Helping Emanuel

Hey, my name is Amanda Hauser and I just graduated from University of North Carolina Wilmington with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing.

The other day a boy was brought to the Nehemiah Vision compound by his mother. His name was Emanuel and he appeared very sick. His skin was cold and clammy, he was sweating, and he wasn’t able to keep his eyes open. Immediately I went into nurse mode and tried to diagnose his illness. We weren’t able to figure out exactly what was wrong with him because we didn’t have a translator and the little boy wouldn’t respond to us because he was so drowsy. We were told that many different things happened.

His mom was telling us that he had pain on his cheek and his stomach, and then some people were telling us that he fell off of a car. We were also told that he had thrown up and had sores in his mouth, so things seemed very serious. After about 20 minutes of trying to translate from English to French to Creole, we figured out the little boy fell off of the car onto his side and bumped his cheek, hip, and knee. We also found out that the sores in his mouth and tongue were from him biting his tongue and cheek, possibly when he fell. We were never able to find out if he threw up and how many times, or if he was feeling nauseous or not. Since we  didn’t know all of the details due to the language barrier, it was very difficult to determine what had happened and why he was sick.

At first, many people crowded around the little boy and his mother thinking that they would be able to help, but I think that it just scared him more and made things more confusing and difficult. I was lucky to have the help of pharmacy student, Shannon Kelly, who helped me decide that he was most likely dehydrated and had heat exhaustion. After some oral rehydration salts, a slice of bread, and some rest he started to look like he felt a lot better. We sent him off with a bottle of clean water and some children’s Tylenol for his pain from his fall. I felt bad that I couldn’t do more for him, or figure out the details of why he didnt feel good; but we did the best we could with the information we had.

There were a few things that I learned from this experience. First of all, the language barrier made it more difficult to figure out what was wrong with the little boy. In America, we would have been able to ask a few questions and decide that it was dehydration, but we were being told many different things by people in English, French, and Creole. This situation also made me realize that I really come alive when I am able to serve God through serving and helping others. God has given me a passion for nursing. This experience in Haiti has shown me that I want to help people in other countries where medical care is hard to find.

Since being in Haiti, God has shown me His abounding love for His people and has given me a love for them also. They are beautiful people with huge hearts. I am really enjoying serving them and helping in any way that I can!