November 19, 2007

• Malnourished

  

   

  I want you to meet Trust and Trywell, a set of 9 month old twins.  Yes, you read that correctly.... they are 9 months old and very malnourshed.  Mom and Dad brought them into the clinic weighing only 3.3 and 3.5 kilometers (7.3  and 7.7 pounds) looking for hope to save their children's lives.  Unfortunately, the camera never seems to be important at the time of crisis, so this picture is after five days of treatment.  Trust and Trywell live with their parents and older sister about 100 kilometers from the clinic. Mom was trying to breastfeed both infants, but obviously her breastmilk no longer had any nutritional value. Traveling to find us at Sons of Thunder, they passed up many other health facilities.   No other health facility offers free food supplement and teaching like Sons of Thunder, so their babies were facing impending death unless something was done and done quickly.  Immediately, we took the babies off the breast and started them on bottles, infant formula and HEPS porridge(High Energy Protein Supplement).  They tested negative for HIV, so malnutrition with underlying infections were the major diagnoses to be treated.  They received antibiotics to treat both the GI infection evidenced with diarrhea and the eye infection evidenced with purulent drainage. Trust began sucking on the bottle and took to the formula well.....Trywell on the other hand was a bit more stubborn and needed a little more time to be coaxed into accepting this new method of eating.  An IV had to be started on him until he figured out he was not going to be getting mama's breast anymore. After a couple days of teaching, supervising and praying, mom and dad seemed to have learned the new routine and the babies were stable enough to go home.  They were discharged with formula, HEPS porridge and multivitamins and told to return to the clinic in 2 weeks for review.   Transportation was provided to get them as close to their village as possible.

      I often think of Jesus and how He ministered...He didn't just preach the gospel from town to town....no, it says in the Word...."and Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." His was a threefold ministry, one of compassion and love. He took care of physical as well as spiritual needs....Sons of Thunder Medical Ministries is committed to care for both the physical and spiritual needs of the Zambian people. Following the example of Jesus and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are hopefully making a difference. Thank you for partnering with us to bring the light and love of Jesus to a dark and dying world.  Without your financial support, we would not have been able to provide the food supplement needed to give these babies any hope of survival. Thank you again.... 

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