Families for Guatemala

We are very fortunate to have for the 4th year in a row , the group "Families for Guatemala" coming to work with us.

Today they have installed stoves, visited their sponsored students, given out gifts and played a challenging game of soccer in the main square in San Jorge.

Late in the afternoon a woman brought her special needs baby to us for help. She had gone to the hospital yesterday and they had given the baby some medicine for her fever.

She is about 9 months old or maybe a little younger.   The mother was carrying  her in a brightly colored shawl and waiting in the garden when I returned from lunch. The baby was very listless....Kristen had thought she wasn't breathing, her breath was so shallow. She was sweating and her little mouth was bruised from receiving medicine. 

I am not sure what the diagnosis of this little baby is regarding her special needs but I watched as this child, that was barely breathing, her eyes followed her mother everywhere....and the mother started to sob silently.   

We arranged for the baby to go to a private clinic in Pana to a pediatrician.  They called from the doctors office and said that they could not guarantee that the baby would survive, she was in a very severe situation but that they would do what they could.   After medication her fever came down...they did some tests and she had a very bad intestinal infection. ...after about two hours of treatment, the doctor thought that the baby would survive to get to the hospital.  Kristen and Rodolfo accompanied the mother.   Once they were in the hospital, the baby was checked out but the hospital did not feel that they had the medication or could give the treatment that this baby needed. So they started the process to take her to the hospital in Guatemala City.  The one that was just in the paper saying that they had no medicines and were turning people away.   I hope that, after the long ambulance ride, that this family does not get turned away.   By now the family will be in Guatemala City, I hope they get the treatment that they need.  I hope this little one survives.  I hope it is not too hard on the family, they come from Tierra Linda....the city is a big, scary place for them. 

Feliz Noche,

Sharon

www.mayanfamilies.org