Alamacen, April 25, 2012

This is a small compound established and run by the Catholic Charities for rehabilitation of children with orthopaedic diseases. Many of these children are waiting for further surgery. Each of their stories tears at your heart. My patient, a little 10-y.o. with severe osteomyelitis of his pelvis, will have to have half his pelvis removed to get the infection under control. A little 5-y.o., whose smile lights up the room, will have his leg amputated above the knee due to out-of-control osteomyelitis. He’s looking forward to it and says, “I don’t like my leg”. The little boy whose hand is crippled from the treatment of a local traditional bone-healer. An 11-y.o. girl that had a burn on her leg when very young. It was so contracted she had to “crawl like a dog." She was locked up in her hut for years until she was discovered by a Swedish volunteer and brought here to start a new life after her surgery to walk. Volunteers teach and love these little ones in need of so much.

Julie Zilenski, Pediatric Orthopaedist, visited us again from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She gave us specialist evaluations and treatment that we could not do ourselves. Many thanks, Julie, for your willingness to give.