Sad news...

     On Friday the triplets' mom came again. She had two babies with her so we asked where the third one was. She said he died on Monday. He was the smallest of the three and was quite malnourished. That is probably what he died from. She had the biggest one of the three with her this time too and I see now why she hadn't ever brought him before. He is big and healthy! I am still worried about the little girl though. A huge thank you to everyone who donated money for milk for these babies! Mirlene told the mom that some of my friends had given money to help her and that made her really smile. We aren't going to give her the money but rather told her she needs to return to the clinic as soon as the milk she has is finished and we will give her more. That way we know the money is being used for formula. She was a very happy mom when she left that day.
     I forgot to write earlier about the child who was born on the road while his mom was on the way to the clinic. This lady has mental problems. She has had one child in the past who died at 7 months of age from cholera. She is probably about 22 years old. She was working for a family, helping cook etc... She slept in their outside kitchen. One night the father of the house raped her. He is probably in his 60's at least. So now she has been living with her parents in a rented room. It is a very sad situation. Anyway, her dad came to the clinic saying she was in labor. We told him to go back home and get her and bring her to the clinic. He went but on the way back the baby was born and fell in the muddy road. Of course it was dark too. So they went back to their house and Trevor drove Mirlene and I and April there in the ambulance. Just try to imagine the scene for a few minutes. Chilly outside, and muddy. We were all wearing boots. It was dark. Someone led us around the least muddy side of the house with their flashlight. We came to a small room that was lit by a burning branch a young boy was holding. It was crowded full of people. There were only two chairs. The lady who had just given birth was sitting in one of them and her mom was holding the baby in the other. The baby was wrapped up in somebody's furry house robe so he was warm but he had a big muddy place on his head and other foreign debris on his body, leaves, dirt, etc...They hadn't cut the cord yet so the placenta is on the dirt floor under another piece of cloth. We had brought clothes and a diaper with us. Also gloves and a scissors. We cut the cord first then we tried to clean the baby off a little before we got him dressed. The mud was dry on his head so the part that didn't rub off stayed. We encouraged the family that the baby needed to nurse that night yet. Amazingly, the mom sat calmly on her chair the whole time we were there. We also told the grandma that she needed to bring the baby to the clinic the next day for us to check him out a little better. She brought him in the next morning. He was still wearing the diaper we had put on him the previous evening and the same clothes. The diaper was cloth of course so was pretty nasty. We did have warm water at the clinic that day so I decided this baby needed a real bath. The family hadn't had hot water so hadn't even washed his face. I gave him a good bath and got him some more clean clothes. They said he was nursing well.

Now that baby is probably a little over two weeks old. One day the mothers dad came to the clinic and said the baby's mom had run off in the night and he couldn't find her and they had no milk for the baby so we gave him a little bit of formula and some water to mix it in. Who knows where the water comes from that they drink. He was back the next day too for some medicine for the baby's mom. She had come back. We have given him some diazepam periodically for her so sent a couple more pills home with him. Ok, enough on that.
     This past week has been very busy at the clinic. There have been many patients every day. One man who came in on Friday had a cyst between his eyes. He had been to several hospitals already but hadn't gotten any help. I numbed it up and cut into it. It was a different kind of cyst than I've ever seen before but I drained it and then the whole sac the cyst had been growing in came out to so I don't think it will come back. He was very happy also. I didn't even have to stitch the incision because it was so superficial. I just covered it with steri-strips and he was finished.  One other thing that has happened this week- we had a nurse practitioner here who was testing women for cervical cancer. She was at the clinic Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It did slow us down a little bit because she was using one of our exam rooms but is a very good thing.
     On Tuesday a patient showed up with a large mass on his back. It was warm like as if maybe it was some type of abscess. I stuck a needle into it.... And got out 100cc of pus! We put him on big doses of antibiotics and he came back on Friday. It was big again so I drained it a second time. I got 50cc of nasty stuff out this time.  I am afraid this man will need this thing to be surgically drained but Fridays aren't good days to send patients to the hospital if you have any other options. Some of the hospitals don't want to accept patients in the evenings or on weekends. So he is supposed to return on Monday. If his back is no better we will send him down to a hospital.
   

Twins... And a piece of bone...

