Living saints

The Missionaries of Charity (Mother Theresa's community) came to our aid last week when we were at a loss to care for Jean-Wilson who was suffering terribly. He had trouble breathing, was alternately hot and cold, had spasms in his back, legs and chest. It had been three weeks like this. Brought him to LaCharite, their place here in town, and they immediately rallied to help. They called their Cuban pediatrician and got him out of bed. Doctor Raphael took a look at Jean-Will and asked us to bring him pronto to the General Hospital and find a bed in pediatrics. After many tests, the results came in. Jean-Will had advanced typhoid so treatment was started at once. The sisters stayed with us all morning and provided all the meds he would need. While there we saw three abandoned newborns-- one had extreme hydrocephalus so Sr. Guadalupe asked about her and was told that nothing was being done for her. No nursing, no medicine, no history, no name, no paperwork, no family. Sister decided to take her back to LaCharite-- to the relief of the nurses. I baptized the baby with Jean-Will's water from his bottle. The child, now called Agatha, will surely die soon but she'll die in the arms of people who care.
While at the hospital I found out that there's a long list of people waiting for surgery. Trouble is there's no anesthesia for any general surgery so folks are waiting and waiting. What is ironic is that we have a medical team coming to visit and we have had a heck of a time with the bureaucratic Haitian Ministry of Health giving us permission to bring in donated, valuable medicine. We are still uncertain that we'll get permission and the team is coming in two days.
Just another frustrating day in Haiti.