MIRACLE! (please read previous post first)

Miguel and God decided he NO longer would like a breathing tube and he pulled it out with a quick jerk of his head. So.....we prepared. His heart rate went down to 60 and his oxygen level down to 50s-60s. This was the end. Sandy was present and we had all just had a long talk about what to "do". There are so many issues down here. He was not doing well. We found blood in his stomach and stool. He was not improving. Then you have to think about the family. They walked 6 hours from the mountains to get him help. They left their 3 other children at their home in the care of their pastor. If he dies, he must be burried in 24 hours. They would have to walk home with a dead baby, possibly in the middle of the night or maybe he heals but has subsequent disabilities from his low oxygen levels durring his illness. Lots of things to consider when choosing what to do. So, we called his pediatrician to come. We sent Penny to locate the Miguels dad. Sandy ventalated him with a bag and mask to try to keep him alive until the father arrived and we could speak to the parents together. We all cried and began saying our goodbyes to our sweet Angel. Then, the miracle. With the baby in dads arms supported only with an oxygen mask....He kept his pulse and oxygen levels up at normal. We were waiting for him to fall into the arms of his Loving Creator, whom he belongs to anyway....but he kept breathing..his oxygen level stayed up...his cheeks stayed pink and we all stood in amazement. MIRACLE - in front of our own eyes! Now, as I write this (actually I wrote this at 8ish this am), Miguel Angel is in the arms of his mother (something that has not happened for 6 days) and in the hands of his heavenly Father (something he has enjoyed since his life began). We wait. Will this miracle last another hour, day or lifetime? is he still here so his momma can hug and kiss him and say goodbye in a beautiful calm way? is he here because the Lord has big plans for him? we do not know nor do we pretend we have the answers. It is just a miraculous reminder the God is in control, not us. We get to participate in his story however. It is sometimes sad, sometimes happy, always miraculous.
God Bless you all
The Team

quick update. It is 930 pm and Amber and Lori are heading down for a short shift with Miguel. Yes, he is still with us. Doing well at this hour. Still cant tell you what Gods plan is with him, but we are along for the ride! Thank you for your prayers.

What a couple of days....we mean NIGHTS!

Recap of night #2 with Miguel Angel:
Our 12 hours with Miguel started at about 5 pm on the 21st. He had been intubated (a tube into his lungs) and he was being manually ventilated (someone sqeezing a ambu bag to give him air). So began our night of "bagging". The plan was to take turns through the night bagging. We planned to take 2 hour shifts (Amber and Lori) so that we would beable to get some more rest. We had only slept for 5 hours since our first night shift, so at 11 ish, the "non bagger" would sleep and then be awakened to switch. This was very difficult on the bagger. Knowing that if you fall asleep, the baby will not get air is a good motivator though. Still, it was hard but well worth it. We also didnt know if we would be relieved for day shift so some sleep was impairative. The night was lon but thankfully we got some day relief at about 7am. A honduran nurse (equiv. to an RN) was available to come in extra and be Miguels 1:1 care provider. After instructions in spanish (not very good:)) She understood and we were able to leave knowing he was in good hands. Dr. Sharron the pediatrician would be around and Sandy the nurse anesth. also. When we arrived back to the house, Richard was getting ready for work...Oh yeah, did we tell you Richard is working??!! More on that later!:) Well, apparently we were tired because we slept for 7 1/2 hours! Woke up at 430 pm feeling well rested. Thank you Lord!
Now, on to night #3 with Miguel:
We started our shift a 7 pm. Sandy was here and our report was that the baby was stable. No fever durring the day. He was requiring less oxygen but fighting the ventalation (good...but requires more taping and ajusting) We would like him to rest as much as possible until we extubate him, but he is a fighter and we love that about him. So the night went like this: We bagged him. Both Amber and Lori stayed up (again...well rested!) and we prayed. At about 2 am, his IV stopped working. Dr. Sharron came down after we attempted several times to get a new IV in and she tried too. Unsuccessful, so the question was...Do we place a central line? Our answer was yes. The real answer was maybe. Will the baby tolerate a proceedure like that. Will it change anything? Also, we found blood in the babys tummy. Not a good sign. So, baby Miguel got a hair cut for Iv access in his scalp. He has the coolest mohawk you have ever seen. Makes him look TOUGH! He has been receiving his antibiotics intra-muscularly and his feeding was turned off. We worry that he isnt getting any fluids. By morning, our relief arrived in the form of a nurse from the states who is here with another team and did not intend to do any clinical care. Her team is painting and repairing doors in the hospital. Not her though. She was a little nervous to care for such a sick baby since she has been in administration for many years but we reassured her and set her up for a good day. Then, it was time to make a plan. What do we do from here. How long can we keep this up in light of the fact we are supposed to travel to the islands tommorrow for clinic x 3 days. We knew we would have to cancel that trip or just one of us go....we couldn't just leave him with no one to bag him and just let him die because we had other plans. We were over his bedside explaining this to Penny and then it happened. Miguel Angel extubated himself (pulled out the tube.).........

