Orthopedic Surgery Week.

I am not going to lie. The therapy team waits all year for Dr. Del the orthopedic surgeon to come. From the week after he leaves we start a list of kids that need surgery the following year when he comes. This year I was overwhelmed with thankfulness as he was able to complete surgery for 18 of the outreach kids. 

I am so thankful that it worked out due to multiple reasons that I was able to spend the entire week in surgery. Being with the families and supporting them from the time they came in the door to prep for surgery, while they waited, as their children recovered to when they left. My prayer the entire week was that I and the rest of the surgery team could be the hands and feet of Jesus to them in this scary/difficult time. Each of the families were prayed for before their child headed back to surgery. I provided the families with 2 meals per day so they did not have to leave or worry about finding food and could just focus on loving on and comforting their child. It was an incredible week!

The first Sunday Dr. Del in town is always evaluation day at NWHCM for the week of surgeries. Dr. Del did 7 hours of evaluations. He is doing around 29 surgeries this week. I am thankful that 18 of the 25 kids that he evaluated for me got surgery during the week.  

DAY 1 of SURGERY

Jean Baptiste Wensly

The first sweet little boy to get surgery was Wensly. I have been doing club foot casting with him for a few months now. He was the first kid that Dr. Del taught me how to do a Achilles Tendon Tenotomy for club feet. This is where you cut the tendon allowing the foot to straighten out and Dorsiflex. We will continue doing weekly casting after his surgery cast comes off. He got to go home that afternoon. He did great with his little surgery and I am excited to see him walk hopefully 1 day soon.

Steven Kenson Louis

Steve Kenson was the second surgery. He had a radial osteotomy done secondary to falling on 2 separate occasions as a result of seizures. He broke the same arm on 2 separate occasions.  about 4 weeks ago the doctors asked me to cast his arm to help control pain and prevent further injury until Dr. Del came. So thankful that this little man will be back to using both his arms soon enough. He also saw the seizure team the day of his surgery and is on a new regiment of medication. Praying his seizures will be more controlled. 

Marc Beadlair Sam

Marc was the 3rd surgery of the day. I have been doing club foot casting on him for months without much success. He is older and therefore correcting the feet with casting is less successful. Dr. Del was able to do a double club foot surgery. It was a very long surgery around 5 hours. He was a trooper though! His parents are so precious and adore him so much! Every time I walked by them they looked at me hoping I would have an update. I intentionally tried to update them every 30 minutes. Every time I would tell them that he was doing well their faces changed to joy and relief. It was so precious when they saw him in recovery.

Lauren Jessica Nativida

Jessica is a 13 year old who has a club foot, hydrocephalus, visual impairments, and Autism. She entered the outreach waiting list about 2 months ago. The decision was made that the first surgery that we could help Jessica get was a club foot repair. The poor girl was the last surgery of the day which was hard as she was NPO all day. around 10AM she started saying how hungry she was. Her mom was absolutely AMAZING everything was extra scary for Jessica secondary to her Autism. She very easily freaked out and revert to biting out of fear. Her mom even came back to the operating room to talk her to sleep! The type of surgery Jessica had would allow her to walk on her cast after surgery. The doctors were concerned that she would refuse to walk on it but she quickly proved us all wrong and was up and walking on it within hours!  I am so excited for the sweet to walk flat footed for the first time in her life! 

The IPAD was a life saver keeping Jessica distracted all day till it was surgery time. 

DAY 2 of Surgery

Wilkenson Charles

Wilkenson is probably a familiar face to some of you. He has been in my outreach program for years and received surgery 2 years ago to have multiple tendon releases. Since that first surgery he gained the ability to walk independently without assistance. He continues to struggle with walking and would drag 1 foot really bad. Dr. Del decided to do another surgery that involved releasing a few more tendons. He did great during surgery and was able to leave the same day! He will return to surgery after he gets his casts off. Really praying that this surgery will help to walk even better!

Jean Baptiste Marc Lorenson 

This little guy had a humerus break that did not heal correctly and was limiting his function. So thankful he was able to get surgery that will allow him to fully use his arm again. 

