Today I will write about some of the patients we have had lately. The first baby I helped deliver here didn't turn out so well. The baby was born with some facial deformities and was only gasping for breath once every few minutes. We have one suction machine at the clinic thanks to Ken and Laura from St Mary's so I used it and got a lot of stuff out but the baby still wouldn't breathe or cry. The baby had a heart rate of about 60 to start out with but that improved to 100 and then 130. We were giving the baby oxygen and still trying to suction out the airway. We had already turned the suction machine off and were going to give the baby to the mom to hold until she died when she took a breath and gave a weak cry. This was at least 20 minutes after she had been born. She did revive but I don't know how long she lived. The family was from a long ways away and the baby was alive when they left for home but hadn't been able to nurse yet. I'm sure if she lives she will have brain damage though from lack of oxygen because I could feel her heart rate but couldn't ever locate a heartbeat from her fontanel. There wasn't a dad present just some other family members to walk home with the mom.
      Another sad case was a 23 month old little boy who weighed 16 lbs and was so weak from malnourishment he couldn't even sit up anymore. He didn't even want the pedialyte when we tried to give him some and refused to take a lollipop but by the time we sent him home with some food, vitamins, and pedialyte he had perked up a little bit. We told the mom to come back when the food was gone and we would give her some more so we'll see... This mother had come to the clinic with some other women, one had sores on her legs and another one had two malnourished children with her. Between them they had a mule but they also had probably a six hour walk one way.

     I saw a 68 yr old man the other day who had never been to a clinic or doctor in his whole life.
      Then today we had a 9 month old with vomiting and diarrhea. Mom said he couldn't keep anything down. We gave him some pedialyte and in less than two minutes he was throwing it all up. This child is in the beginning stages of malnutrition. I gave him a suppository to help decrease vomiting and twenty minutes later we tried some pedialyte again. This came up just as fast. Then mom said he was having diarrhea. We checked his diaper and found a wiggling worm at least six inches long.... So that was his problem... But we couldn't give him any dewormer yet because he couldn't keep anything down. Before lunch I started an IV on him and Jitan ( our Haitian nurse) kept an eye on him while I ran home for lunch. When I returned he was doing ok just hadn't tried to drink anything yet, so we tried again. It all came up right away again but he was looking a little bit better from the IV fluids. So I tried another medicine for nausea. This one seemed to work so he went home with a bunch of meds after having spent most of the day in the clinic. Hopefully he will be able to keep the de-wormer down by tonight because that's what he really needs.
      Another patient I saw today threatened to kill me, but he is only three years old and had multiple abscesses all over his head so by the time we were finished with him I really didn't blame him. We had to squeeze pus out of at least 10 different places on his head.  We sent him home with an antibiotic and two extra lollipops because we had to do such painful things to him... Hopefully the antibiotic will take care of the abscesses so they don't spread anywhere else.
    Then I had a two month old with scabies and infected places on his legs and feet from the scabies. I  cleaned him all up and wrapped both legs with gauze up to his knees to help keep the antibiotic ointment on him. He also went home with antibiotics and cream to treat the scabies with.