When earthly efforts are not enough....

Originally written September 21, 2017

Sometimes earthly efforts are not enough….

Yesterday was a tough day in so many ways. It was a day that started with difficulties...with feelings of not doing things “the right way” or “good enough” (this is for another post). It was a day that quickly led into a medical emergency. A precious mama came into clinic with her 2-year-old daughter. I watched from afar as the security guard requested she sit on a bench and then began looking for Megan. After a couple minutes, I saw what looked like a black eye on the daughter. I walked over to kind of just see what was going on…I realized quickly this was a case for medical care. I quickly recruited Dr. Alicia as Junie was busy with pre-natal clinic. I told Alicia that I would be around if she needed anything and she said she was not sure what this was and asked me to go into the exam room with her and the patient…so I stayed for moral support per her request. The little girl had intense blisters and sores on her eye, tongue, back, abdomen, and one forming on her thigh and a few places on her face. Her breathing was labored and she had diarrhea. We quickly realized she needed to be referred to a hospital. We got it arranged to send her to our #1 referring hospital. Upon arrival, she got turned away for “being too severe” from what we were told. They referred her to another hospital. She was taken there. That hospital did not have any available beds. So off they went to another hospital…and yes, turned away there as well because once again, no open beds. We were frantically searching for a place to send her - - the hospital we wanted to send her to next was very far away and a logistical nightmare to get her there safely. Through a few suggestions and 6 hours later, we got her admitted at a hospital in Port-au-Prince. She was immediately placed on oxygen and began the road to recovery…

...or so we thought….

Today…today….we received the news that she passed away this afternoon. Initially we could not get the answers that we needed…actually the answers that we wanted. We were all trying to process the events of yesterday as we questioned if we handled matters appropriately. If we went through the proper steps to get this little girl the help that she needed. Of course, intellectually we knew that we did what we could with the resources we had at the time, BUT sometimes our flesh, our hearts take over and we question our actions. As the day went on, we finally got information that we desperately needed (or again, wanted). The events that led to her death are as follows - she was at the hospital, on oxygen, receiving the care she needed. The nurse (or nurses) stepped out of the room to retrieve a NG tube to insert in order to safely provide her food and medication. While the nurses were gone, the mother got up and tried to give her daughter some milk. When she did, her daughter aspirated causing asphyxiation. This little girl did not have any special needs and was typically able to eat and drink without difficulty; however the illness she had contracted caused difficulty with breathing and swallowing. 

So there we sat…processing that information…

Her precious mama truly did not know that she could not give her daughter milk. She saw that her daughter was upset and hungry and she wanted to feed her daughter. We are left to ask how long the nurses left the room for - was it really just a couple of minutes? Or longer? We are left to wonder if the mom had been educated on her daughter’s difficulty with swallowing and advised not to feed her. We are left to wonder and assume a lot of things. But we cannot get stuck in the viscous cycle of “what if’s” and “what could have beens”. Being in that cycle solves and helps nothing. 

It’s easy here to jump to “if we were in the states, then…..”. But we cannot let ourselves go there. We can process that and we can be thankful by the fact that we were fortunate (blessed) to have been born in the United States where there is accessibility to so much more healthcare, better healthcare than Haiti. But we cannot get stuck there. Haiti is not the states and we cannot compare the two (especially in regards to health care).  

The bottom line, fact of the matter is, Jesus is everywhere. He is in the US….and He is in Haiti. Situational matters do not change that fact. God was here yesterday and today and he will be tomorrow and all the days to follow. God loves us all just the same. And He has a plan for each and every one of us. Many things occur that we will never understand in this lifetime - such as a precious little child passing away - but we have to maintain our faith and find peace and hope in His promises and His promises alone. 

And tonight, that is where I am resting, in His Word. In His promises. 

***i do not mean to disclose the sensitive details of this precious little one’s death; however awareness must be raised as this is the reality of the health care system in Haiti. Poor to no education for the parents. Poor accessibility to needed healthcare due to fear of cases or lack of beds. It is a reality here on a daily basis….but it is a sad, hard reality. Education and awareness is key. The hard stuff has to be exposed and opened for discussion.