The medical clinic has been busy since the start of the new year.  As life continues to be a daily struggle for most people in Haiti, the clinic is often there only hope for any kind of medical care.

On Monday, Vanessa came to the clinic. She is 4 years old and was very sick.  Her temperature was almost 104 and she had a large abscess on her lower abdomen.  It was also quickly evident that she had another issue — the main reason her mother brought her to clinic.  But that would have to wait until she was healthier.  She was probably starting to get septic, and without aggressive treatment, her other issue would sadly become irrelevant.

With antibiotics, Ibuprofen, and rehydration she is starting to improve!  Hopefully, her abscess will close as it continues to heal and we can start some further diagnostic tests for her.

Sadly, these are not the only complications for Vanessa and her mom. 

They live in a bad area that has been taken over by gangs. They had to flee their home with only what mom could carry — while also carrying Vanessa. So now they live on the street. Just like thousands of others who have been displaced by the gang violence. 

I am looking into some other options for them so Vanessa is more-readily-accessible, especially if she will need long-term treatment and care. (The streets where they live now is not a place I could go.)

Vanessa also has a very large deformity to her spine, which has affected her chest, and makes it difficult for her to breathe when her body is not in a comfortable position.  She has difficulty standing or walking. She would never be able to run away from trouble in the streets where she lives.

Watch the blog for updates on Vanessa as her diagnostic studies are done (with hopes they will reveal the exact cause of her condition).

Loveenia came to the clinic after an accident at home.  She was trying to be a big girl and cook herself something to eat without waking her mom.  She was splashed with boiling oil when she spilled water into the oil.

She came to wound care until she was healed up.  She will hopefully have minimal scaring after she’s completely healed!

Gerlandia was only 4 days old when she is brought to the clinic.  She was delivered at home with a “midwife” and did not have proper care of her umbilical cord.  It is infected and she has a fever.  This is a dangerous condition for a neonate to be in in Haiti.

She is responding well to treatment so far and hopefully will have no long term issues from this.

Nashka was brought to clinic by her parents. When her turn came to come in, it was pretty evident that she wasn’t really sick. She was everywhere! In seconds, she made it out the back door of the clinic, past the dogs, through the rest of the building and to the back of the compound. When I caught her and brought her back, I became her jungle gym!

But unfortunately, despite her energy level, she is significantly cognitively impaired and hasn’t started to speak more then a couple words yet. Sadly, people who are different, are treated very poorly in Haiti. I praised her parents for taking such good care of her! 

Often times, to prevent disgrace on the parents, children who are different are often discarded.  I did some education with them to help them better care for her and told them they are always welcome to come back if they needed anything.

The desperation of so many people, makes things as simple as clean water and soap difficult to come by. Skin issues are very common here. 

Sadly, this is the better side of her face. Everything is a struggle. These simple things often can become very serious before treatment is obtained when it has to be paid for.

A couple weeks ago Lovenson came to the clinic.  He was the victim of a poker game gone bad with some adults. 

A large rock had been thrown at another player, but missed and struck Lovenson in the head. And he was bleeding from the ear.  Other then some swelling, he had no external trauma. There was obvious trauma in the ear canal. It was concerning to me (if the cause of the bleeding was from a skull fracture). He was sent to the ER for further evaluation and treatment. 

A skull x-ray was taken but there was no doctor to evaluate him. They told him to return to the hospital the next day. 

The next day there were many protests in the streets and, again, sadly, there were no doctors who ’d shown up at the hospital. The hospital told him to return the following week. 

On day 8, when he returned, there was no doctor, and he was, again, told to return the following week.

Clinically he had no signs of a head injury. And by this point, 15 days later, it was decided that even if a doctor showed up, an evaluation was not really necessary. 

The problem is that this wasn’t at the nightmare hospital up the road that most of my patients would use. This happened at the much-more-expensive hospital that none of my patients would ever even consider trying to go to due to cost. 

The medical system is so very broken here.

The picture above was taken the last time that I saw him — just a checkup to be sure he was fine. When he came into the clinic, I poked his tummy to make him laugh … and he smacked my hand!

I asked what was wrong, as we couldn’t end his visits like this.

He said, “I’m hungry, don’t touch me.”

Well, that was completely unacceptable! So after a snack, a treat, a pair of sunglasses, and a matchbox car, we were once again buddies!!!

It's a blessing to try to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these kids. I hope that you would pray for all of the kids I’ve written about in this post — and the thousands of others that don’t know about our clinic and who struggle with so many things in life here in Haiti.

Because of your sacrificial support of this ministry, these 12 kids and many many more know that some one really does care about them and, because of that, they have hope!! 

Thank-You!!

Until No Child Dies,

Kelby