Miracle Marc.

Do you know the treasure of one life? I don’t know how to put this into words, but the ultimate preciousness of lives never ceases to blow me away. Today forever engrained that in my brain…

Only 4 months old, at only 6 lbs, Marc is a miracle baby. Want to know why?

Well Marc has a mom who loves him so very much; she sought help when her four-month old son was extremely malnourished due to a condition in which she couldn’t breastfeed. Children of the Promise admitted her in to the Formula Program to help save his life from starvation, but today took that “life-saving” clause to a whole new level.

Marc’s mother came in today to trade out her empty milk cans for new formula. It technically was not her day to come, but she brought him in anyway thankfully. She mentioned he had a fever and a cough, and when we checked his weight, he had hardly gained anything at all. Nikki and I thought it would be best to see just how the mother made the bottle and try out a different nipple for the bottle. Well, Marc immediately started choking on the little milk he was given and started coughing profusely. I listened to his lungs and heard wheezing, so we started a breathing treatment on him. Minutes later, when his oxygen saturation came on the screen, it was at a very scary low- 71%! His lips started turning blue and his skin turned dusky…. Oh, not good… not good at all. And now after the breathing treatment, his lung sounds turned from wheezing to what sounded like his lung were filled with thick secretions. He was coughing and choking, coughing and choking… again and again. His lungs started retracting really deep from every angle (NOT GOOD). Nikki quickly got Amy, and we started him on oxygen and began suctioning him out the best we could.

At 6 lbs at 4 months old, this baby did not exactly have a huge shot once he went into respiratory distress. On the highest level of oxygen we could possibly put him on and even with suctioning, he was still a blue baby with extremely low oxygen saturations (stayed around 70% for quite some time). He was not moving any air in most of his lungs when he would breathe. Finally, Jenn joined us and started using a special tool to loosen the secretions in his lungs to allow him to expel the mucus. Nikki got a bag and mask ready and held a second source of oxygen over his face. Amy effectively suctioned out his lungs as often as she could without taking too much oxygen away. I got ready to put an IV in to help get him fluids to loosen up his lungs and give him energy to keep fighting for life. Intensity filled the room. This was truly a team effort to go down in the books!!!

This whole time we are rushing around trying to get this baby to keep going, the mother was a constant. She was strong and courageous… she held her tiny baby amidst all the madness and kept praying and singing with hope to be greatly admired. She never stopped praying or singing… she didn’t keep asking if her baby was going to be okay. She took that up with God and God alone. She trusted Him, and for that I cannot commend her enough. Tears in her eyes and a shaky voice, she lifted her baby up to God and His intervention. Her baby is a miracle baby. And this is why….

Once a scalp IV was placed and fluids were started, a peaceful spirit descended into the room. It just sort of came over us that this baby was going to live. The fluids are able to help water down the thick secretions so he is able to actually breathe. The oxygen was on full blast. And Jenn never stopped loosening up the thick rattles in his lungs for quite some time. We suspected him of having pneumonia, so we gave him an intramuscular antibiotic. He continued to need the highest level of oxygen possible because his oxygen saturations struggled to rise. But he’s getting better… he went from 80% to 88%. In just a few weeks, we are thankfully going to be able to take him to get an echocardiogram to evaluate if he possibly has a heart defect that is ultimate reason for his extremely low oxygen saturation. Both he and his mom will stay with us in our apartment tonight… in our modern day Haitian “hospital” in Jenn’s room at Children of the Promise :)! Our pharmacy has become a makeshift ER, and Jenn’s room truly has become an “ICU” for really sick babies. This is the first time we’ve taken a mom and baby couplet to stay with us since I’ve been here, but we wouldn’t dream of separating them after we observed the astonishing love this mom has for her baby. Marc's breathing has gone from retracting and desperate to calm and regular. He no longer struggles for air like he did this morning.

As exciting as the medical side of things happens to be, what is far more impressive is that when his mom and dad came back to visit him, the thing they requested was if we would pray and sing with them. In the pharmacy, a family praised God for their baby’s breath. Beyond that, we are so amazed at the nannies who work here who later came in his room to pray over him and sing songs of worship. They trailed in one by one to comfort the mother and give hope to her baby.

 He is a miracle baby. It is a miracle she ever came to us in the first place, it is a miracle that she came today, and it is a miracle we had four people to fight for his life when he turned blue. But most of all, it is a miracle that his life is surrounded by angels willing to pray for him and praise God through it all. Marc… a name to remember. He’s kind of a HUGE deal! J