In Septemeber 2008, I traveled 6000 miles to Haiti's Kenscoff mountains. My mission: to care for some of the orphaned and abandoned, the sick, malnourished and premature infants of this beautiful but beleagured Caribbean nation.





Thursday 17 March 2011

An Update on Kervens

By Tuesday morning, Kervens was receiving very small feeds of breast-milk, He was having difficulty keeping keeping his blood sugar up and and his heart rate was slow and irregular. These can be ominous signs. Often, the are are herald s of death in severely malnourished children. Yet I felt absolutely no sense of panic.

Kerven's body had been rigid and unconscious just 12 hours before, and now, his tiny fists had unclenched and his limbs were relaxed. It felt as miraculous as it was beautiful.

We continued to add extra sugar and electrolytes to Kervens feeds, to replenish those that his body lacked. Over the course of the day, the twig-limbed, elfin baby became increasingly more stable. By 5pm, he was alert, awake and moving around in his incubator. He was digesting his breast milk.

Soon, he was crying ever hour for feeds. It was wonderful to see signs of hunger: this told us that Kervens damaged organs were processing the nutrients in his milk and his body was healing.

He has gained 10 ounces in 3 days. Please continue to pray. He is severely anemic and he has a congenital malformation that affects his chest wall and causes breathing difficulties. The next 10 days will be critical for him. For now, I have a perfect peace that comes from knowing that we are doing all we can. The rest is up to God.

'Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them' (Psalm 139:16)

2 comments:

Einstein's Brain said...

I hope and pray the baby gets better!

Jane Blannin-Bruleigh said...

Continuing to pray for Kervens, Sonia, Ken and the other babies, children and staff, blessings,
Jane