Our First Haitian Hospital Experience- Naomi

Well, it was bound to happen. At some point in time (with 10 of our kids here in Haiti with us), we knew there would be a time where someone would need to be hospitalized. We had avoided this up until this point mostly because we've had such amazing care by the traveling teams that have been able to prescribe medications, put IV's in, and basically care for any of us that were sick without us actually going to a hospital. Even now, we have a highly skilled team of US medical providers here, but after looking at Naomi, we were advised to take her to a hospital. 

Naomi before the surgery

Naomi's 3rd hospitalization: This time in Haiti

Naomi just turned 4 years old. She went down for a nap and was "supposed" to be sleeping. Instead of sleeping, she was getting into other people's things which included one of those little keychain flashlights. She popped the flashlight open and inside were those little round, small batteries She proceeded to stick one of them up her nose-  way up her nose past the septum. Since it was a battery (and no other object), it was important to get it out right away because of the damage it can cause.

She did relatively ok when we first got there. We were sent to what is apparently the best hospital in Petionville. It was a nice place. Not much for staffing, but we got in right away to a doctor who looked at her nose. They felt it was important to remove right away. Since Naomi had eaten lunch less then 5 hours before, they were debating about waiting another hour or two, but they decided the risk was higher to wait. First they tried to just give her a shot to sedate her enough to try to get the battery out. BUT...they could not get the battery out and she was still moving around too much. So, they had to put her under general anesthesia. Since she had eaten rice and beans for lunch, she had some issues with vomiting while she was intubated. Thankfully, she did not aspirate and everything turned out ok. When they pulled the battery out, it confirmed the need to move quickly. The battery had already started to seep acid which could have caused all kinds of problems and potentially be life threatening. Praise the Lord for the skilled Haitian doctors.

Naomi after the surgery. 

It was quite a night and Naomi is still pretty groggy, but is now home with us. She's doing really well. We have to go back to the hospital to pay them more money today (we paid a small fortune and the hospital is still calculating out the cost of the anesthesia). We'll also pick up a couple of prescriptions they want her on to prevent infection.

Naomi clearly on some sort of medication

Naomi was really funny coming out of anesthesia (minus the throwing up continually part). She kept telling random people that she loved them and then was telling other people to stay away from her. We have a funny video of all the things she was mumbling when she was coming out of anesthesia.  She also pulled her IV out as she was thrashing around. 

Feeling better....

It's been a couple hours since I started this post and Naomi is now almost back to her normal self. She's walking around and making funny faces again. We would appreciate everyone's continued prayers that no complications arise and that the rest of the hospital bill is manageable. 

She's back to her normal self!