PrayUpdated: Bodies [Urgent]

Pray for Léléne Celestin today. Right now. Léléne is 25 years old, lives in Port Au Prince, but is currently undergoing life saving surgery here in Cap Haitian. Pray that the Doctors will have wisdom and she will come through free of infection.

The details: After almost a month of not doing any clinical stuff or first aid, God has brought opportunities to my doorstep to help some girls in the village. Honestly, I was not really looking for these opportunites. I am NOT advertising myself as a clinic or anything, mainly because I know if I do I will have 900 (Not an exaggeration) people at my doorstep with various maladies. Last week, while walking through the village I saw a little 10 year old girl rubbing her eyes. She removed her hands to reveal not one, but two very red, infected eyes. I found out her name, bebe love (I'm thinking this is more of a nickname than actual name.) And told her I would return with some Gentomycin for her eyes. After digging through about 6 suitcases I finally found it and was able to deliver it to her on Friday.  On Sunday, I went to go look for her in the village and see how she was doing. I came across a girl, Erline (age 18), who was limping and had some minor cuts and scrapes on her leg. I asked her what happened and if she had been cleaning it. She told me she was in a motorcycle accident, and no, she wasn't really doing anything about it. So I asked her to stop by later and I would put some bacitratin on it and clean it well. She immediately asked if she could bring her sister, Léléne, who was much worse off than she was. Expecting more cuts and scrapes I said, "Sure! Bring her! See you both later."

Here is their story:

These girls were born in this village. Erline is 18 and has a 2 year old. Léléne is 25. She is finished with school,  she has no money, and no job. She currently lives in Port Au Prince, but she was here visiting her family. The girls were fooling around with some guys and riding on their motorcycles, which led to an accident, because usually when boys show off things get dangerous.  Erline just had some cuts and scrapes, but nothing major. Léléne got hit directly with the other motorcycle. It looks like a chunk of her leg is just missing and the other parts needed lots of stitches. They went to the hospital in Limbe the day of the accident and she got some stitches there. There is a line of stitches above the main wound and a line of stitches below. The accident happened on Tuesday (so 7days ago.) On Friday they got it cleaned and dressed again. On Sunday, I saw Erline in the village walking with a limp and I asked her what happened. She told me that she had been in a moto accident and showed me her scrapes, which looked like they needed to be washed well. I told her to come  see me that afternoon and she said that her sister was much worse, so could she bring her as well? So I told her to come along with her sister.
 When they got there I saw Léléne's foot. It was very swollen and looked extremely painful. I took off the dressings and immediately knew, not only was it out of my scope of knowledge, but she needed some real help. The more I looked at it, the worse it looked. It smelled very bad, and was obviously infected. It was incredibly painful for her when I was cleaning it, and since I didn't have the right equiptment, or knowledge, or sterilization, I didn't want it to get worse. I decided to put an incredible amount of bacitracin on it and told her that I would talk to the doctor's I know and get back with her. But then as I thought about it, I realized she needed to just go to the real hospital. So I told her this is very serious and explained that she needed to go to the hospital first thing in the morning. But I was worried tha because of their money situation they wouldn't do so, but if they didn't I knew she would be indanger of losing her foot. I went and reported to Gersan what I thought and he walked up and said, "She thinks you will have to have your foot amputated."

 Immediate fear. I couldn't believe he said that straight out to her, but then he explained to me that she needed to be scared in order for her to actually take us seriously and go to the hospital. After he walked away they said, "Do you really think I need my leg amputated?!" I told her that I didn't think that she would for sure need to get it amputated, but if she didn't go to the hospital it is likely she would lose her foot. I explained to her that she had a serious infection and it could travel further up her leg and get into her blood, and that if it got into her blood she would die. So while I didn't want her to panic, I kindof did. She neede REAL help. Lots of it. I slathered bacitracin on it and we took her home for the night. Sunday morning Gersan drove her to the Good Samaritan Hospital, a Baptist hospital in Limbe. He sent her with Windel, one of the guys that works here at camp. Windel, is the sportscaster for limbe and a local celebrity, and because he was with her, the hospital took her right away. Gersan said that the hospital was very full today, but because of our local celeb affiliation they treated her immediately and gave her their attention. The doctor gave her some antibiotics for the infection as well as some pain medicine. They cleaned it and dressed the wound again and asked that we take her to the General Hospital in Cap Haitian. But by this time it was getting late and Gersan was not able to take her to Cap Haitian (which is about an hour drive).

They had spent all day at the hospital. Gersan had taken them very early in the morning and didn't pick them up until late. As I mentioned before this is a very poor family, and the reason they didnt go back to the hospital in the first place is because they have no money. They spent ALL DAY at the hospital with nothing to eat because they have no money at all. When Gersan went to pick them up tonight he gave Windel money to go buy food for them. Then Gersan took the hospital bill and drove them home for the night. She needed to be spending the night in the hospital so she could be monitored and given pain medicine, but more often than not, what you need in this country isn't what actually happens. This morning, before I even thought about being awake, Gersan took Léléne to the General Hospital in Cap Haitian and left her with enough money to pay for her hospital stay and a ride back home. tomorrow. Today, probably right now, she is undergoing surgery to remove all the dead and infected skin from the wound. They will also be taking a skin graft from her upper thigh to place on her leg to reduce scarring and help it heal.

This surgery is saving her life.

The village is very impressed with the way that we handled this situation. They had all been talking about the girl, but doing nothing because they knew the family had absolutely nothing. Gersan already held a tremendous amount of respect from the people here, but I think this guesture, really showed them a new part of his heart. And God's heart. Praise Him that we were able to help.


-Pray for the doctors
-Pray for Léléne
-Pray for her family