Please pray for Stephanie...

Tomorrow at 5am our nurse coordinator, Stephanie Mueller, will be heading to Haiti for 14 days to do medical missions. She will be literally entering the pits of hell for a medical team. There are no supplies and medicine will be being practiced as it was 100 years ago. Here is her blog entry from her personal blog:
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Finally a plan
We are heading to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning. Flying into the Dominican Republic and renting a van to drive to PAP. Life has been more busy in the last week than I have ever had in my life. It is stressful, crazy and a lot of pressure. I am finally at a good point now. Packed supplies for team, myself, coordinated most everything I need to. I purchased hack saws and Vodka for doing amputations. Vodka for sterilizing instruments and maybe for the patient. They will be awake for the procedures. No narcotics available. It is going to be civil war style medicine. It sounds crazy and barbaric but if your limb has gangreen set in or is completely crushed what else is there to do. The amt of Haitians missing limbs will be staggering.
Im nervous, relieved to have a plan though.
Please pray and then pray some more. We should get into SantoDomingo tomorrow night and to PAP by Sat night.
I am staying for 14 days. I have not been away this long ever. Pray for the boys and Tom while Im gone too.
Steph
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Please keep her team and all of the other medical teams in your prayers!!! Pray for the people that they will be treating and pray that the love of Jesus will shine through to the people.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers!

Rebekah Hubley--Founder and Director

**Please consider making a donation through paypal today. 100% of our funds goes to helping the people of Haiti.

Denel hears Daphlene's voice for the first time...

Denel finally got to speak with his daughter, Daphlene, for the first time since Tuesday's quake. Two of Denel's sisters work at GLA,(God's Littlest Angels Orphanage) and they brought her there after retrieving her from Carrfouer. The house she was playing in fell on her and she had to be pulled out from under the rubble. It was a very emotional reunion, but it was twinged with him knowing that his fiance, Daphlene's mom, is sleeping on the streets and has nothing to eat or drink. Dixie, the director of GLA, has been able to take in some children of the staff, but she does not have the room or means to take in extended families. So, his reality of what is going on is so raw as he is warm here, clothed, and has more than enough food to eat.

***This is a disclaimer for the video: They had me translate into a microphone after I re-watched the skype. They DID NOT use the right clips with what I was translating. I am by no means an expert in Creole, but I translated great for him today, but the clips do not match up with what I was saying... :-) I just wanted to throw that out if you speak creole... I know my words do not match up with what he is saying in the clips... He really did say the things that I translated, only in different clips. lol...

Enough about that... Here is this amazing video of reuniting a family...

Denel and Witlene...

I spoke with Dixie Bickel today at GLA and she told me that Denel's house collapsed in the quake and that his daughter had to be pulled from the house. She is reported to be injured, but not badly. He is so understandably shook up! He will not believe that his fiance and his daughter are alive until he hears their voices. He was interviewed by our local stations today and you can click on it to see the report. Please use the side PayPal button to donate to our patients here in the US, and the ones that have returned to Haiti.

I got a hold of Witlene's brother today who lives in Buffalo, NY and he was able to tell me that Witlene and her family survived the quake, but their house, just off of Delmas, is completely destroyed!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please be in prayer for the people of Haiti.

PLease Pray for Haiti...

As many of you know... Haiti suffered the effects of an earthquake today with a magnitude of 7.3. Many after shocks of 5.0 and higher were felt for hours after. Here is an update from God's Littlest Angels Orphanage... (We help GLA with kids that need to go out on Medical Visas) Djemy and Jean Widler are from GLA. Sabrina also was from GLA. Here is an update from Dixie:
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NOTICE: WE ARE FINE AFTER THE 7.3 EARTHQUAKE. THE HOUSE SWAYED AND SHOOK. KNOCKED DOWN PEOPLE, KIDS, THE FOOD OFF THE STOVE FOR SUPPER, ALL OF MY GLASS WARE OUT OF THE CABINET, BUT WE ARE ALL OK! SHOOK UP A LITTLE, BUT OK! WILL POST MORE LATER! STILL HAVING AFTERSHOCKS AN HOUR AFTER THE MAIN EARTHQUAKE! PLEASE PRAY FOR US AND FOR HAITI!

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Here is a good article from Yahoo News:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."

United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.

Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.

"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.

"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.

"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated.

"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."

An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.

Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed, with people inside.

"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the phone for an update.

Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to Haiti since.

With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."

Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there.

In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.

"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.

The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered extensive damage.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."

Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.

"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire."

In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the damage.

"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help the nation recover and rebuild.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers

Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.

"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.

Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.

Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.

"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."

Yahoo News
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PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI AND HER PEOPLE!!!

Flamanda's Return Home

On December 28th I traveled to Haiti to return Flamanda to her mother. It was a long day flying back but Flamanda did great.

Her mom was super surprised. She did not know I was comming. She only knew Flamanda was comming home that week. She as you can see she is covered with mud. She had a big bucket and had been gathering mud to patch their mud hut. What a life. I cannot imagine. It was dark by the time we arrived. I left her with a few supplies and returned the next day to give her everything else we had brought for Flamanda and her brother. They live in a 10ft x 10ft sq mud box. Everything we brought filled up half her house. There was a small bed and a table, that was it. When I arrived the next day she was doing laundry in basins by hand. Again I cannot imagine. She said Flamanda had a difficult time falling asleep that night, she just kept looking around in the dark. Im sure it will take her a while to readjust to being home.
We left her mom with lots of food and formula. We hope she transitions well to Haitian food.
Thanks for all the prayers for her. It was a great honor to be a part of her journey from beginning to end. We are so thankful for Beaumont Hospital in MI and Dr. Zakalik for donating her surgery.
Steph

Georgy and His New Host Family...

This post will be short, as I have 5 minutes left of this day. But, before I go to bed I wanted you to all see Georgy with his new host family. We had him for 10 days when he first arrived and then he was transitioned to The Bearman's, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He was sad to leave our family, but was so excited to have 6 new 'siblings'. He started school the following week, and has had some rough bumps, but is getting much more accustomed to how things 'work' in America. He will be here for a long time for his treatments and surgeries, so we knew that school would be an essential piece to his life here. He is doing great and is very smart.

Today I went over to The Bearman's on our way to a family Christmas. Beth, Georgy's host mom, wanted me to quick snap some pics for their Christmas cards. I was there for about 5-10 minutes and this is what we got. They are an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL family, so it was an EASY SHOOT!!! :-)

Here are some of my favorites in random order:

Denel...

Denel is an adult here in Fort Wayne with HTH. One year ago, Novemeber 6, 2008, his life was FOREVER changed!!! Denel grew up in Jeremy and then furthered his education in Port Au Prince. He went to the University there to further his education and received a degree in accounting. Denel was one of the lucky ones: he got his degree and he was able to find a job at a bank.

He lives in Carfou with his family and a 5 year old daughter. Last year on his way from Carfou to Delmas, the car in front of his got stopped by the infamous kidnappers. Denel was riding with 2 other co-workers and he was not driving. Their car was told to stop and they did. After the kidnappers were busy with the car in front of them, the driver of his car decided to attempt to escape. (I want you all to know that there were police that witnessed everything, but they were too scared of the kidnappers to get involved. They knew that they would be killed also.) His co-worker attempted to drive away and as they were being shot at, the vehicle hit a pothole and either got stuck or it slowed them down enough for some of the shooters to get close. (I am not 100% sure on that detail.)

So, as one of the shooters got closer, he shot through the window and one of the bullets went through Denel's right temporal lobe and out the left. When the bullet exited Denel's head, it his the woman sitting next to him in the arm. Fortunately, they got away and no one was killed. Denel survived this horrific, senseless, crime and woke up 10 days later with no vision and no sense of smell. The shock of the bullet going through his temporal lobes shattered his retinas off his eyes, destroyed the muscle for the eyelid in the left eye, and destroyed the olfactory lobe and left him with no sense of smell. He tastes very little since he cannot smell. He can tell if something is very sweet, salty, or spicy.

For the past year, Denel's family have spent most of their savings finding him help. Denel's sister works for God's Littlest Angels Orphanage, where a lot of our patients are from, and that is how we got involved.

In sharing Denel's story with you, I want to ask you all to cover him in prayer!!! We have seen the first ophthalmologist about 3 weeks ago and he can do cosmetic surgery for the one eye that can not open, but the retinal specialist needed to see him to see if any sight correction could be achieved. We saw Dr. Walker, a retinal specialist yesterday and Denel was told that there was nothing that can be done to restore any eyesight.

Obviously, Denel is devastated!!! He turned 32 in August, and was in the prime of his life as a Haitian man. He had a good job and was able to provide for his girlfriend and his 5 year old daughter. Now, with the news of never regaining his sight, he is left with soooooo many questions! "How will I survive in Haiti?" "How will I provide for my family?" "Will I ever work again?"

