine was on call at the clinic so I knew she'd alert me if there were any big changes.  When Mis Joselaine headed home at 5:30 she reported that all was well with our patients.  

It wasn't long after that we got a knock at the gate saying a nurse was needed at the clinic.  I was soon going to go down anyway just to do an evening check on everyone so I soon headed off.  As I walked in my first patients seemed fine, but in the back corner, I found the lady with heart failure laying on the floor with her oxygen off.  We got her back in bed and oxygen back on.  At that point what I saw alarmed me because from 3 pm - 6 pm she had worsened noticeably.  

I then came home and discussed the situation with Steve and Shana as I realized we may need to take her out.  Michael went down with me to give a second opinion.  Our conclusion was that she was indeed in very serious condition--likely have repeated heart attacks.  We wouldn't be able to find the help she needed in Ti-Goave and likely the trip to Port-au-Prince would be too stressful for her.  Even there the chance of finding any real medical treatment for her condition was pretty grim.  

After again having a little meeting with Steve, we went down to talk to the family about it.  In that short time, we again noticed that she was going down hill fast!  We also asked Bro. Claudener to come pray with her.  Michael had tried talking to her, but she was almost in and out of consciousness.  I feel God gave her a window of alertness as Bro. Claudener was able to talk with her and lead her to the Lord.  We stood around her bed and prayed, sang, and rejoiced with the angels.  One of the songs we sang was, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".  In Creole the ending lines are, "He is waiting for you with open arms, Jesus wants to give you life."  As we repeated that line, we had no idea if she had a few hours or a few days.  

Praying with the lady

The decision was made not to take her to town.  We'd let her in the hospital room over night and if she lived through the night, she'd probably go home to die.  After wrapping things up, we again headed home.  Now at about 9:30 pm the last few of us sat down for supper.  We were still eating when Nate, who was taking our second oxygen tank down to the clinic, called on the radio saying she was gasping for breath.  Michael headed back down.  I didn't feel like I was needed at the clinic so soon headed to my house.  Yes, sooner rather than later Jesus called her home!  

She was a young women of only 32 with 2 children--11 and 6.  Sometimes we don't understand, but it's comforting to know it's all in God's hands!  Days like that are very hard, but also rewarding when even on death's door, you get to tell someone of Jesus' love.  

Pray for her family and pray for us, especially clinic staff, as things like this aren't easy!  

Clinic Update

This little guys name is Jude, Versine. He was Born March 13, 2013. The grandma came in with the baby first, treating it very unkindly as if it were a toy that isn't worth anything. We couldn't do much because the mom had left the baby and went out to Port Au Prince.
Today the mom came in with him. Her face plainly show she isn't one bit interested in life anymore, she doesn't care if she lives or dies right now. All of it stems from her in-laws and husband who don't treat her good. That is why she left for Port for a month. She can't nurse the baby anymore because it's to sick and she hadn't nursed it for a month. Anita encouraged her to nurse but it didn't work. Anita then shared the gospel with her and told her she needs God. She then said she used to be a Christian but stopped. I guess discouragement from her family situation.
The baby is now on the Milk Program. And Shana and Anita will continue to work with the mom. Please pray lots for her that she would rise and shine, because Jesus is bigger then her problems.
If you feel led to sponsor this child or any other child on the milk program feel free to contact  Donovan Hostetler- Phone:1-608-475-9504
Email:gthmission@gmail.com
Mailing Address:
Gospel To Haiti PO Box 3. Richland Center WI 53581
Also check out our Nourishing the Needy Blog.

This is Boss Marks mother, we blogged about her last week, she has quite high sugar
levels and Anita's been giving her insulin for a week now to stabilise it. She has also been
working with the family on training what they need to do to keep her stable. Hopefully
tomorrow they'll be able to release her.

This lady came in this morning gasping for breath, in heart failure. Her O2 stat was 63%
instead of 100% which is where a normal persons is. Anita isn't quite sure what the cause is
as of yet.

This 53 year old lady came in with kidney failure last week on Friday. The doctor was here
and he aspirated around 93 ml of backed up fluid from her stomach with a needle. Doctor
Felix is on holidays from the hospital in Ti-Goave so he offered to come up here tomorrow.
He will drain fluid again. They are trying to stabilise everything and send her home. There
isn't much hope that she will live. But she shared that she used to be a christian but turned
her back on God. But yesterday she asked for prayer and rededicated her life to the Lord.
She is so happy today and is definitely ready to meet her Maker now.

Pulling the pieces together

Back again!

Sorry about the lack of blogs lately, but our internet was almost non-existent for a little while.  

Here is a picture I've wanted to post for a while.  This young man was brought to the clinic almost 2 years ago as a young lad of 13 y.o. with two badly broken legs.  (Some of you may remember reading about him.  His name is Ernest.)  We sent him out to a hospital that does well with bone fractures, and now he returned to the mountains and came to see us.  He walks very well, and you'd hardly know he was hurt so bad.  I clearly remember his mother didn't want him to go to town for care but wanted to take him to a "leaf" doctor.  To her I think the city and big doctors seemed scary, but for Ernest getting proper care means he can now walk and live a normal life.  

Ernest with his sister and her baby

His right knee  You can see the big scar 

Not exactly clinic, but this was taken at a recent girls' class when we celebrated Joatase's birthday.  I've been happy lately to see some more girls interested in coming and studying the Bible with us.  Also we're facing some struggles with a few of the girls.  Pray for wisdom to know how to encourage them.  

Hospital patient

Since last Fri, elderly lady has been in our hospital.  Her husband, family, and friends take very good care of her.  She has hypertension and diabetes.  We are getting her blood pressure under control, but her sugar is rather stubborn.  I'm hoping to send her home tomorrow.  It's been a pleasure serving her!  

Pepe and his wife

Cholera Case

Yesterday afternoon we had an older gentleman come in that had cholera. Glenden and Katie rushed him up to Basis hospital. Katie had started an IV on him.
We are hoping they're going to give him the care he needs cause there's as little to know good help at that hospital.

Baby's baby's and O wait.....yes! one more baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   To me personally it seems as if there's little else happening the last month at the clinic after hours and during the night except for babies being born. We haven't counted them yet but I think it's around 3 or 4 a week. I'm not sure if it ever gets old to the nurses, but maybe just maybe behind the scenes they are competing on who delivers the cutest one!!!!!!!!!

   Rhoda and Katie delivered one on Saturday afternoon, it was a bit scary for them, according to the papers the mom brought in it was around one month overdue, and it's cord was wrapped around her neck twice. But in the end all went well and it's alive and happy.

   Anita and Whitney delivered one on Sunday afternoon. The mom came in and it seemed as if things are progressing slowly and they weren't sure if they should go to the orphanage for our weekly get away, but just a bit before everyone left they baby was born.

Rhoda and Katie after a tough delivery. 

Whitney and Anita's turn.

O so cute.....