We did our best! (Dixie's Latest Post)

I believe this is worth sharing…  it is Dixie's latest post.  It brings tears to my eyes over what this family was faced with.  As I work through my own pregnancy and fears, I think about this mother and am so thankful for having the resources we do.  How painful. 

And "thank you" to Dixie and the GLA staff for doing what you do for these precious little ones and their families... 

Feed: And Life In Haiti Goes On
Posted on: Thursday, May 19, 2011 7:43 PM
Author: Dixie
Subject: We did our best!

She only weighed 1.3 pounds about 500 grams.  She didn't look even that big!  The uncle who came with her said she was 5 months gestation.  This was mother's third baby and she had delivered twins previously that were tiny and one died before they could reach a doctor.  She lived in a very isolated area called Nouvelle Terrain and they had walked out of the mountains for 2 1/2 hours before they found a motorcycle to put the mother on.  I do not know how long it then took them to get to the hospital.  They arrived at the hospital but the doctor told the mother that her cervix was closed and not soft and there was nothing they could do.  The doctor gave her some medication to help soften up the cervix and told the father and uncle to take her about 17 miles away into Port-au-Prince.  She made it to the parking lot of the hospital and delivered before she could even find a vehicle to take her to the other hospital! When the baby was born, everyone thought it was still born.  They left it laying in the parking lot and carried the mother back into the hospital.  But someone saw the baby breathing and scooped it up and took it into the hospital too.  She was so tiny that the hospital staff said there was nothing that they could do.  Molly and Joyce happened to be outside of the hospital with a group of volunteers and put the uncle and baby in the car and brought them to the orphanage.  We had the incubator on high already and had CPAP set up.  We did not know how little she was.  She stopped breathing just before they arrived at the house. We breathed for her and did everything we could, but she just was not mature enough to survive.  I say that in one sentence but Susan, Mme Bernard, Bernadette, and I worked on her for a couple of hours before her little heart just stopped beating. She didn't even have a name yet.  I hate it when we don't even have time to give them names!  I think in my mind I will call her "ANGEL", because that is what she is right now.  Giving her a name means validating her short time on this earth.  Every baby in this world deserves us to do our best for it.  Sister Immaculla  at the Missionaries of Charity told me once, "Dixie, we do our very best and God does the rest!"  God doesn't always save every baby that comes our way, but God expects us to do our very best in caring for the child.  We know we did our very best for Angel!

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