More from Carole and the Jesus Healing Center...

December 2, 2009

 

Dear Friends,

Carole is very busy in the Jesus Healing Center tending to so many difficult situations.  Today, before we update you on little Falinda, you are going to meet other malnourished children who need our help.  Please pray for all these children, their families and our work here in Haiti.  We need your support, encouragement, and especially, your prayers.

Below you will read a report from Carole Stufflebeam, our Love A Child nurse.  She is sharing about several malnourished children in great need.  The Jesus Healing Center staff is working around the clock to give these little Haitian children a chance to live.

Carole's Report...

At 10:00 this morning I was making trip number 100 down the corridor of the clinic when I  stopped right in front of a child.  I said, "this can't be possible, how can this child still be alive and be this malnourished."   This is 13 month old, 7 pound Toussaint.  The picture is blurry as he is scratching continually because of a bad case of scabies.  His mother says he was doing well and nursing well when he started to itch and her mother told her it was because of the milk, he was allergic to it.

This took place  4 months ago.  When she stopped nursing he would not eat or drink milk, we hear this a lot, but the mother was no longer producing  breast milk so he declined rapidly.

 

After a complete physical, lab work and a bath, he was given his medicine and put to bed, he is a very tired weak baby.

It will be along time before we will see him out of this critical level of care, they are so very fragile at this stage.  He has a cough that sounds as though he has a swimming pool for lungs, and we are waiting to see his lab work, as he is showing signs that he is VERY anemic.

Tonight he is sleeping with his bed elevated and clapping (pounding on the back in the lung area to loosen the mucous) is being performed every 2 hours and fluids introduced too.

I should have called this report double trouble.  We were working with Falinda and Toussaint, when all of a sudden I looked up to see Falinda's mother standing there with another baby that looked just like Falinda.

This is her twin Brother Falindo, it turned out he was not at the house when I was there.  I thought OH LORD, two of them!  This baby could hardly breath, and he was so tired he could not keep his eyes open.  He would whine, his eyes would shut and he would drop his head.

After a physical, we started his medicine.  He and Falinda have awful coughs.  Falindo has kwashiorkor malnutrition while Falinda has marasmus.  Marasmus and kwashiorkor are two types of severe malnutrition.  Marasmus is a dry malnutrition caused from not eating much of anything.  When a child has kwashiorkor, he or she eats enough, but it is all carbohydrates with no protein or vegetables. 

 

Falinda has marasmus, the typical dry malnutrition, where she is withering away to nothing and has totally lost the desire to eat or continue.  Falindo has kwashiorkor malnutrition, he is eating, but only carbohydrates.  His face, feet and legs are at the beginning stages of swelling and filling with fluid.  These are often thought to be cute fat babies.         

Also, Falindo is showing signs of low blood and an enlarged liver, we will get his lab work first thing in the morning.  We will have to make a 1 1/2 hour trip to a children's hospital tomorrow to get chest x-rays, because the babies have such bad loose coughs and their mother has a VERY active case of tuberculous.  They have such poor immune systems right now, that the PPD test done on the arm will not record accurately.

Now for Falinda...

She has not declined, but neither has she improved.  We have worked all day to get her to drink, but she shows no desire to do anything, either eat or drink, at least not to any quantity.  When the children are this sick you don't have to ask the staff to help, they are there from all departments. This evening after supper, (all the staff was gone except those who reside there) Dr. Mardy came in and it was decided she needed a feeding tube.

Though she doesn't like Dr. Mardy very well right now, she will some day.  As I said, this is a VERY fragile time for children in this condition. The staff has a lot to do as these babies must be fed every two hours and in between given water, clapping and sit in an infant seat for 1 hour.  At this point, if they sleep too much they could die from pneumonia. Please pray for all these children and all the staff it takes to care for babies in this condition.  They need compassionate hearts to be with such critical children.

 

Blessings to you all,

 

Carole
 

The Jesus Healing Center is 100% funded by Hand of Hope - Joyce Meyer Ministries.  We are so thankful for their help.  Blessings, Bobby and Sherry