It is one thing to go blind here as an adult. It is just as devastating, but at least there are services here to assist these patients. In Haiti, there is NOTHING!!!!!! People are not accepting of disabilities. The disabled are made fun of and are not respected. This is now his REALITY!!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE cover him in prayer! Denel is VERY INTELLIGENT and is a hard worker. He has been studying English since he arrived the end of October. Please pray that we are able to get him a job as a translator somewhere in Haiti!

Think of how blessed you are this Christmas season! Don't be focused on the 'things' that you can buy for Christmas, think of the way that same amount of money could help feed a family for more than a week. Now is the time to pay it forward to someone like Denel. Use your $ to help someone instead of buying a toy on a shelf that will more than likely break in a couple months. With HTH your $ is going to save or change someone's life FOREVER!!!

Would you consider donating to HTH today by using our Paypal button?

Thank you in advance for your continued prayers and support of Hands That Heal!

Rebekah Hubley
Founder and Director

A LOT to update...

I have a lot of updates on all of our kiddos, but one is pertinent right now!
Jean Widler is here on a US medical Visa for his strabismus (crossed eyes), but has had constant respiratory issues and ear infections since he arrived and before when he was in Haiti.

His host mom took him for a consult with an ENT (Dr. Stein) on Monday, and he scheduled surgery to remove the adenoids and to place tubes in his ears, for today. Surgery went great! They removed a lot of fluid from his ears and they are treating the infection now with antibiotic ear drops and an oral antibiotic for the thick mucus that they discovered in his lungs. He entire sinus tracks were filled with thick mucus and they were able to suction all of that out.

He is in recovery and when he is sleeping, his SATS are dropping as low as 78. NOT GOOD! The anesthesiologist is on the fence as to admit him overnight or not. Dr. Andrew Landrigan our Pediatrician for our HTH kids is going to see him after his lunch break.

Please pray that he gets to go home today and does not need to be observed overnight. Pray that his SATS come up miraculously and that they stay constant.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for HTH!!!

Flamanda

Flamanda was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. She is doing well. She is eating babyfood well but they left the feeding tube in with formula going in for extra nutrition. She has a doctor appointment with the surgeon in 2 weeks. They will decide then if she still needs the feeding tube in depending on how well she is getting fluids in. The surgeon was happy with how her head was looking. It should continue to slowly drain fluid. She can close her eyes all the way now which she couldnt do before as her eyes are not bulging out as much. The surgeon was impressed at how she tracked objects and how alert she was.Continue to pray for healing and that the drainage hole stays open.
Thanks,
HTH

Flamanda

Flamanda had her surgery yesterday. She did great with it. They were able to put in a drainage hole instead of a shunt to drain the fluid off her brain. There is a 30% chance the hole could close. In that case she will need a shunt and that is much more difficult to maintain in Haiti. Please pray the hole stays open. Pray for her mother as she is away from her and for her host family dealing with surgery and being away from family over Thanksgiving.
What a praise that we were able to get her here for surgery and that she is doing so well.
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for our kids,
HTH

Crazy Busy...

Life at our house has been 'Crazy Busy' since Georgy got here last Wednesday. I will update more in a day or so. We have learned SO MANY things about his life in Haiti, and it breaks my heart!!!! He is learning things so quickly. He is LOVING, LOVING, LOVING our shower/bathtub. He laughed hysterically the first time I showed him that the water can actually stay in the tub. :-) We will be transitioning him to a new host family in the next couple of weeks. Pray that the transition is not too stressful on him and pray that we have direction on where to place him. We have a couple options and both families are amazing!!!! We should be going this week for his first set of blood work. More later... Here is a pic from the other night... (Luca and Georgy)(Thanks Pastor Kerry!!!)



Here are 2 photos that I took the night that he arrived. He traveled with an amazing AA Ambassador, Dennis! The little boy in these 2 photos is not the same little boy just 4 days later!!! He is soooooo happy and ran around like a 'mad man' playing tag at a park today. It is amazing what love, attention, and food does to a child's spirit!!!

Georgy is here...

Georgy is sleeping now. WOW... That is all I can say. I see how we have WAY TOO MUCH through his eyes. He walked in the back door and there were little shoes scattered on the floor. He looked at me with his big eyes, and you could totally read his thoughts: "You have that many kids???" He has ONE pair of shoes... He came with one very small duffel bag. WE HAVE SO MUCH COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!!!

