Here are a couple more images from our last couple days of clinic........

This little boy was five days old when this picture was taken. He has spina bifida, a developmental birth defect where part of the spinal cord protrudes out of the vertebrae. He needs an operation to put the spinal cord back into his back, but even with the surgery there will likely be long-term complications. It will be a long process to try to get him to the States for surgery. Until then, he'll be needing daily dressing changes and antibiotics to prevent infection from entering in through the small spot where a skin covering has not formed yet. We're praying that the skin covering will grow fast, that area's difficult to keep from getting soiled. The baby's mom is only 19 years old and lives about an 8 hour walk from here so she and her mother-in-law are staying at a house nearby in order for us to be able to properly look after the baby.



This baby had six fingers on each hand. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be relatively common in Haiti. The sixth fingers had fingernails but fortunately they didn't have bones so it was simple enough for the physician to tie sutures at the base of the fingers so that they will eventually fall off from lack of oxygenation.

Another girl came to us with completely raw hands, which had been that way for about 2 years. Apparently it was just a severe dermatitis from soap she had been using. Hopefully if she avoids the soap her hands will get a chance to heal.


Some people waiting outside the gate to be seen by the doctor.


One of the ladies on the dental clinic team brought her yukalalie (sp?) and had a good time playing for the crowds waiting.



This is the local midwife. She delivered the baby of the lady I mentioned in my last blog, Rosemon. Rosemon would have been all alone for the labor had a neighbor not run get this lady to help. She came up to RaeLeen the week after the baby was born, hoping to be payed for delivering the baby. It turned out she had been so bad off, all she could afford to eat was salt for who knows how long.


Kenley would spend a good bit of each afternoon hanging out with us after he finished lunch at the nutritional program. A huge bright spot in my days.

The teams left yesterday morning and it's been relatively quiet around here. We referred a lot of the clinic patients to return for further treatment, so I've been following up with things on that end and have been enjoying catching up on rest a little and spending some time with the Bustin girls, helping out with homeschool. Tomorrow we will head down the mountain to spend Easter with some other missionaries in Cayes.