HEALING.
My last blogpost was several months ago now, entitled JUSTICE. It was an angry post. It was more for me than anyone else, as I sat and wrote about how furious and broken I was watching a 9 year old child in Jubilee fight for his life. Elukson came into our clinic this past September. He was sick - how hard it is to picture now. He had a hemoglobin result of a shocking 1.4, the lowest anyone in clinic had seen, his blood more like red tinted water. And worse yet, in his blood tests we saw several lymphoblasts, leading us to believe he had leukemia.
He was admitted to a local hospital and received two blood transfusions while we did all we could. I asked doctor friends for their advice, each one agreeing with our thoughts of leukemia. I found the best and only pediatric hematology/oncology program in Haiti - in Port au Prince - and we worked to get him an appointment. After a month of setbacks - rioting, lack of transportation, and his rapidly declining health - we were finally able to transport him to the hospital in PAP in early October. I stayed that first night with him and his mother, got them settled, prepared them for what we believed would be a very, very long stay.
I was angry for Elukson. I cried out to God with rage and I cried in general for days. It was unfathomable to me that a child facing the harsh realities of his early years in Jubilee was also having to battle Leukemia. And that he had been battling it already for 3 years, missing his entire childhood. The injustice of it struck me in a deep, personal way. Even now, I believe there is a reason God needed me to feel this hurt so deeply - maybe He just needed someone to be angry for this child, to hurt for him, or maybe He needed me to be personally connected to the family's situation, maybe I'll never know.
We were in total disbelief when Elukson and his mother strolled into clinic just two short weeks later. Elukson was thrilled to be back and looked healthier than we had ever seen him. He had received another blood transfusion, treatment for a lung infection, and medication for his formal diagnosis - sickle cell anemia. Now it may be a rare form of anemia, but even still it is nothing compared to the diagnosis we had all feared. He was sent home with only a handful of vitamins and a follow-up appointment for the next month.
As the months passed I stayed close with the family. We gave them regular appointments to come see us, we kept a close watch. Elukson continued to get healthier each time we saw him, gaining weight and energy. In November he asked me if he could start school, as he hadn't been able to go the past few years because of sickness. I immediately got him started in our afternoon program at Jubilee School for kids who were behind for their age. After his January follow-up, we ran another round of tests in our clinic because we were still so skeptical of his rapid improvement. His hemoglobin was ELEVEN. Which as a girl with anemia, is even higher than my own. For a child with sickle cell, this is an almost unattainable test result.
He is healthy, he is in school, he is healed. There is no other explanation, we watched God heal this boy. I have been wanting to make this post for months now, but I have been reluctant to sit down and write it. Maybe I have been terrified that the healing won't last, that it won't stick. Maybe I am doubting. But after seeing this last test result it has shattered any doubt in my mind that he is healed. I can't help but think that Elukson was brought to our clinic for a reason we cannot even comprehend. Maybe I needed my own faith to be stretched through the witness of a child's healing, or maybe God wanting to create a way for him to get an education. As we drove to Port au Prince for his most recent appointment, Elukson, his mother and I, I noticed that his mother was singing along to my worship CD in the car as Elukson slept. Humming sweet "hallelujahs". When Elukson and his mother first came to our clinic they had gone to a Voodoo priest searching for healing the day before. Watching the beauty that took place in the midst of this I cannot help but see how the healing of this sweet boy affected more than just his body - it created a new path for his life, it stretched my own faith, and it created a foundation for his mother's faith as well. I was angry when I learned of Elukson's case, furious at the thought of such injustice, but I forgot that our God is the great equalizer. He sees injustice and steps in with acts of love and healing. I've seen that through Elukson, and I'm blessed to be reminded of that every day when he stops by our office to say hi on his way to class.
He was admitted to a local hospital and received two blood transfusions while we did all we could. I asked doctor friends for their advice, each one agreeing with our thoughts of leukemia. I found the best and only pediatric hematology/oncology program in Haiti - in Port au Prince - and we worked to get him an appointment. After a month of setbacks - rioting, lack of transportation, and his rapidly declining health - we were finally able to transport him to the hospital in PAP in early October. I stayed that first night with him and his mother, got them settled, prepared them for what we believed would be a very, very long stay.
I was angry for Elukson. I cried out to God with rage and I cried in general for days. It was unfathomable to me that a child facing the harsh realities of his early years in Jubilee was also having to battle Leukemia. And that he had been battling it already for 3 years, missing his entire childhood. The injustice of it struck me in a deep, personal way. Even now, I believe there is a reason God needed me to feel this hurt so deeply - maybe He just needed someone to be angry for this child, to hurt for him, or maybe He needed me to be personally connected to the family's situation, maybe I'll never know.
We were in total disbelief when Elukson and his mother strolled into clinic just two short weeks later. Elukson was thrilled to be back and looked healthier than we had ever seen him. He had received another blood transfusion, treatment for a lung infection, and medication for his formal diagnosis - sickle cell anemia. Now it may be a rare form of anemia, but even still it is nothing compared to the diagnosis we had all feared. He was sent home with only a handful of vitamins and a follow-up appointment for the next month.
As the months passed I stayed close with the family. We gave them regular appointments to come see us, we kept a close watch. Elukson continued to get healthier each time we saw him, gaining weight and energy. In November he asked me if he could start school, as he hadn't been able to go the past few years because of sickness. I immediately got him started in our afternoon program at Jubilee School for kids who were behind for their age. After his January follow-up, we ran another round of tests in our clinic because we were still so skeptical of his rapid improvement. His hemoglobin was ELEVEN. Which as a girl with anemia, is even higher than my own. For a child with sickle cell, this is an almost unattainable test result.
He is healthy, he is in school, he is healed. There is no other explanation, we watched God heal this boy. I have been wanting to make this post for months now, but I have been reluctant to sit down and write it. Maybe I have been terrified that the healing won't last, that it won't stick. Maybe I am doubting. But after seeing this last test result it has shattered any doubt in my mind that he is healed. I can't help but think that Elukson was brought to our clinic for a reason we cannot even comprehend. Maybe I needed my own faith to be stretched through the witness of a child's healing, or maybe God wanting to create a way for him to get an education. As we drove to Port au Prince for his most recent appointment, Elukson, his mother and I, I noticed that his mother was singing along to my worship CD in the car as Elukson slept. Humming sweet "hallelujahs". When Elukson and his mother first came to our clinic they had gone to a Voodoo priest searching for healing the day before. Watching the beauty that took place in the midst of this I cannot help but see how the healing of this sweet boy affected more than just his body - it created a new path for his life, it stretched my own faith, and it created a foundation for his mother's faith as well. I was angry when I learned of Elukson's case, furious at the thought of such injustice, but I forgot that our God is the great equalizer. He sees injustice and steps in with acts of love and healing. I've seen that through Elukson, and I'm blessed to be reminded of that every day when he stops by our office to say hi on his way to class.