Georgy

Hands That Heal has a new patient coming tomorrow night from Haiti. His name is Georgy. He is 11 years old, from Angel Missions Haiti, and we have been told he is a very pleasant child. He will be seeing a urologist in Indy and having genetic counseling done. His care will be life altering for him and will require a very dedicated family with a lot of sensitivity to his emotional needs as we are not yet sure what all will be required to fix his specific needs until he arrives and testing can be done.
Rebekah and her family will be keeping Georgy for a few weeks until we can find a longer term family for him. More information will be available as he arrives.
If you are within 2 hours of the Indy area and are interested in hosting him or know someone that might be, or would like more information on him please contact either Rebekah or Stephanie.
Rebekah is also in need of clothing for Georgy. We are guessing size 8-10 slim boy, girl or neutral clothes are good, we are trying to build up supply of clothes for future kids too all sizes. Shoes and underwear are also a need. If you are in or near Ft.Wayne and can help with this please contact Rebekah.
Prayer for Rebekah's family and for Georgy's transition would be very appreciated. His case will be very delicate and we do not have a lot of details yet.
Thank you,
HTH

HTH in the news...

HTH got some PR today... Hopefully this will cause some more awareness of the need to help within our community. God always provides in mysterious ways!!!

Here is the video... (Hands That Heal interview)

Linda Jackson did a great job editing our 45 minute conversation. HTH was prominent and that was my hope! This ministry has nothing to do with me, but all to do with the people of Haiti needing help, and how God provides in the most miraculous ways!!!

Halloween...

Jean Widler had his first experience with Halloween. His host family could not have picked a better outfit for him. He is obviously seeing better, since he could see where the candy was 'hidden'. :-)
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Here is a little note from his host mom, Nancy.

Cutest little bumble bee of this year!

Notice, it didn't take long for him to figure out where the loot
is...he kept trying to climb the stairs for different angles to that
wonderful bowl of goodies that he was just a bit too short to reach!
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Jean had another eye appointment this past Friday and the doctor is having the Stanley's patch his good eye for one hour a day to start strengthening and retraining the muscle in his right eye. He does not want to do corrective surgery before he sees if the brain will retrain the muscle by itself, now that he is able to see with his glasses. By patching the good eye, his brain will be forced to work with the right eye muscle and learn to use it properly. He will go back to the eye doctor in 6 weeks to see if there was any progress made. At that time, more definite things will be decided for Jean's eye surgery. First Steps has also evaluated him and he is behind in all areas except cognition. We have always known that he was one smart cookie. He will start receiving services as soon as the therapy plan is written up.

Thank you for remembering to pray for HTH, our patients, and our AMAZING host families!

We could not do this without your support!!!

Flamanda's Doctor Appointment

Flamanda's Appointment
Flamanda had her first doctor appointment today. The doctor says from the CT done in Haiti he does not think she has much of a temporal lobe. They are going to be getting an MRI on the 5th. She had her pre-op lab work done and is doing great with her family. She is eating well and loves rocking with Papa Terry in the rocking chair. I think she is getting spoiled! They are doing a great job and their kids are loving having her with them. They say she seems very aware of what is going on around her.The doctor is going to do the procedure where a hole is drilled in the brain first to drain fluid. If in 2 days that isnt working he will place a shunt. If it seems to be working and draining fluid they will send her home to be watched for a while to make sure it continues to work. This also is dependent on what the MRI shows but that is the current plan for her.What a blessing for her to be able to receive this care.God is good!Stephanie

Photos of Flamanda

First picture of Flamanda and her mom after we got the visa, second of Flamanda in her carseat on her way to Michigan and the third is her new host mom and one of her new brothers who is also from Haiti.

Praise God Flamanda is here

Well we made it home without any problems at all. Flamanda was a great traveler and I was so blessed to have a great team with me to help carry her. Her head is very very heavy and my arms are killing me. She only cried a little on each plane. She is missing her mom and breastfeeding very much. She does take a bottle and we have found out loves baby food! Yesterday I was so tired. I drove her 4 hours up to Michigan and she decided that our saftey laws and car seats really stink. She literally cried and screamed the entire way. It was a very long drive but we made it and met up with her host family. They are very experienced and have had several children like her before. I felt so comfortable leaving her with them. They have many older children that can help too. She has her doctor appointment next wedneday for all her pre op stuff and hopefully her MRI also that day. Please continue to pray for her to adjust and her mom to adjust in Haiti to not having her there. It was very obvious how much she loves her and was emotional and hard but happy to take her from her at the airport.We are very happy to have the Swarthout family taking care of her. They will be updating us often. She called me this morning and said Flamanda slept in her crib all night and is chowing down on baby food and drinking a little better from her bottle. What a praise and blessing.

