Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2022 — from all of those who have benefited from the ministry of Kelby’s Kids through your generosity and support during this last year!!

Rouselore came to the maternity clinic for the first time on August 18th.

Her mother brought her to the clinic. We all could tell she was a little embarrassed and did not want to say too much. 

We learned that Rouselore was cognitively impaired, and functioned at the level of about a 12-year-old, even though she is 28. A man had taken advantage of her condition and she had gotten pregnant. Mom said that she doesn’t let her go out alone very much because she believes whatever people tell her. (People in Haiti who are disabled in any way are very often ostracized.)

She had some problems with some premature labor and I was concerned that the baby would not survive. 

The clinic was able to help her.

It was so heartwarming when she walked into her last appointment before Christmas break — with her baby.

All the other mama’s started clapping. 

They’ve never done that before. 

It was encouraging to see the other ladies supporting her, despite the fact that she is a little different!

The baby was only 1 day old! 

She wanted to be sure to see me, and show me her son, before I left for the states. So she made the trip just 1 day after delivering. The baby didn’t even have a name yet, but he was almost 5 pounds, and seemed very healthy. 

Without the clinic, I believe momma would have delivered at 20 weeks, and she would have died.

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Just before leaving for my Christmas break, I was encouraged by a visit with some of my past-patients. They said, “when are you coming home, your family needs to see you!” 

Haiti is often difficult and frustrating. So, it’s good to be reminded of the good things that slip into the past, and get buried under all the daily struggles.

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I got to visit Ashana and Doodly; cousins. I took care of Ashana’s mama before I had my own maternity clinic. 

You may remember I initially introduced you to Doodly on August 26th 2019. Ashana’s mom had talked me into helping her Aunt deliver Doodly at home.  Before Doodly was born, mamas placenta detached. When he delivered, he wasn’t breathing. and his heart rate was at 20 or less.

I love the look Doodly is giving me in the photo! 

It took a long time (and bribing him with presents) for him to allow me to stand next to him. By the way he reacts to me, you’d think his chest still hurts from the life-saving CPR I had to give him — and he wants to keep his distance.

I remind him that I did for him what I have not done for anyone else in my 31 years of practicing medicine (he is the only patient I have actually done mouth to mouth on during CPR)!  Maybe some day he will like me and want me to hold him!!

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I would like to introduce you to Anne. She is 19 years old, and I have been working with her. You would never know she is sick by looking at her. iIn this picture below, though, she is a very sick girl.

It started out as doing a favor for my translator. She is his friend. We gave her medicine because she couldn’t afford any herself.

I was under the impression that she probably had Hepatitis and had gotten cirrhosis of the liver.  The medicine helped prevent her belly from getting bigger (ascites), and she needed to get it drained (paracentesis). She had had some bad experiences getting her abdomen drained at the city hospital. 

Her medication costs about $10,000.00 HTG a month (about $100 USD). And that amount is more than 2 months of wage for many Haitians. 

Anne would stop by the clinic every month or two and get her medicine.  Things were going well. And she was doing fine for some time.

This summer, while I was in Michigan she was not feeling well. And went to another clinic. They put her on a bunch of different medicines that made her very sick. 

She came to see me after I returned and we stopped all of the new medicines. After talking with her further I discovered that she has never actually been diagnosed. All of her treatment in the approximately 4 years she has been having issues was just treatment of her symptoms (as is very common in Haiti). 

The last clinic put her on a bunch of cardiac medicines because of her symptoms. I was worried what they may have done to her heart, so I did an EKG on her. (She assured me that she had never had one of these before. So, with no EKG, no blood work, and no other related tests, they put her on heart and cholesterol medicine.)

It was by far the worst EKG I have seen in years. She said that she couldn’t do anything physical without getting very sick, like she was going to pass out. I left the EKG on and took her for a brisk walk. It took her less than 20 seconds to feel sick. I did a second EKG and her heart rate went up to 280 beats per minute with 20 seconds of exertion.

I got her into the program with Haiti Cardiac Alliance.  Just before I left for Christmas, we had taken her as far as is possible in all of Haiti’s medical system.  We know she has a very bad heart with at least 4 separate abnormalities/defects. The extent of her heart condition is causing her liver to produce fluid which creates her ascites in her abdomen. Haiti doesn’t have the technology to provide her with a definitive diagnosis. I have helped her apply for an emergency passport which she should have before the end of the year. Then we can get her a Visa to the Dominican Republic for further testing as well as a cardiac catherization. 