Charles Djersy

This little guy is 6 years old and had a severe club foot that had never been treated. When he stand you can see his foot turned completely sideways. Dr. Del agreed to do the surgery knowing it was the only hope he had to correct the foot but also knowing how difficult it would be to correct at this age. Dr. Del worked for over 4 hours to get the foot in a neutral position. After he put all the pins in it was discovered that there was no blood flow returning to the toes. The blood vessels were over stretched to reach a neutral position. It was heartbreaking to watch Dr. Del take each of the 4 pins out 1:1... This little guy ended up having 2 more surgeries over the next 2 days. Each day Dr. Del want back in and slowly moved the foot towards neutral and casted. By the last surgery he was at almost neutral and the blood was flowing! PRAISE GOD! This guy has a long road to recover and a huge open wound that will take months to heal. Join me in praying against infection and praying for complete healing. 

Day 3 of Surgery

Noel Midnaika 

This sweet girl stole my heart about 8 months ago when she came to STAND. She was super small for her age, had a heart problem, bilateral club feet, arthrogryposis of the legs and microcephaly. From the day I met her I could tell that she had an amazing mother who adored her precious daughter. I felt like God told me to fight for this princess. Noel has been receiving formula as a supplement to breast milk at first and then progressed to the nutrition cereal food. She has been slowly but consistently gaining weight. She has been completing club foot casting with me for the last few months and has made good progress but needed her Achilles Tendon released. So with Dr. Del supervision and while she was under Anesthesia I performed my second set of achilles tendon club foot tenatomy's. We were able to cast her feet in a really good position after the surgery :-) So many people fell in love with this sweat pea and her family over the few days she was at the mission. She ended up spending  2 days at them mission prior to surgery. I can confidently say this family had possibly the best 2 days in a LONG time. the team took turns holding Noel and invited mom and brother to the orphanage party they were throwing. Every time I walked past the party her mother and brother were having a BLAST! The following day was Sunday and they came to Miriam Center church. I just loved watching the mom get up and dance and just praising God with all her heart. It was a joy to really get to love on this family for a few days. One evening when I walked in to say goodnight Noel's mom was deep in prayer over both of her children. It was a precious and powerful moment. 

Wilden's 

Many of you will also remember Wilden's. In the past 3 years he had 2 previous surgeries. 1 to correct his club feet and 2 to release his knees. He had a third surgery with Del during this trip to have bilateral hamstring releases at the hips and bilateral TAL releases at the ankles. Wilden's was like an old pro going back to surgery didn't cry or anything! 

Paul Frantz

Mr. Paul did not have surgery with Dr. Del but with the general surgeon Dr. Holloway. He had a small infection that needed to be taken care of. He has a super dedicated mom and has been apart of the outreach for years. He is 1 of my favorite little dudes!!! He lights up a room with his smile :-) His surgery went well and he went home the same day. 

Augustin Louisemonie

This sweat girl came to me just 2 weeks before Dr. Del came. She is 2 years old and had never received any help or casting for her club foot. It was pretty severe and she was not walking yet. She had a club foot repair and I am excited that in 6 weeks she can start standing on her 2nd cast and hopefully in a few months she will be walking! This sweet girl cries every time she sees me so it should be interesting how therapy goes... no worries we will work through the tears. 

Simeon Gary

This is 1 of my adult patients that I have been working with for the past 3 years. He came to me 1 year post a knife wound injury that cut all the nerves running below his elbow. By the time he came to me his had was severely contracted and their was very little muscle mass left. Through therapy I did progressive splinting to try to get some range back and to prevent further contractors. I did stretching, desensitization as he still had nerve pain around the injury sight, we strengthened his shoulder and elbow muscles and got full AROM back to both the shoulder and the elbow. Last year he saw dr. Del and their was nothing he could do. This year he asked me to see him again. I will be honest I said yes but inside was thinking this is pointless. So he was last on the list for Dr. Del to see. Dr. Del said he would have to think about it as it would be a long and in depth surgery and he didn't know if he had everything he needed to do the surgery even. In the end Dr. Del agreed to perform a wrist fusion which would straighten his wrist out. He also worked on his thumb and completed a thumb metacarpal osteotomy that brought his thumb out placing his in a more functional position. I don't have any pictures of Gary. 

Day 4 of Surgery

Nikaela Etinne 

This sweet girl came to me 2 STAND trips ago. She was born with Spina Bifida and had her spine closed at the hospital she was born at in the DR. She also had bilateral club feet and hydrocephalus which she still needed surgery on. I did some casting with her but was not having a lot of success. Dr. Del performed a bilateral TAL tenotamies with toes and then a right posterior ankle release. This girl has a lot of potential to possibly walk with a walker or loft crutches 1 day. I am excited to continue doing therapy with her and empowering her mom to work with her at home. 