Pray for Flamanda

Please join us in praying for Flamanda. We are in need of a family in or very near Detroit. We have a doctor and hospital but need the host family. She is getting worse and her head is extremely large now. Her CT scans show that she has had or still possibly does have an infectious process in her brain. She may require a lot of care initially. I am leaving for Haiti next Tuesday and returning the 20th. We are praying for me to bring her home that day with me. If we dont find the host family soon we will be unable to get the paperwork done in time for her to get the visa.
Please pray and if anyone that reads this know of an appropriate family in or very near Detroit that might be willing to take this task on please let us know.
Thanks,
Stephanie

AFRICA...

Are you wondering why on earth I would entitle a post "AFRICA"???? Well, God has called Hands That Heal to broaden our ministry to Africa. Not something that we were looking for, quite frankly, it was a bit overwhelming at first!!! But, it was God directed, and we will follow wherever He wants our ministry to go! Our primary focus has always been Haiti, because well, I know Haiti and our Nurse Coordinator goes to Haiti every 6 months on medical mission's trips. Haiti is comfortable, familiar, close, etc...

God has spoken in a VERY CLEAR WAY, and we are just going with the flow!!! Our primary focus will still be Haiti, and probably 95% of our patients will still come from Haiti, but our advisory board has agreed to consider any patient from any country and we will go where we feel God leading. Obviously, there are sick people all over the world that need medical intervention. One small organization like us is a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. We just feel extremely blessed to be able to be such a small part of God's plan!!!!!! This is my passion, and I know that I am in the center of God's will for my life when I am doing His work for "the least of these"!

So, do you want to meet our first patient from Africa???

Meet: Kwaku Danquah


Kwaku has a congenital condition called Crouzon Syndrome. He is not missing his arm, it is just behind his back. (Here is the brief explanation that my son's Ophthalmologist gave on Kwaku.) It is a condition where the sagittal cranial suture of the skull that is not usually fused in an infant to allow for rapid growth of the skull becomes prematurely fused. The remaining sutures are not closed so the skull continues to grow and this results in the odd shape of the head. The risk it that there could be increased pressure on the brain as well. Also, this condition is sometimes part of a hereditary syndrome called Crouzon syndrome that also includes facial abnormalities like protruding eyes (exophthalmous) and/or strabismus and jaw abnormalities.

Dr. McCabe diagnosed Kwaku from his photo and I started doing research on this particular syndrome. There was a sight that had a lot of information on it, and they had before and after photos of the kids that they treated, and they were amazing. They do not even look like the same kids!!! So, there was a contact button and I e-mailed them, not knowing "who" they were, and the next day got an e-mail stating that he was being submitted to charity care immediately.

Little did I know that I had contacted the World Craniofacial Foundation and Dr. Genecov had forwarded my e-mail on. Kwaku was being submitted to Dallas City Medical, where the conjoined Egyptian twins had been separated, and Dr. Genecov was one of the main surgeons on their case. Dr. Salyer was the leading surgeon and he has now retired. Dr. Genecov studied under him for 12 years.

I was stunned!!! I had 'accidentally' contacted the best place in the world for cranial facial reconstruction, and the best place for Kwaku to have a shot at a much more normal life.

In the last couple of years, they brought a boy here from Uganda with this same condition. I will put some links below for you to go and watch his story on You Tube. It is truly amazing!!!!!!

So, where are we at in his case??? Ghana is getting his passport. We are just waiting for Dallas City Medical to accept his case and we will get all of the letters together for his Medical Visa. God is so cool and I can't believe that we get to be a part of this!!! Please keep Kwaku in your prayers and that we would here something on Monday about his case.

Here are before and after photos of another boy from Africa that they helped. (Blogger will not let me rotate the first set of pre-op pics. It is not this way in its original form.)




AMAZING TRANSFORMATION, RIGHT!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDY20BwDisU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoTMdRInf4Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGLTm2Jz8FM

Here is a link to The World Craniofacial Foundation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Alk2QIL5DY

Please take the time to watch all of these. These doctors are transforming lives and spirits!!!

Hands That Heal wants to say a special Thank You to Dr. Genecov for pursuing Kwaku and for the amazing work of WCF!!!

Rebekah Hubley
Founder and Director