Emmanuella's Story

A Sad Story
Emmanuella might be her name, or maybe not. She is somewhere around 3 or 4 or 5 years old. We have no way of knowing. What we know for sure is that, depending on your position when you look at the scale, she is 12 or 13 lbs. , unbelievably skinny. We know she has seizures that almost never stop.

On July 23 2009 a mission team found a woman carrying Emmanuella, searching for help. The Americans were appalled at her condition and frantic to help. They took them to a missionary, Sherrie Fausey. Sherrie had her driver take the woman and child to two different hospitals to try to find help. The first hospital - Port au Prince's finest pediatric hospital - said it was too late to save Emmanuella and sent them away. The second hospital gave prescriptions for amoxicillin and phenobarbital and sent them away.

The next day Pastor Luke (summer pastor at our church) found the woman wandering the same streets, again looking for help. Emmanuella was worse, if possible. Pastor Luke brought them to us at Faith-Hope-Love Infant Rescue. I thought Emmanuella was in a coma, dying even then. Luckily (if you can call Divine intervention luck), a medical group was in the neighborhood. Two of the doctors dropped everything and came straight over.

Except for constant seizures, muscle contractures from seizing over a long period of time, and extreme malnutrition, Emmanuella seemed healthy. That word, "healthy", doesn't seem to fit but the child's hair was black and thick, her skin good, lots of healthy teeth. The doctors started her on phenobarbital to reduce seizures, approved our normal routine for treating severe malnutrition, and returned to their clinic.

A strange twist
Another woman (I'll call her "the mom") who was staying with us for awhile said she knew the woman calling herself Emmanuella's grandmother ("the grandmother"). The mom said that she, the mom, found Emmanuella in the parking lot at a store, lying on the ground, obviously abandoned. The mom took Emmanuella to the Catholic sisters (Mother Teresa's order) but the Sisters could not take her in. So the mom left Emmanuella on the ground outside the Sisters' gate.

The grandmother came along and saw Emmanuella and picked her up to use her as a prop for begging. According to this vague story, the grandmother expected to use Emmanuella to get money. Blan (foreigners) get really teary-eyed over handicapped children and hand over cash, lotss of it, to help.

Apparently, Emmanuella was in worse shape than the grandmother thought so she went searching for help. After Emmanuella ended up at my house, the grandmother came to visit for the first couple of weeks. She never asked for money but hinted that she was homeless, etc. Our policy is to never give money. We give help. After a couple of weeks the grandmother stopped coming or calling.

Current status

We don't know what to believe. The mom, who told us the wild story, was sick with an infection that can affect thinking. The grandmother had absolutely no information about the child --- no idea when or where she was born, no idea of her medical history. The grandmother simply said that her daughter had gone away a few years ago and they had no contact until just a few days before when the daughter showed up, dumped the handicapped child on the grandmother, and left. A pretty suspicious story, I thought.

Whatever the truth may be, our goal is to protect the child, Emmanuella. I went to the police and to social services and told them the whole story. Both issued orders that Emmanuella is to stay with us and cannot be removed without their permission. Praise God! We were given the legal right to protect her!

Since Emmanuella started getting good food and high calorie supplements, she has started gaining weight and becoming aware of her surroundings. She is now trying to use her right arm to push food into her mouth. She still has seizures frequently but they are better since starting phenobarbital. We cannot evaluate her fully until the malnutrition is reversed: it can cause seizures itself.