    Last Thursday Keith and Candace left for a week to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. In the afternoon, after the clinic was closed we were called back for a lady in labor. While we were checking her out a pickup pulls up with another patient in the back. This is a lady who is trying to have twins. Actually she had had one of them at about 10:00 that morning and now it is almost 5:00 pm. They haven't cut the cord yet, I'm not sure why, but the baby is warm and breathing well. The other baby has been stuck with one arm out all the way to the shoulder, for hours... The arm is a dark purple. Mom is exhausted. I didn't think that baby would be able to be born without a c-section but we called Githane to come see what she thought. We were unable to reposition the baby but somehow it was born. I'm still not sure how. If I hadn't been there I wouldn't believe it was possible for a baby to be born with one arm out then the rest of the baby's body then his head last, but it happened. The second baby was dead. We were all relieved that they didn't have to go down to the hospital. We gave the mom several antibiotics and some IVF's. It turned out the first lady we were called to the clinic for actually wasn't ready to have her baby quite yet so we sent her back home. Finally we get the other patient on her way home too so I came home and showered. I had just finished when we heard that a kamyon had tipped over and there were people injured so we headed back to the clinic. There were actually only two people injured this time. One man saw they were tipping over so he jumped off the truck. He had a very obvious fracture to his leg/ankle. The other lady had a head injury. We splinted the man's leg and then sent them both down to Port in the ambulance. We were so thankful we hadn't had to send it down an hour or two earlier with the twins' mom. The ambulance was almost ready to leave when someone says we have another patient from the same wreck. He supposedly hurt his back and can't walk. The true story is... He was on the truck earlier that tipped over but wasn't seriously injured. He lives close to Port and just wants to get home. We gladly piled him in the back of the ambulance too and away they went. This time when we went home for the evening we stayed home.
     On Friday a young boy came in with a sore to his left ankle. He didn't complain about it hurting just said it was a wound that had a lot of drainage. I started cleaning it ... And found something hard in the middle of the wound. It almost looked like a piece of bone. I pulled...and out came a splinter of bone about two inches long and half an inch wide.

Apparently sometime a long time ago he hurt his leg and now the piece of bone had worked itself out causing an abscess. The child couldn't even remember when the earlier injury might have occurred.

Does anyone have $20 a week that is burning a hole in your pocket?

 

 This picture is two of the triplets. They are six months old now and mom no longer has breast milk. I only have a picture of two of them because two is all she can carry at one time. That is, she holds both of them while riding on a moto to get to the clinic. These two are the thinnest of the three. They are suffering from malnutrition. The little boy already has swollen feet and legs from the lack of protein in his diet. The babies' Dad died so Mom has very little help and no way to make a living. She has asked us if we know of anywhere she could work to make some money so she can buy food for her children. She is from quite a ways away and we don't know of a suitable job at this time. We estimate it would cost about $20 a week per baby to buy formula for them. We don't want the mom to start feeding them food yet as they are already malnourished and we are afraid the food they would get would be rice, which doesn't have protein in it.
       P.S. I fear I am turning into a true Haitian- ask every white person you ever meet for money or a gift- but I do feel sorry for these babies!

Update- Here's the third triplet!

Family visits...

    We had a good weekend with the orphanage girls even though it was short. It didn't really suit for them to come until Saturday morning so April and I went to Foret ( market) on moto. Trevor and Mirlene dropped the girls off in Foret then we ate lunch together there at the little restaurant we try to visit every Saturday for lunch. We can get a big plate of rice, beans, and chicken for about $2. Then we all took moto back to Oriani. In the afternoon the unit boys from Savann Mouton met us in a clearing in the forest and we rigged up a volleyball net and played several games of volleyball.  We took the ambulance to hold up our half of the net. It has a rack on top so we had a lovely ride in the warm sunshine on top of the ambulance.
   Sunday morning was time change. I thought I had the time all figured out and didn't think I had made breakfast early until I sat down at the table and realized it was only 6:30 instead of 7:30. We ate then anyway then just had a longer morning.
     Wednesday Craig's and Amy came. April and I got to go down with Keith to pick them up. It was the first time since April came that she was able to go back down and the first time she really got to see the road down and the scenery since when she came up it was dark. We went first to get medicine for the clinic. While Keith was getting meds April and I went shopping in the iron market. We got some souvenirs and each got a wooden press to make fried plantains. Traffic was bad in Port that day so we didn't get groceries or lunch until after we picked up Craig's at the airport. That was ok though as they hadn't had lunch yet either. We stopped and got chicken, rice and sauce for lunch. Then headed to the grocery store and stopped in at Sallie's house for a few minutes before heading back up the mountain.
    Thursday and Friday we were just here at the clinic and around the house. Thursday is market day in Orianie so we explored there a bit also. Saturday morning we went to Foret market then on to the beach at Grand Gosier. It was a beautiful day! Only found a few shells but had an enjoyable time in the ocean then in the cold springs afterward. It can get chilly up here in Orianie but is always warm down by the ocean. On the way back home we stopped in Thiottes for supper.
    Sunday afternoon in was cloudy and raining off and on then we got a call that there was a lady in labor on her way to the clinic. It was her first baby so I was afraid we might be there for hours waiting on the baby but I think we were only there about 2 1/2 hours in all so she did very well. Keith took Craig's down to Ganthier this morning. They wanted to see the orphanage then were going to spend night with Lyndsey's uncle Virgil and Delma. They are in charge of the orphanage but don't live in Haiti year around. Then tomorrow morning they won't have to leave so early to get to the airport for their flight back to NC.
   A big thank-you to everyone who sent supplies for the clinic or chocolate for me! It is greatly appreciated!