The 28 weeker

Today was...interesting.  We returned to Hopital Espoir and I was anxious to check in on baby Eber, who we saw at the end of the day yesterday.  The good news is that his Mom expressed her milk and cup fed him all through the night, she says.  He looks greatly improved, from a hydration view, but I do wonder if there is an underlying neurological aspect with him.  Mama seemed happier today and that was a good thing.

While Karen (one of the MCC workers who speaks Creole) and I were visiting the "baby balcony", a Canadian Doctor and Nurse came wandering through with Dr. Gosse, the Medical Director at Hopital Espoir.  Once he heard I was a Nurse with NICU experience, he asked if I had seen the "little baby" they had.  I hadn't, so off we all went to this room off a darkened hallway where I met a wee little baby girl and her Grandmother.  I would estimate she is about 28 weeks gestation.  I believe she was just born yesterday and someone brought her to the hospital. She was lying in an old incubator with a heat light bulb stuck through the end of it to give warmth (the incubator doesn''t work).  Her temperature this morning was 33.3 degrees celcius!  It should at least be 36 degrees.  They had her dressed and wrapped in tonnes of blankets and she was in a cloth diaper that was wet and all of this was working against her getting warm.  There is a lot of opportunity for teaching because having never cared for premature babies, they don't really know what to do.  So most of my time at the hospital today was spent teaching the Nursing staff and Pediatrician about some very basic NICU things.  I found some disposable diapers and stripped her down, took off all the blankets, put her on her tummy to help her breathing and away we went!  By about 1 p.m., she had warmed up to 35.7 degrees so she is getting there!  Remarkably, she is doing really well from a respiratory stand point.  She is on no oxygen and her colour is great and other than breathing a little fast, she's quite comfortable.  I pray, pray, pray this baby will have a good story.  It's a long road and when I told the Pediatrician she would need to stay in the incubator for a few weeks,  her eyes got HUGE!  She wants to round on the baby with me every day to learn more and more.  It feels incredible to be able to offer information that is new and vitally important in this situation.

I learned more about two of the babies on the balcony.  The one is a twin, whose mother died in child birth.  She and her twin will live in an orphanage.  The other bright eyed, smiley little girl is a an orphan as well.  So, so many orphans.  The fascinating thing about "orphans" in Haiti is that many, many, many of these children have parents that are still living...they have just chosen to give them up, often times because they feel they can not care for them or provide for them.

 We took a bit of a tour today around downtown PAP and were shocked, I think, to see the extent of devestation with our own eyes. It seemed just when you thought the devestation couldn't get any worse, you would turn a corner and it was worse.  It's overwhelming and even being here, witnessing the destruction with my own eyes...it still feels surreal. Photos below....

When we got home this afternoon we thought we'd walk over to the Canadian Emabassy, which is very close by, and just register so they know we are here.  We approached the locked gate and spoke with one of the guards who told us we could not come in because "the Governess" was there.  Michaelle Jean was there! I would so love to meet this woman! but alas, I didn't have a "press pass" so wasn't allowed in ):  Oh well...and I guess we need to go back to register another day.

Tomorrow we return to Hopital Espoir and then on Thursday we will likely do a mobile clinic in one of the Tent Cities.

I am happy to report that we are getting some good times of rest in the evening.  It feels good to just be able to sit around with our team and the MCC staff and process and dialogue about the day.  MCC has a great desire for us to really learn from our time here, not just give and so they are working with us closely to enable moments for that.  It's reassuring and wonderful!

Supper bell just rang! Must go!

 This was the largest Catholic church in PAP..apparently it was beautiful.

And life goes on....