Hope for a Dying Child

With each medical campaign, we typically run into one story that grips your heart. During this month’s campaign, we treated baby Ángel, the nephew of Marina, the clinic’s cleaning lady. Marina knew that some American doctors were coming, and she paid for her sister’s trip by bus down from her home town. Baby Ángel is nearly 5 months old, but is the size of a small newborn. His mother lives in the jungle, a few hours from Trujillo. We are assuming because of poor nutrition in the jungle, the baby was born with a heart defect, a cleft palate, and is lactose intolerant. Because of the cleft palate, the baby is not able to take its formula, and because he is lactose intolerant and non-dairy formula is hard to find and expensive, he was rejecting any of the formula that he was getting down. When Ángel came to the clinic on Tuesday, he was gray in color, severely underweight, and his mouth and lips were very dry. Without nutrition for his little body, he had been slowly dying over the last few months. Dr. Mullins, the visiting pulmonologist, was able to see the baby and with Christ’s help, offer some hope. He taught Ángel’s mother techniques of how to feed the baby and we located and donated some formula that was safe for him to take. We gave his mother multi-vitamins to take back tot he jungle incase she or someone she knows becomes pregnant. We educated her on how to best take care of Ángel and how to get him to a healthy weight so that he may potentially receive a heart operation. She brought him back to the clinic throughout the week so that the doctor could see his progress over a few days. By the end of the week, Ángel had wonderful color in his skin, had a moist palate, and was taking his formula well without vomiting. Dr. Mullins was extremely pleased. We praised the Lord together to see that this baby may make it after all! As he still has a long way to go, please pray for baby Ángel as he is now back in the jungle. Please pray for health and strength and that he would grow up to know the Lord and his sweet mercy!