Loving the Least of These

Back in December I posted a picture of a little girl, Sarahi, living in one of the communities here that we visit quite often. She was very malnourished and dirty. She lives with her family of 7, and they struggle everyday to survive. We visited the family a couple more times before I went home in January. While I was home I simply couldn't get her sweet little face out of my head. My friend Valerie had a dream about this little girl almost two years ago and in her dream the baby was very sick and looked exactly like this little girl. Ok, so now lets fast forward to last wednesday. Valerie had put some money in my account to help this family with food early this week so wednesday we loaded up lots of food and showed up at the house to find the baby laying in a bed all alone and in a complete daze. Her papi was outside working on some things around the house. When I walked in to see the baby I quickly noticed that she was more sick then than I'd ever seen her. Dangerously sick. She was laying in a pile on her own urine and had lice crawling all over her. Old food crums surrounded her fragile little body, and she had a bad chest cough. She smelled horrible. Partly from the urine and partly from the skin that was rotting off of her bottom half. We grabbed some baby wipes from the car and cleaned her up a little bit. The longer we stood there it became more and more clear that we had to do something to get her out of there or else she would certainly die. We talked to the dad and asked him if he'd let us take her to hospital and he said ' how could I not?' So we scooped her up and drove to the hospital and got her in to see Dr. Vallejo, the pediatrician. He examined her and said that she wasn't dehydrated but that she was very malnourished and had lice, and parasites and bronchitis. They weighed her and she weighed 12 lbs. and she's 12 months old. Her sizes were that of a 6 month old baby. He ended up sending her home with lots of medicines. Her dad allowed her to stay with me that night because she had to go back to the hospital in the morning for blood tests. So we came home gave her what was probably the first bath she's ever had. Treated her hair for lice and gave her the medicines. She fell asleep in my bed and around 3 AM woke up hungry so I fed her and within minutes she pooped and it went all over my bed. The diaper was full of parasites. So I went down stairs with her to the kitchen to get some towels to clean her up and then she proceeded to vomit all over me, her, and the kitchen floor. So we finally got all of that cleaned up, she went back to sleep and I changed the bed sheets and jumped in the shower. She was awake again by 6:30 and after we took the boys to school we took her to get the blood test done. Her veins were so tiny that it made it very hard to get the needle in the right place. But they finally got it and we left. Over the course of the following few hours her condition worsened. She couldn't keep anything down. She was vomiting and had really bad diarrhea. She began to get really dehydrated. So early afternoon we called her mom and she met up with us to take her back to the hospital. At this point I thought she was going to die in my lap. She had been sleeping all day, and was clearly not doing well at all. When we picked up her mom she wanted to take her to see a witch doctor in the community first. Which frustrated the fire out of me because we were literally on a race against time for the baby's life. But she took her anyways and this witch lady poured raw eggs all over her body and said that a spot showed up in the center of the yoke which told her that the baby was sick. So she told her mom, Martina, that her baby was very malnourished and needed help. Which was what we were all trying to tell her in the first place. She got back in the van and we went back to the hospital. This time the doctor looked at her and saw that she was dehydrated and decided to admit her to the hospital. The mom didn't want to stay with her in the hospital because she has 4 other children at home that she needed to take care of so I stayed with her in the hospital for two days. The first night the doctor came in to check on her and told me that he was glad we brought her back to the hospital because if we hadn't he said that she would have without a doubt died. He also showed me the results of her tests and Rota Virus came back positive. Which helped explain all the diarrhea and vomiting, though it was partly due to the parasites as well. So the doctor left and she had fallen asleep and I was laying on the couch half asleep when I heard her moving and trying to cough so i jumped up to go sit her up in the bed and when I looked at her she looked like she was choking on something. So I ran to sit her up as quickly as possible and as soon as she sat up an 8 INCH worm flew out of her mouth. That's right, 8 inches long, white and squirming around on the blanket it landed on. I freaked and screamed for the nurse and she came in and when she saw it she jumped backwards and went to get another nurse. She came in picked it up and threw it in the toilet. Which was great, because I was not about to touch it. After laughing at how freaked out I was she informed me that this was completely normal and that she probably had a few of them and that this was the very reason she was so malnourished because that worm was eating everything that came into her stomach. She finally went back to sleep and I did too. Though, the nurses were in and out of the room all night checking on her. The next morning she was looking better. The IV was certainly helping. She wasn't throwing up anymore which was good and she was even eating some mashed potatoes and a few other things. She did well the whole day and that night the doctor came in to check on her and said that she'd be released the next morning around 11 because she was doing so much better. She was sitting up eating and drinking lots and her face and especially eyes looked much better. So the next morning her mom and dad showed up at the hospital to visit and talk to the doctor. He had one of his nurses write up a paper for the parents to sign to allow the baby to stay with me until March 4th because she is still needing injections and they wouldn't know how to do it or administer all the medications she is on. They agreed that this was best so they signed the paper and went on their way. After paying the hospital bill they finally let us go and we came back to the house. She's been with me since she got out. By the end of all of it the doctors said she had- lice, parasites/worms, bronchitis, malnourished, rota virus, and asthma. So needless to say she's been a sick little girl. But she's a fighter and she continues to get better each day. She has another appointment with the pediatrician on Wednesday to check to see how she is and if all is well she will go back with her parents after the appointment. The past two days she's been eating a lot more and moving around more. She can crawl a little bit and take a few steps if you hold on to her hands. She not talking yet though. She's clearly behind developmentally. But when she starts feeling better she'll start to do more of the things normal little girls would do. And I can't wait for the day that she starts smiling and running around playing like a normal little girl. I covet your prayers over this sweet baby. She's become quite close to my heart. The hospital bills totaled around $700. If you'd like to help with that please let me know, I'd greatly appreciate and Sarahi would too. :) Thanks for playing a part in her rescue. She certainly deserves a chance to live life, and so from a voice who will never be able to tell you, THANK YOU!

Wednesday when we found her.

first night. treating her hair for lice

bath time

:)

waiting to get the blood test done.

she was so skinny that you could see everything in her stomach. the doctor said that this is the lining of her intestines that you can see in the picture.

first night in the hospital. 

she's so cute.  :)

precious sleeping baby..

car ride home after she was released from the hospital

Mario being sweet and reading to her when we got home. she loved it.

he LOVES playing with her and helping take care of her.

:) so sweet.