Updates

I have some sad news about my little 5 year old patient Survivor. He passed away on Saturday morning in a local hospital here. I did get to spend about an hour and a half with him at the hospital on Friday afternoon so I'm very grateful that I got to see him.

Survivor had Burkitts lymphoma and had been receiving chemotherapy. He had his final chemo treatment a week ago Friday. When we saw him last Tuesday, he was up and about but not feeling very well. Then on Friday morning, his family called and said he still didn't feel well and so I told them to take him to the local children's hospital (run by Doctors Without Borders and it's free). When I arrived Friday afternoon to check on him, he was awake but very weak and jaundiced. They were giving him IV fluids as well as blood. We prayed over him for quite awhile and just talked and sang to him.

His family will bury him today (Sunday) and we will visit them Monday afternoon. He was a beautiful, shy little boy. He'd sit on my lap but I could never get him to talk. His mom says he talked all the time but he wouldn't ever talk around us. Survivor's father just passed away in October so his mother, siblings and extended family are really hurting so please pray for them.

Here are a couple of photos of Survivor.
Survivor (r) and his older brother Promise (l)
Having fun on the ship.

















I also have some photos from our screening courtesy of our communications team. I never heard a final count as to how many people came to the stadium but there were easily over a thousand people.

The line of people waiting and hopeful that we could help them.
Nurses (in blue) taking health histories and vital signs.
The United Nations and the local Liberian police were on hand to keep order. Thankfully, it was very orderly chaos at the stadium.

Entertaining the kids. Some of these children waited with their families for up to 15 hours.

More kids entertainment (jumproping). We had singing, face painting, coloring and balloons.

A little one getting her vital signs taken.
Since we do orthopedic surgeries, there were many kids with bowlegs.
Getting a physical examination by nurse anesthestist John (a fellow Iowan from Carroll)




Making friends and showing the love of Christ.



Father and daughter.
Results of inadequate healthcare. Her foot is fused to her leg due to burns she suffered.

The prayer team (I'm in the far background in blue). I was on the team who prayed for those we weren't able to help medically.

The golden ticket. He is holding a green surgery card.