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odilion
saturday, 16th may, 2009 |
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There are always some patients that you get to know more than others. For me a little baby called Odilion is one of those. He was born with a cleft lip and palate, one of the top 4 birth defects world-wide. When little Odilion and his mother came to the ship he was very sick. Severely malnourished, we were not sure that he would survive the weekend. He was 6 weeks old but weighed less that most new-born babies. He didn't have the energy to cry, he just lay in his mothers arms, not responding to any of the painful things we had to do to him or our attempts to feed him.
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So we started him on a baby feeding program, a regime whereby he is fed at regular intervals small amounts that are increased slowly. You have to make sure you do not overfeed initially as this can result in death. Initially our goal was for him to survive the weekend and then we would make a plan of care for him. When he did survive, we started working towards the goal of getting him to a weight where he was big enough to be able to tolerate surgery.
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Odilion's mother and father had brought him from the North of the country, many hours travel away. In the North animalism and voodoo religious views are very prevalent. We have had reports that children born with deformities like little Odilion have sometimes been buried alive. Parents are encouraged not to care for them, not to feed them, to let them die, in the belief that they are cursed.
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Odilion's parents are very young, his mother only 18. We don't know if they were encouraged like other parents to let their child die. He is their first child, perhaps the bond they shared with their child led them to the decision to go against the village elders and bring their little boy to the ship. Whatever the reason, their decision to come to the ship ultimately saved Odilion's life.
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As we cared for them it became clear that it would not be right to send them back up North before the surgery. We knew that it would take at least a month before Odilion got to the point that he could have his surgery, but his mother seem scared to leave the safety of the ship and the friends she had made. She had even picked up some English!
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Odilion and his mother have been with us for the last 2 months and finally Odilion got to a weight where it was safe for him to have surgery and we performed the cleft lip surgery. He now has a perfectly formed lip. Once he has recovered from surgery he and his mother will travel back up North and we pray that Odilion will be accepted now that he has had his lip repaired. We will hopefully be able to perform a second surgery on his cleft palate before the ship leaves Benin in December.
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Cleft lip surgery is so simple but can make the difference between acceptance and rejection. Ignorance about these deformities puts these childrens' lives at risk. There are many more Odilions born every day in this country, we have to hope that they make it to the big white ship that can transform their lives!
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