Saving a Life

I recently met a girl whose life I’m told I saved three years ago. At first, I didn’t remember her. To my knowledge, I’d never saved anybody’s life.

Her name is Lucienne, and I got to meet her again just last month in Haiti. She lives and attends school there at an orphanage.

Marie Jo, a nurse and founder of the orphanage, brought Lucienne out of class to say hello to me, Lucienne ran over, gave me a big hug and showed me the scar on her leg.

It was clear that – in Lucienne’s mind– I am the person that saved her life.

Let me back up. I moved to Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 to work for Direct Relief, a nonprofit organization that provides medicines and medical supplies to 80 countries. I still work there and now run international programs, but at the time, I was focused solely on Haiti.

While I was living there, one of my Haitian colleagues connected me with Marie Jo’s orphanage, Foyer Espoir por les Enfants. After the earthquake, there were suddenly far more orphans who needed a place to learn. After spending some time with Marie Jo and seeing how these kids were being cared for, I approved a cash grant for her from Direct Relief so she could grow the school from 32 students to 132 and increase her classes from preschool to seventh grade. Direct Relief typically supports medical facilities with medicines, but after the earthquake, we were able to provide grants to exceptional Haitian-run organizations.

This is important because in Haiti, public services like schools, are not free. Parents have to pay for schooling for their children, and because the average person makes only $350 per year, schooling is one of the first things to go from a family’s budget, especially when the child becomes old enough to work. Marie Jo offers free education for these 132 students, about 30 of whom live at her orphanage and would otherwise be unable to go to school at all.

Because medical care isn’t provided for free either, when these kids get sick, it’s tough for Marie Jo to pay for their care. Even if the doctor at the public hospital will see them, the patient has to purchase all of the supplies needed for their own care, from the medicines on down to the needle that’s put in their arm. This is difficult for those who are poor in Haiti, and nearly impossible for an orphan, even one like Lucienne, who lives in an orphanage run by a nurse who simply does not have any extra money for advanced medical care for the children.

So when Lucienne began limping around the house and was having trouble even walking, Marie Jo became concerned. Eventually, they took her to a hospital, where Lucienne was diagnosed with osteomyelitis, a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection of the bone that requires surgery and extensive antibiotics and a four-week recovery in the hospital.

Marie Jo didn’t have the money to pay for any of this, and furthermore, the hospital didn’t have the high-dose, injectable pediatric antibiotics Lucienne needed to fight the infection in her leg. They didn’t even have electricity or a bed for her to stay in. During her first nights in the hospital, they had to use the light from a cell phone to try to find a vein for the I.V. and Marie Jo and her sister stayed awake to shoo the rats away from her as she lay on the crowded ground next to other patients.

When I received the phone call from Marie Jo in 2013, I was no longer living in Haiti, but I happened to be there on one of my still-frequent visits. I could tell that Marie Jo had run out of ideas and Lucienne was getting worse. She asked if there was anything I could do to help.

I called Hospital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince. They had better facilities and could offer more advanced care for this kind of infection. That hospital has been a recipient of medicines and supplies from Direct Relief since the earthquake and was willing take her as a transfer. But even they were out of the very specific, advanced medicines needed for this surgery and post-operative recovery, so they gave me the list of needed items. Thankfully, Direct Relief had the items in stock in its Haiti warehouse, so I cut open the pallets, retrieved the supplies, and rushed them over to the hospital.

When the doctors received the medications, they immediately brought Lucienne into surgery. In fact, there were numerous surgeries. And Lucienne spent over a month in the hospital recovering and undergoing physical therapy before being released back home to the orphanage. I hadn’t seen her again until last month, when she came running up to me to give me a hug on the school playground.

Working for Direct Relief for 10 years, I’ve played a small part in helping to get medicine to people all over the world who are sick and need help getting better. Because my role is to provide the supplies to doctors and nurses in order for them to provide the best care, I don’t often get to see firsthand how the medicines we provide actually help people like Lucienne. But it happens all the time. Every day.

In my mind, Marie Jo saved Lucienne’s life (as she has many others, I’m sure). So did Direct Relief. And the doctors who operated on her. Lucienne thinks it was me. In the end, all that matters is that she’s alive and happy and going to school. She’s now 10 years old and only has the scar on her leg to prove she was once really sick and very close to dying had there not been a bunch of different people looking out for her.