Essential Medications Arrive at GLA

At GLA, we are blessed to receive many medications for our children. Often, these are donated by people overseas, and brought to us by the volunteers and adoptive families who visit the orphanage. These visitors keep us well stocked with many of the medications we use every day. For example, in the year I have worked here, we have never had to purchase a bottle of Infant Tylenol (paracetamol syrup) or a tube of antibiotic ointment. We really appreciate this - a tube of triple antibiotic cream can be bought for $1 (US) in North America; we would pay $10 or more for a similar product in Haiti!

However, donors are not able to keep us supplied with all of the medications that we need for our children. In these cases, Jean Bell, a former Registered Nurse who now works at the GLA USA office, does her best to purchase the drugs we need at a discounted price.

When Dixie Bickel, Director of God's Littlest Angels, returned from Colorado on Friday, she carried with her, many useful medications. The little lady on the left ("Ti Fi") will benefit from a heart medication called Digoxin. Jean was able to source this drug in syrup form. This is very fortunate for Ti Fi, since digoxin is only available in pill form in Haiti and it would be impossible to measure an accurate dose of this drug, to a baby, using adult pills. There is a very fine line between a dose of Digoxin that will successfully treat her heart condition and one that would be toxic, so it was vital that we find some paediatric syrup for our baby.

Now it is in our hands, and we are hopeful that Ti Fi will soon enjoy a better quality of life. At the moment, she is often breathless and she gets tired when she sucks from a bottle. Her heart works so hard, all the time, that she needs to drink high calorie milk formula in order to gain weight.

Ti Fi will need to to take her medication twice a day. She really doesn't like medicine, and so she will purse her lips together and shake her head. It will take coaxing from two of the NICU staff to get her to open her mouth and swallow her medicine. Afterwards,we will cheer and give her a high-five, and she will smile, and she will forgive us, until next time.....

Donate to GLA, so that we can continue to provide medications and other essential supplies to our children.