Vincent Jeffery 

This little guys dad came Sunday all the way from Jean Rebel (3-4 hours away) without his son. Their was misunderstanding and he didn't know he had to bring him. Their was a lot of rain all week of surgery and so he did not show up again till Thursday with his son. Unfortunately at this point it was too late to do the full club foot surgery release. BUT we were able to do a Tenotomy and the family agreed to come back for each week for 8-10 weeks for me to do casting with them. I am thankful that we were able to do something and have a plan in place to help this little guy. 

DAY 5 of Surgery

Lubin Djeyson

This little guy was unable to show up the day of his surgery secondary to living in Ansepehalor and with the rain not being able to make it till Friday. Dr. Del decided to add him on the caseload friday and do the surgery and just work later than expected on the last day. The family was so relieved and thrilled. Their excitement was crushed minutes later when anesthesiology listened to his lungs and he was too sick to safely put him under for the surgery. I talked to Dr. Del about how we had been doing casting but had been stuck and not getting much more movement. We decided to do bilateral club foot Tenotomy's and I will continue doing club foot casting with him. I was so thankful that we could still help this little guy. I can't wait to get this guy standing and walking!

Nephtalie Aris

This is another sweet girl that showed up late in the week and was too late to be put on the schedule to have the full club foot surgery but we were able to do the Tenatomy and will do casting program with her to see if we can be successful in getting the feet straight without full surgery and so that she does not have to wait a whole other year to start walking. 

I have to give a huge shout out to Dr. Del who did orthopedic surgery on 18 of my outreach kids and a total of 26 surgeries this week. Many of them being major surgeries that took 4 hours or more! 
Not only did he do these life changing surgeries but he took the time to educate me and the Haitian doctors on multiple things. 
1 thing he focused on teaching me was how to do club foot tenatomies. It is one of the steps in club foot casting in which you cut the Achilles' tendon which allows for more successful casting. He taught me then let me perform 7 of them this week. It was Awsome to be able to learn and practice on kids while they were asleep as I will not have that luxury all the time. He also taught me how to be more successful in casting with some new techniques. This could save many club foot kids from needing surgery down the road 

I also want to take a minute to give a huge shout out to Dr. Jeff who is an anesthesiologist who has come on 8 trips to Haiti and assisted in performing 179 different cases! Not only that but he postponed his retirement to come on this 1 last trip AND I got to perform 1 last tenatomy for his last case. Happy Retirment Dr. Jeff. Enjoy time with your grand kids and family! We will definitely miss you in Haiti but so thankful for all you have done over the years and the countless lives you have impacted! I had the wonderful opportunity of performing a tenatomy as his last surgery ever! 

I have to give a shout out to kwen Lakay Bar Resto who has been a life saver for me this week. It has been a super busy week of surgery and 18 of the outreach kids were having surgery. I needed to provide them food but did not have time to go all over searching or trying to buy. I still can't believe there is a restaurant in St. Louis du nord haiti that not only delivers but has pizza and reasonably priced Haitian food and fresh juice. I took advantage of it for the patients but also for the Americans. They also hosted an outreach outing for us this week and last week! This restaurant has been a blessing countless times the last 6 weeks... From surprise birthday parties, to ice cream parties, to ministry opportunities and/or just needing a treat like fresh juice.

FINALLY I have to give a HUGE shout out the the entire surgery team of doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, and EVERYONE because with out each of us playing our part this week would not have happened. In total 26 orthopedic surgeries happened and 20 some general surgeries happened! We even had to emergency trauma cases come in a machete wound that would have lost his arm if Del was not here to do major orthopedic surgery to reattach muscles, bone, and nerves as well as a motorcycle accident in which Dr. Holloway stitched his head from a pretty severe gash. 

Here is 1 last story from the week that will give you all a good laugh at my expense.... 

Dr. Del- I need a cast shoe from the depot (time: 6:20PM dark outside) for the last case.

Me- I got it... I head to the creepy back orthopedic depot that has no power and is notorious for big rats.... I sing to myself the song "I am not alone...you will go before me..." As I am singing and heading the back corner where the container of cast shoes is... 2 rats jump at me! 😩😱😐 I scream.... Pull myself together and muster enough courage to keep going. Reach to the top shelf to pull the container down find a shoes and start walking back... Then hear a rat and take off running 😔...

Sorry Dr. Del next time I won't be the first to volunteer especially after dark! 😬