Another Interesting Weekend

We left early Saturday morning for Canillá, not knowing that one of us would shortly be back. Our first patient in clinic Saturday morning was a 17 year old girl, pregnant with her first baby. By all accounts, she was only 32 weeks along (two months shy of "full term"). Her baby was also breech (butt down, not head down, as normal). She was also in full, active labor and nearly completely dilated.

About thirty minutes later, Heidi safely delivered the baby and handed it off to Leslie and Katie, who were already set to take care of a sick, tiny baby. Good thing, too. The baby was small (less than five pounds) and not breathing well. Leslie and Katie got the baby stabilized and we quickly loaded Mom, Baby, Grandma, and Grandpa in the truck for a high-speed run to the hospital in Quiché. (This included mounting an oxygen tank in the back of the truck for Leslie to use to keep the baby breathing well.)

We got to the hospital and everything seemed like it was going to turn out okay. We got the baby into the hands of a pediatrician and Mom into the hands of the woman's health area (she was still bleeding just a little bit). All of the hospital's ventilators were in use and they couldn't tell us what they were going to be able to do for the baby, but we left them here and we pray that they were able to get the care they needed. We'll try to check on them today or tomorrow.

By the time Matt and Leslie got back from Quiché, it was 4pm. Heidi and Katie had finished clinic and most of the work for the day was done.

Today was clinic in San Andres. Nothing too spectacular, except as we were closing up and cleaning up, a woman showed up with her son and had his face wrapped in a towel. On unwrapping his face, we saw that he had a horribly infected molar that had one entire side of his face swollen so bad he could barely open his mouth! We gave antibiotics to treat the infection and some pain meds. Most of the country will shut down in the next day or so for Semana Santa (Holy Week), so hopefully he'll be able to take the medicine. Please keep him in your prayers.

Today is 24 weeks for Baby Boy Bell. Just thought you'd like a reminder!

Tomorrow we're in clinic at Nueva Santa Catarina, then we take the rest of the week off for Semana Santa. (No one would show up to clinic, anyway.) We'll spend a few days in Antigua to see all the festivities there and we hope to have some cool pictures to show.