This is five year old Cebencio. His mother brought him here this morning to see what we could do for him. Look closely at the photos. Cebencio has two fused fingers on his right hand and three fused fingers on his left. His father is deceased and his mother does odd jobs for food. Cebencio has four brothers and sisters. I have no idea what all is involved to separate the fingers and our Haitian doctor was unable to shed any light on the subject. Your help is appreciated in finding out more about this condition, the operation and ways to get this done. Thanks very much.
http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/hw019.htm
ReplyDeleteBased on this, the correction isn't exactly just a matter of snipping skin. And the condition can be symptomatic of other conditions
http://www.wellness.com/reference/conditions/apert-syndrome/
I wish this little boy well.
My son had two fused fingers on his right hand. It's called 'syndactyly.' There is a video about the surgery on You Tube (http://youtu.be/VTBM0omzQ7M).He had his surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston. They have info on their site at this page: http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1036/mainpageS1036P1.html
ReplyDeleteThe condition is called syndactyly.
ReplyDeleteI sent an email to Silvia Ernst of Hopital Albert Schweitzer(north of Port-au-Prince, East of Saint-Marc, which I understand is quite a ways away from Pwoje Espwa. She replied telling me that they have a plastic surgeon coming in October who could probably do the operation, but needs more info and pictures to decide definitely. She did not know about cost yet because of this.
Her email is sernst@hashaiti.org
Contact her if you would like to pursue this avenue further.
If I can be of any more help my email is jjhaefner@wi.rr.com
Hi father Marc,
ReplyDeletePretty common condition called syndactylism of fingers. Operation best done by a hand surgeon. Question is how functional are Cebencio's hands ? If ok most hand surgeons may say wait until he gets bigger and more fully grown for a better outcome long term. If they are not very functional might try sooner but may need another surgery in the future. Most kids I have seen do fairly well with condition.Also nice to know if there are bones in the digits, If so good & if no bones then you can't do a whole lot for now but who knows about metal fingers and joints in the future. Does anyone we know have anything to do with Shriners here in US ? they could do it gratis if he could come here just thinking out loud....jerry n.
Father Marc,
ReplyDeleteI’m not a medical person, so I don’t know what would be involved in helping this little guy, but I have heard of a hospital that might be worth contacting: Haiti Adventist Hospital in Carrefour, Port-au-Prince. The director is Dr. Terry Dietrich. The hospital has a website/blog (www.haitibones.org) which provides a link to contact them.
I hope this is helpful.
Peace,
Janet
PS -- is there any news of the three brothers who were injured in the truck accident a while back? I've been praying for them . . .