G.E. is a 23 year old woman who presented to our clinic for the first time on Friday (October 16^th). She came to clinic because she felt short of breath. Her oxygen saturation was in the 60s and her respiratory rate was in the 80s. The average young healthy adult has a respiratory rate around 12 and an oxygen saturation of 96% or higher.

She had given birth to a healthy baby on September 22^nd. Her clinical exam was not consistent with heart failure. She did not have any peripheral edema, she had normal breaths sounds and air movement on pulmonary exam and she did not have any heart murmurs. She developed a cough on September 27^th and a fever several days later. And then, she became short of breath about 5 days prior to coming to clinic. We suspected severe COVID-19 disease or possibly a pulmonary embolism. We placed her on supplemental oxygen at 5 liters per minute. Her oxygen did not initially improve. She was given several medications and her oxygen saturation eventually improved- but only to the mid 80s.

The health department was notified and an ambulance was sent to transport this young woman to the hospital. However, in Haiti, a patient must be accompanied by an adult while hospitalized. This person will buy medication, take blood samples to labs that are outside the hospital and perform other various tasks that cannot be taken care of within the hospital. G.E. had come to clinic with a friend and her newborn baby. She did not have any relatives with a phone. So her friend accompanied her in the ambulance. Real Hope for Haiti will care for her baby until we can find family. We took pictures of G.E. and will take this picture to the area where she lives and try and find G.E.’s sister.

Please pray for healing for this young woman. She is very sick.