Roberto is a 3 year old boy who was admitted to the malnutrition center on September 24th of this year with kwashiorkor/severe acute malnutrition. He had a fever and felt terrible. He was treated with broad spectrum antibiotics, however, after several days his pulmonary exam started to change- the breath sounds on the right were muffled compared to breath sounds on the left and his oxygen saturation started to decrease. We sent him for a chest x-ray. The x-ray is shown below, it showed whiteout of the entire right chest with mass effect- the trachea was pushed to the left. He likely had a large pleural effusion (fluid between the chest wall and the lung), secondary to infection. He needed to go to the hospital for further diagnostic studies and would likely require a chest tube.
We sent word to his dad and then sent dad and Roberto to the hospital by ambulance. A chest tube was placed and over the next week, Roberto improved significantly. The chest tube fell out sometime during the second week of his hospital stay. The x-ray apparatus was not working at the hospital, so he had a CT scan which showed that much of the fluid had drained, however, there still remained a complicated pleural effusion that had not drained with the chest tube. He needed surgery to clean out the remaining infection in the space around his lungs. However, he needed a blood transfusion first.
In Haiti, when a blood transfusion is prescribed, 2 people must donate blood for every unit prescribed before the Red Cross will release the blood for transfusion. Roberto’s family lives in the mountains and were quite overwhelmed with this donation process. Therefore, we found some people who live in Cazale to volunteer and go to the Red Cross (in Port au Prince) and donate blood for Roberto. Unfortunately, he has a rare blood type and it took the Red Cross some time to locate blood for him. Eventually, he received the blood transfusion. He then had a thoracotomy and the surgeon was able to clean out the space between his lungs and chest wall. He was discharged several days later to our care.
Roberto is now back in Cazale recovering from surgery. He is continues to improve and is doing well.
The cost for his hospitalization was $3,052 USD. Please prayerfully consider helping us with the cost of Roberto’s hospitalization. You can send donation to RHFH/15215 Endeavor Drive/Noblesville, IN 46060 or use the paypal button below. Thank you in advance!