Bianca

There was a hint of desperation in the nurse's voice. She was calling from the Samaritan's purse clinic in Site Soleil. A 3lb baby had presented at the clinic in a critical condition. We had a crib for the baby, but she was breast-fed, and we didn't have a bed for the baby's mother. If you could only see this baby, you wouldn't say no. I deliberated with Dixie Bickel, and with Mme Bernard, our head Haitian nurse. We decided that we would make it work.

The baby arrived, wrapped in blankets, with her face covered. The moment I unwrapped her, I knew that this baby would certainly have died if we had said, 'no' to her: Bianca is 2 months old and she is desiccated, emaciated and puffy-faced with fluid collections in her hands, feet, and liver. She has now entered the swollen stage of protein-energy malnutrition. There is a faint odour of decay about her. Oh, lord, have mercy!

Bianca is hypothermic, and her heart-rate is dropping. Very few infants under the age of 3 months survive protein-energy malnutrition, and the signs we are seeing point towards Bianca's imminent, and almost certain death. Deep within me, though, I sense that this is not the time to surrender.

Please pray for this tiny, extremely fragile infant. Over the next few days, I will attempt to stabilize her. She doesn't need to make drastic improvements during this stabilization phase, she just needs to survive it.