Crisna

This past week we received some donation boxes sent from Alabama. They included a donation of 60 pounds of pediasure. The pediasure I originally thought was formula and I had been thinking of some babies who could use formula. When I opened the boxes and saw it was pediasure age 1 and up. I started to think of any other kids I knew who were malnourished but over a year old.

 

I thought of another little girl who had been sent home from the House of Hope because she would not eat for the nanny. She was enrolled in a rice and milk program to monitor her weight but would be cared for by her mom.

 

I ask a nurse volunteer to go visit her house with me and take her some pediasure. On the walk over to her house only a few blocks from mine I was very nervous about what we are going to find.

A few weeks little 18 month old girl who was sent home weighing 13 pounds.

 

What would she look like today?

 

We walked up to this little wooden shack with dirty children happily playing outside. We saw her mom sitting outside with her 7 children but no Crisna in sight. My heart dropped a little as I thought here it is -my biggest fear she died. We ask through a Miskito translator where the baby is. Since I don't know what they are saying and no one moves I start to panic inside. The translator then tells us she is just sleeping inside. We ask for her to please go get her and bring her outside. The mom returns with a lethargic baby in her arms way smaller than the girl I had seen a few weeks ago. My nurse friend lifts up her shirt to reveal her tiny skeleton like body. I look into her unresponsive sunken in eyes and see a baby who is not done fighting. I put a few drops of pediasure in her mouth and she gags because she is has not eaten in so long.

 

My friend and I both say we are taking her back to House of Hope.

 

She now weighs a mere 10 pounds at 18 months old.

 

Please pray for sweet Crisna and those fighting with her.