Heroes of the week

Last week's first hero is Osidye, one of our community leaders from Jubilee. He appeared in clinic with a long gash on his arm and another on his chest. The story is that he was walking through the neighborhood when he saw a circle of young men with a teenage girl in the middle. Knowing that the situation was trouble, he pushed through the crowd, took the girl's hand and led her out to safety. The men were all angry, probably somewhat drunk, and one of them attacked him!


The other heroes are Chris and Isaac, two of our long term tribe members, and week-long visitors, Luis and Cheryl. A woman came to clinic on Thursday after a botched home abortion. Her blood pressure was only 70/40, she was running a very high fever, and she was going into shock. I made the call and my Haitian version of 911 was answered by Isaac, who arrived in Much Ministries' white truck to rush us across town to Providence Hospital. He only ran one taptap off the road in his enthusiastic ambulance driving!


My week of recon at Providence paid off big time. Nurses and one particularly kind doctor I'd befriended were on duty and helped me get the woman admitted. Our next needs were blood so Chris, Luis, and Cheryl volunteered to come with me to the hospital's blood bank. Many people would be too afraid of the risks but those 3 were determined to do their part to keep our patient alive.


A few hours later, I was informed that the hospital had performed a D&C, removing the leftover placenta and fetal parts from the woman's uterus, an operation that I thought they couldn't do in Gonaives. Nothing short of a miracle, as far as I'm concerned! They had given her blood and strong IV antibiotics. Her temperature had dropped and her blood pressure had risen, both to normal levels. Two days later, she was home and healthy.


Thank you, heroes!