News from yesterday

I guess I kind of left you all hanging after the last post so here is some more info…The girl with measles is just fine; she was on the tail end of it so we treated accordingly. The baby with total malnutrition was brought here this morning at the urging of the doctors and was accompanies to the hospital by our Haitian midwife Marie. This case has been particularly hard for us to watch as it unfolds as this sweet little girl has her cards stacked against her at such a young age. Her mother passed away and we saw her first a month or so ago when her sister brought her in for care. She was 7 months old but appeared the size of a 3 month old, unable to hold her head up and edematous due to malnutrition. She was surviving on cookies, sugar and water and her father was not interested in having her in the picture so her 20 year old sister stepped up to the plate and began to care for her. We gave her some formula and instructed on re-feeding procedures. When she returned a few weeks later (she was supposed to come back the following week) the baby had lost another pound. We questioned the sister intensely about whether or not the formula was going to the baby or somewhere else (we are concerned that it might be being sold on the street). Unfortunately the sister’s stories at each visit are riddled with inconsistencies which make it hard for us to know what to believe. We sent her home on the second visit with more formula, instructions to go to the hospital for blood work as we were concerned about the weight loss even with re-feeding, money for a tap tap and instructions to please come back to the clinic once the results were in.

We also reiterated the severity of the situation and that this baby will die without any intervention.

Third visit, she came back and the baby had lost another 6 oz.  Damn.

Initially the sister had said, yes, the child had been taken to the hospital and had blood work done which all came back normal but when questioned more thoroughly it came out that she had not taken her. Damn again.

 After much consideration and a very thorough talking to by the docs, a midwife and our amazing Dietician it was decided that sister and baby would come back today and be escorted to the hospital by Marie so we could make sure things were taken care of. She showed up this morning albeit almost 2 hours late and off they went.

This is one tough case and it is even harder as there is a sweet little baby in the middle of it all who is just trying to survive in the world. I will keep you all posted on her progress.