Milot update

A lot has changed since I last wrote about what has been going on out at Milot Hospital. We are still going out there to work twice a week, Monday and Wednesday. The tent hospital, which when they first opened it after the earthquake had about 400 patients, is now down to around 40 patients. Most of them are amputees who have their prosthetics and are still there getting physical therapy. There are a couple patients who are still waiting to have surgery to remove their external fixators before they can leave. There are not as many teams of medical personnel coming in anymore, and not as frequent. Altogether, it is a lot quieter and it gives us more time to sit and talk with patients and get to know them better. It has really been encouraging to see the physical, emotional, and spiritual change/growth in the patients since we first started working out there. The overall moral is much better and everyone has become like family to one other. From time to time the pain of all they've lost brings about discouragement, sadness, and feelings of hopelessness...but there are always people around them who have gone through similar things to try to help support and lift them up.


Adorable little Judeline. She left about 3 weeks ago to go back to Port.

Margaret is a double amputee and Julie is working with her to help build core strength and get ready for her prosthetic legs.
Getting ready for a dance party!

This is Olguine and she has a nonunion fracture in her right tibia The dr. re-broke it so they would be able to lengthen her tibia with this device you see here called a ilizarov frame(what they call it in the UK). I have been xraying her on Monday every week since she got it on, and she is still at Milot waiting for it to heal enough so she can get it removed. It is looking much better and should be ready to come off in September.
Exercise class!
The row of tentsDove just left last week to go back home to Port.
Yveline's sister Nadege Jackson is a 14 year old boy who came into the clinic a few weeks ago after he had a seizure and fell into a fire. He was just approved last week to be transferred to Boston in the states for ongoing treatment. While he was in Milot they did a few skin grafts from his thighs to his chest and arm, but he is going to needs months and months of daily physical therapy and rehabilitation. He will have a much better chance of having a better recovery and of
getting the help he needs to relax the skin around his right eye so that it will pull back enough for
him to be able to see again out of it.

Joseph is a 20 year old double amputee from Port who is still staying in Milot and walking daily by himself with either this cane or a crutch. He has worked harder than any other patient and has put so much effort into strengthening his body to be able to walk on his own. It is really amazing to see how far he has come in the past few months, and what a great attitude he has in the midst of the circumstances.

Two week old baby boy named Jeffrey. He is really one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. Every day I am there I am able to sit and hold him for awhile. Most of the time he just sleeps, but we caught him one day with his eyes open.

This is Yveline. She lost her husband and her 2 children in the earthquake. Her physical injuries(along with the unfathomable emotional pain) were a right humeral head fracture and olecrenon fracture. When I first met her in Milot, she was really depressed and many times I saw her she would be crying or just looking really down. She is a Christian, and the transformation she's gone through since she first came has been huge. She has made some friends and her right arm is healing well. She still has good and bad times and it is going to take her awhile to completely grieve and heal from her loss. Also some of her stress and worry was attributed the the fact that she didn't know what she was going to do after she left the hospital. She didn't want to go back to Port because she said it would remind her too much of her family and just as well because she didn't have a house to go back to anyways. Her sister who was in Milot for awhile is going to live in the Dominican and Yveline doesn't have a visa to go live with her there. Juile had an idea to ask and see if we could use some money from OMS's disaster relief account to help her find a house for the next year, try and start some sort of business or way to make money, and just help her get on her feet again. Dave said that he thought it was a great idea and exactly what that relief money was there for. She has been going to a church in Milot and has made friends there, so she had told us before that if she could choose, she would like to stay in Milot. We were both excited to tell her that all of our prayers had been answered and the Lord had provided a way for her to stay in Milot and have a chance to begin rebuilding her life there. She is still checking on houses and prices, but the money is there for her when she decides.

I'm not sure how much longer Julie and I are going to be needed out there, but we feel that God has had us there for such a time as this, to hopefully be a good example of the love of Jesus to these people with our actions and through our prayers. If you would be praying for these people that I've mentioned and the many more that I haven't, for their return journey back to their "homes" in Port. Pray for them emotionally as they go back for the first time since the earthquake, physically as they try to adapt with their new body parts and/or ones that wont ever be like they were before, and spiritually that they will continue to cling to God for their strength, peace, and joy.