Two baby boys lives

1st little man: Marius

Little Marius was a little man who grabbed so many of our nurses hearts! He presented to the ship malnourished with a cleft lip and palate. At the beginning of the outreach on his first admission to the ship I was his nurse and able to spend time getting to know him and his Mama.

Marius was started on the Infant feeding program and given supplement formula to fatten the little guy up...and it worked :) Here is our infant feeding coordinator Hettie, teaching the Mama how to prepare formula.

The Mama's were so determined to fatten their babies for surgery, it was so encouraging to see their compliance! Story after story I would hear how the Mama's would hide their babies in their huts so the community wouldn't harrass, judge, or mistreat them. Many of the African's believe this is a curse and it's usually the Mama's fault. They do not want this curse to come to the village so they demand the Mama's to abandon the baby or in some cases to bury it alive. One woman was telling me how the Papa left her when the baby was born because he blamed this on her. She was being cursed for something, it wasn't his child, etc. So sad!

10:00 AM - daily weigh time

These prayers were not in vain. So many prayers were sent up for this little man's life, and God was faithful to answer them with giving life to this little man.

When Marius returned a few months later...he was fattened up for surgery. It was sooooo great to see the change!

I had little Marius as a patient the 2nd time he was admitted the day before he was scheduled for surgery. He had some crackles in his lungs (aspiration is so common with these little cleft palate kids), so a chest xray was done. The anethetist then noticed some trachea malformation and so his surgery was cancelled for the following day. This was sad to have to tell the Mama as she was so anticipating the surgery after all her hard work. The anesthetists reviewed the case and decided to go ahead with surgery the following day.

I met the Mama in the hallway the next day and was so happy to hear that Marius had gone for surgery! I was working the shift when he came back from surgery. He was intubated and came into ICU post op. As we were doing shift change his oxygen saturation levels kept dropping. Our ICU/peds team were doing eveything they could to try to maintain his levels....80%...65%...42%...26%...15%, and his heart rate kept dropping from over 150 to 90's..60's. He was coding. Those of us in shift change all started praying for this little man's life while the team worked on him. I was certain he was going to die right before my eyes. But God answered our prayers! Another miracle! After he was re-intubated and later given a tracheostomy. He had more hiccups in his ICU stay, but his life was spared.

This is a picture of him a few days post op with his Mama.

Meet Marius' mother - Chantel. She is a woman I will never forget! Her dedication to her son's life was so inspirational. While he was in ICU, many times throughout the day you would see her kneeling in prayer by her corner bed with her African material covering herself. She would pray & sing songs of praise to God. She fasted for many days pleading for the life of her son. On Sunday morning in ward church she would be on her feet dancing and praising God for her son's life. Just writing this brings tears to my eyes. She is an amazing woman!

Here is little Marius...out of ICU (his NG/feeding tube still in), and well enough to go up to Deck 7 for some fresh air.

2nd little man: O'Brien

Little O'Brien was the miracle baby at Easter I wrote about earlier. God allowed us to spend 3 more weeks with O'Brien before taking the little boy to be with Him. Baby O'Brien first presented with malnourishment and a cleft lip/palate. and later diagnosed with congestive heart failure. When O'Brien was in his Mama's womb his Dad said if it's a boy he would be named after the soccer player O'Brien, which did happen. I think every parent has visions and dreams of what their child could grown up to be, so it's sad when these lives are so short.

The 'why' questions always surface...why was his life so short, why was he brought to the ship for us to be a part of his life & death? why were we given 3 more weeks with him after we thought we'd lose him...only then to have him taken away? why did God choose to let us see this miracle? What was His purpose in this? In all this we know that God is sovereign. No matter what we try to do as humans He always is in control. It's comforting to know that.

It's an honor to be a small part in this mission, but also humbling to know we can only do what God has allowed us to and the rest is in His hands.

Can you lift up a prayer for this Mama?

One of my shifts I had both babies again as patients. Their beds were across from each other. I told the Mama's how we were so happy to have 2 miracle babies beside each other :) Later when little O'Brien died, Chantel (Marius' mama) grieved with O'Brien's mama. One Mama got to go home with her baby alive, the other Mama didn't.

When Marius returned to the ward from ICU all the patienst and nurses on the ward were clapping and singing when he came into the ward. When him and his Mama left we had a time of prayer in thanks to God for his life.

"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die," Ecclesiastes 3:1,2