This Little Light of Mine: Another story from the clinic of Pernier...

So, I have not been very good at adding to this blog but am going to try to catch up. I wanted to share the story from our clinic day on Tuesday of that week. I met an incredibly brave 5 yo named Rich.

About midday and break time, Yanick (our incredible clinic director) came rushing upstairs with a young boy who's mother had brought him in for a horrific burn on his thigh. He was scared (as we all were for the inital few moments) but wasn't crying which amazed me. We could only ascertain from his mother that he was burned sometime in the night. We could not get any further details. Roger and I were assessing him and began to become concerned that he had some 3rd degree level burns which may need some extensive debridement for which we did not have adequate pain managment.

As Roger bravely began the debridement of the wound and removing the melted debris, I set off to try to figure out how to transport Rich to a hospital facility. The first idea was to hail a TapTap and transport Rich. A taptap for those who don't know are the main means of transportation in Haiti. Most are old beat up pick up trucks with mismatched covers which people literally pile on. This idea frightened me but I knew the Lord would provide if this was the way to go. Blessedly, the Lord instead provided our SIFAT team members who had the truck. We carried Rich and got him settled in the truck with his Mom and one of our incredible translators.

Due to the remaining large patient load waiting and being the only physician on the team I had to stay behind at the clinic. This little boy was braver than most adults I care for. When he did become a bit tearful and frightened we sang "Jesus Loves Me" to him and he just seemed to calm. The Lord was definitely with us as cared for this little lamb.

Rich did make it to the hospital who blessedly did admit him and keep him overnight. The miracle of that is that there are no patient rights in Haiti. You can easily be turned away and you have no recourse. So I was so thankful they took him in. We did see him in wound care followup 2 days later. We were very concerned for him and the bandages were covered with dirt and debris. An unfortunate by product of the limited housing there. We got him cleaned up and sent Mom home with wound supplies.

So the next day I flew home with Rich weighing heavily on my heart.

2 weeks ago I received an incredible update! Kessy my absolutely incredible translator got one of the team nurses there to send me a picture update. Rich has been healing remarkably. Praise God to whom all blessings flow!

These are the miracles that abound in this resilient country!