Quick Update

I have lots of things to say but dont have enought time to say it all. Baby Miguel Angel is stable. Maybe doing better but hard to be too optimistic. Continue to pray. He is getting some breastmilk through his feeding tube now and his xray today looks much better. Hopefully extibation in the morning. We will write a full update tomorrow. Thank you all for your love and prayers. I could "feel the love" last night. Blessings, The Team

Bedside Vigil

I am composing this thought at the bedside or our now 11 day old pneumonia patient. His name is Miguel Angel. He is a beautiful Honduran baby with lots of dark hair and big eyes. He is so sick. I learned his name today so that if he dies, I want to say I knew him. Amber and I are praying hard and doing all we know to do to help him and he is fighting for his life. It is 1:35 am and Amber and I cant leave his bedside. We have been here at the hospital all day already. We were able to sneak a quick nap in this afternoon...I know what your thinking....NAP?! Well, let me tell you it was much needed. Since my last post, Amber and I returned to the hospital in the evening to respond to a crisis with Miguel Angel then we went back home for 2 hours of sleep. Up at midnight to return to help John with a delivery (Healthy baby girl at 0105 9/19) then back home for a few more hours of attempted sleep (Amber had Richards snoring, I had a monkey howling at me all night!). Up at 0730 to head back to the hospital....Whew! So, we needed our nap! Ok, back to baby Angel. He has continued to decline with more episodes of decreased oxygenation and color changes. We have to "bag" him in order to bring his sats up and we have had to do this more and more. God brought us to Honduras for baby Angel. Of this I am sure. The nursing care here in Honduras is very different than in the states. the Honduran nurses do NOT have the same training as we do and are unprepared to care for such a sick baby. Plus, they are incredibly overwhelmed with patients currently. It is now 0206 on September 20th. He is doing better. Equiptment down here can be unreliable. You have to make due with what you have. we were using a very old and used baby saturation probe that only gave us an accurate reading when the wire was in one place. Very frustrating when you have such a sick kiddo. Richard went on a hunt and miraculously found an adult finger probe that, with some manipulation by Amber, worked much better. Now, we are running out of O2. The oxygen compressors which are supposed to produce 5 liters dont appear to be working that well. Everytime we have weaned Angel to 5 liters or less we try to switch to the compressor to conserve the cannister oxygen. When we do, his sat levels drop and we have to start all over again. So, he has to stay on the cannister O2 and we pray it will last until someone brings the new full cannisters. 0520 am, Making progress with Angel. We just had to leave him alone! He is septic (infection is in his blood) so stimulation causes him to desaturated. Sats are stable however, when he is resting and not stimulated. He is even sucking on his oral catheter (a tube into his mouth down to his stomach). What a good sign. A little ray of hope. Thank you Lord. Now if we can just keep the Honduran staff from messing with him! So, now it is 4 pm on the 20th. Amber and I slept from about 930 to 2ish. When we left Angel, the pediatrician was in and our replacement was an american nurse anesthetist (sp?) so we could sleep well knowing he was in good hands. But, he also wasnt doing as well he had been because of all the morning noise and activity. (blood draw, xray, ect.) Quick report from Richard is that he is fairly stable. We will be heading down soon to check on him. Our prayer is for healing for baby Angel. This is a hard place to live and he is strong, but he is still just a newborn. He needs all our prayers. The Lord has a plan and we are fully ready to participate in the plan as he sees fit. We just so want that plan to be healing. Well, this is the end of a very long post. I tried to import pics but with no success. Will definitely be checking with my geek friends to try to figure it out. Have lots of pics to share so far.
Hug your children, kiss your family, and count your blessings....The Team

Busy, Busy, Busy Day

Whew! Day one is over and my goodness it was a busy one! Amber and Lori hit the ground running this morning and spent the day at the hospital doing a number of things. We helped care for a 10 day old baby with GBS pneumonia. The family walked 6 hours carrying a sick baby in order to get medical attention. This kiddo is SICK! He has had a couple of episodes of very low sats and requiring some manuel ventilation (bagging) to bring his sats up. Nurses....you would be freaking out. I want to transport him to our NICU. I would if I could. He is getting all that we can provide. IV antibiotics, IV fluid and now has a makeshift "rebreather" in order to maintain sats. Pray for him. He has all that is available so its gonna have to work. We also helped with suturing for a machete wound to the shin and a laceration from a motorcycle accident. We also did some wound care today! something Lori hasnt done since nursing school, and Amber hasnt done for years. Lots of learning. Its been great. Our "jack of all trades" Richard was busy preparing for his big steel project. Church tomorrow and prep for the week. The plan is for some Ob/Gyn clinics in the mountains and out on the islands. More updates to come and hopefully we can figure out how to add pictures!!!! Keep watching. God bless you all. We ask for continued prayer for our safety and that He will use us in a glorious way.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The team were dropped off for their flight day today. Due to low cloud at San Fran their first flight was canceled. So instead of flying through New York, they will be flying via Houston. And so the adventure begins!!

Packing

Last week the team packed all the wonderful donations ready for the trip. They are so grateful to everyone for the wonderful thoughtful gifts.