She will certainly need open-heart surgery as well. But one step at a time. This is the main purpose of Haiti Cardiac alliance, getting kids to other countries for heart surgeries, but they do not cover all costs. I have no idea how much all of this will cost in the end.

When she asked me if she was going to die, I told her I would do everything I could to keep that from happening. Please be praying for Anne that the paperwork will go through quickly and that we will be able to make progress before she deteriorates more. 

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When Raymond came into the clinic, I first noticed his shirt and thought it was ironic that he would most likely never touch snow.  Raymond is a victim of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the southern peninsula of Haiti on August 14th. His mother had brought him to Port-au-Prince for medical care and kind of got lost in the system. She was looking for help for some tests and medicine.

Raymond’s house collapsed and he was buried under a concrete wall from the earthquake.  It took a while to dig him out. 

He had a significant head injury, a skull fracture, and an orbit fracture (around your eye).  He was laughing and playing in the clinic and doing very well.  Other than the scars you would never know what he had been through. 

His mom needed money for a CT scan of his head — to see if the blood was gone. I explained to her that even if there was a little bit of blood left, that they shouldn’t do anything for it.  He was acting very normal and trying to remove it would cause way more harm than good. It was just an attempt to make money. 

She showed me a prescription for his seizure medicine.  I thought he may be having seizures as a result of the head injury. After questioning all about the seizures he was having, it was obvious that he was having night terrors from the earthquake, and from being trapped under the wall. 

I helped her understand what was happening and how she could support him through that. I told her that it seemed that he was doing well and they could probably return to their family.  She said that she had nothing to go back to and thought she would just stay in Port-au-Prince.  I gave her a little bit of money to help her out and they left, hopefully to put the earthquake behind them and move forward with their future.

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An update on Woodline. 

If you missed the last blog post Woodline and Naika were homeless and living in the market behind the clinic while Woodline was pregnant. We got her into an organization to help provider her with food and housing. I agreed to pay for her to deliver in the hospital, so it wouldn’t be an additional burden to the organization. They let me know she was in the hospital and was unable to deliver and needed a C-section.  I wasn’t there so couldn’t say she didn’t.  So, they did a C-section almost 3 weeks early and the baby has been having trouble and is still in the hospital.  I later found out that when she got to the hospital, she told them a white guy was paying for all of this. So, they saw dollar signs — and started doing anything they could to bill her, even at the detriment of her and the baby. I don’t believe she was even in labor at that time.

After getting to this organization, they started sending me messages that she was crazy and was doing crazy things at night. I didn’t know what she was doing in the market at night. After working with her I found out why she disappeared from the maternity clinic for a while.  She said I had a good life, my husband loved me and I had a nice house (when she started maternity clinic). She disappeared for almost 2 months then returned and said that she was homeless. 

She said that she watched a group of men chop her husband up with Machetes. So she is struggling with significant trauma and PTSD. Then his family kicked her and Naika out of their house and took it over, putting them out on the street. I went back to the market to get a few things she had left and confirmed this with the ladies in the market. She was doing better as she got more comfortable with where she was. I think maybe she believed that she needed to have the baby but the hospital obviously didn’t use any clinical judgment before the C-section.

With all the scamming in Haiti and the world it’s very difficult to send money to Haiti now. I left a bunch of money but didn’t know it would be so much.  Woodline has been discharged, but baby Widley is still in the hospital. They won’t discharge him until the bill is paid in full.  Last I knew we were up to $165,000.00 HTG  (about $1,600.00 USD)  Hopefully we can get this resolved soon.  Nothing is ever easy with the medical system in Haiti.    

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I know this was a long post but I wanted you to know that despite covid and all the crazy things going on in Haiti these days, that people are still being loved and cared for and that hearts are being changed because of the crucial part you play in making all of this come to be, through the ministry of Kelby’s Kids. I am beyond blessed to be your representative in Haiti to the least of these.

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Please keep all of these in this post as well as the many other patients in your prayers. Please continue to pray for Haiti and the many issues that bring day to day struggles for many in Haiti.  If you are considering year end contributions, would you consider Kelby’s Kids to help some of the patients in this blog.

Thank-You again!

Praying God’s richest blessings on you all in 2022!

Until No Child Dies,

Kelby