Donlove is a 6 year old boy who has followed at our clinic for much of his life. Unfortunately, he accidentally drank some home made cleaning solution when he was 4 years old. This occurred while he was visiting his grandmother in a very rural area. His mother took him to the hospital. He was hospitalized for multiple months. He showed up at our clinic after this hospitalization. He was extremely malnourished. We are unable to access his hospital records. He was admitted to our malnutrition center. He had difficulty swallowing. We attempted to place a nasogastric feeding tube but were unable to do so. A gastroenterologist performed an upper endoscopy to look at his esophagus and saw that he had severe scarring likely caused by swallowing the cleaning solution. These scars narrowed his esophagus to 2 mm for a long portion.

Donlove slowly but surely gained weight by drinking a liquid diet. He gained 6.5 pounds and was discharged. His parents are separated and he went to live with his father. He did not come to any follow up appointments. His mother said that his father would not let him come. He came back to clinic months later and weighed 24 pounds. He was admitted to the malnutrition program again. He continued to have significant trouble swallowing. He also missed his mom and had psychogenic seizures each time she went home after visiting him. His emotional disturbances were so severe that he was discharged with daily follow up. Unfortunately, his trouble swallowing increased to the point where he was having trouble swallowing his saliva. Multiple hospitals told us they were unable to place a gastric feeding tube- a feeding tube that bypasses his esophagus. But eventually we found a hospital with a surgeon that had the expertise to do so. We imported a tube from the United States and the tube was placed last month. Donlove is now slowly gaining weight. He still loves the taste of food, but cannot swallow. So he chews the food but then spits it out instead of swallowing it.

The hospital that placed the feeding tube for Donlove closed due to gang violence just a couple of weeks after the feeding tube was placed. Donlove has experienced a lot of trauma during his short life. Please pray for him that he will gain weight and that some stability would come to his life.