Our hearts go out to these children!

Please keep reading the blog! I am running behind on postings and there are some superb stories yet to be told! Keep reading for a few more days, please. Log on to facebook and join the open group Ecuador 2009.This young woman of 38 went home on Thursday after a bilateral hip replacement. That´s Heather Perl on the left. Heather is the ¨jefe¨of the adult operating room nurses.

And now for a poignant story of a family in Ecuador.Here´s Omar. He´s being distracted by Mathew Moreau since 41-2 yr olds don´t have a long attention span. Fern and I are speaking with mother, Olivia about her life. She has 5 children and Omar is the youngest. They lived in Quito until six months ago but her life was difficult. In Quito she would arise about 5 and give the 15 year old daughter her instructions for the day. The 15 yr old would have to get the younger children organized and out the door for the day while Mom went to her job as a houseworker by day and as a cook in a restaurant in the evening. Mom never got home until 10 at night and usually the children were in bed by then. Recently Mom moved to Santo Domingo which is very near the jungle, East and North of Quito. In Santo Domingo she now earns about $8 per day. But the life style is better. The children can climb trees and pick oranges whenever they like. They help Mom on the farm. The farm offers a better lifestyle for the family and Mom sees a lot more of the children. But the work is hard! She has callused hands from the hard physical work. And work in Ecuador isn´t five days a week! She works six days per week.But what about Omar?Omar has returned this year to have his plates removed. This next photo is of Omar last year! Note his bow legs!!!!!! Omar had a surgical procedure at his knees to help straighten his legs and the result is great!

Omar is a cute little guy! Everybody loved playing with him. Mom told us his sister, who is 15 is deaf and non-verbal. The younger sister of 9 is the older sister´s sign language translator in school. For that reason the 15 year old and the 9 year old attend grade 4 in the country school near the 7 hectare farm on which Mom works.

After the surgery, here are Mathew and Pablo Valenzuela with Omar in the recovery room. Omar woke up hungry and we fed him some jello. He was only a day surgery patient because the procedure was minor. But then he got to horsing around afterwards and we had to re-tape his wounds after a piggy-back ride. No harm done! Mom and child headed back to Santo Domingo later in the afternoon since the other children were back on the farm alone.

Next is the story of Hugo. He´s a 4 year old with cerebral palsy and he came to us to lengthen his tendons. A year ago his father had a herniated disc and had to quit his work driving a truck. They started a small grocery store in the door of their home to make a living. Mom can´t work outside the home because Hugo is fully dependent. He can´t walk and he needs constant care. He is a bright kid though because he speaks very well. His twin brother walks but isn´t quite so bright. The two were born premature at about 28 weeks of age.
Now Dad is just back to work and Mom is still at home runing the store and caring for the child. She never gets out of the house except on Sunday becuase she is afraid that Hugo will catch a cold. He seems quite prone to colds.

Dad´s hours of work are very long! He´s gone at 6 AM and returns at 9:30 PM six days a week. He earns the typical wage of a few hundred dollars a month. I asked Mom what would have happened if she hadn´t learned of CAMTA. She responded that there was no way that they could have afforded the $4,000 cost of surgery at a private hospital. The loan would have taken years to repay.

Hugo is a bright boy — He get´s very frustrated when he sees his hyperactive twin brother running about and he can´t. We have lengthened his tendons and he´ll have straighter legs. Mom is hopeful that he´ll walk. We´ll be happy if he can stand!

Here´s Hugo on the way home after surgery. We´ve run out of colourful cast material so he´s got plain white casts. The stick comes off in a few weeks but he keeps the casts for longer. The stick maintains abductio and that helps keep the tendons stretched.

Here´s another discharge shot. Maria and her family were headed home. That´s Asha Olmstead on the right. She came as a student but her Spanish language skills have blossomed this week.

And now for Bryan. This 13 year old has dysplastic hips. When he was 5 the first hip was operated on by Drs. Luis Piedrahita Jr and Sr. at the Hospital Metropolitano here in Quito. He walked much better after that but now the other hip requires surgery.Bryan has pain and limp. He really wants to play football with his friends. Football is a passion here in Ecuador!
With Bryan are Bev Runka and Pablo Valenzuela. Below is a shot of Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Teresa Eliasson assessing Pablo before his surgery.

Pablo did just fine after surgery. He´s gone home to be with his family. There is a sister of 15. They live with the two parents plus the two grandparents. This extended family is quite typical of the family situation in Ecudor. Dad is an accountant and the mom is a cashier. The aunt and uncle live with them and they are a mechanic and an assistant to an accountant. With all these wage-earners in the family they could afford to pay $200 to the Tierra Nueva for the surgery.Watch for more in the blog. It´s been too busy to get it all posted. Tomorrow it´ll be a story about adult hip surgery.Thanks.