A Child's Story - Sylvain of Haiti
POSTED ON Jan 20, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
Two-and-a-half year old Sylvain Marc Roben leans on his father, also named Sylvain, as his dad explains what happened to their family during Haiti’s earthquake last week. (Photo: Scott Cook)
Little Sylvain suffers from burn wounds as well as a broken arm. (Photo: Scott Cook)
Two-year-old Sylvain Marc Roben is carried by medical volunteers and his father to the Dominican military helicopter to be airlifted out to another hospital.
Sylvain Marc Roben, who suffers from the burns that boiling water gave him when the earthquake happened, gets placed on the helicopter to be airlifted to a hospital on Friday.
Sylvain Marc Roben's father, whose name is also Sylvain, praises God for the opportunity to have help for his son in this way and thanks the officers for taking his son.
The two burn victims--the man and the young boy--who have been cared for at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani get airlifted out for more intensive care on Friday.
Sylvain's father looks out the window as the helicopter gets ready to take off on Friday, holding his two-year-old son, Sylvain Marc Roben, who needs special care for his burn wounds from Haiti's earthquake.
Sylvain Marc Roben is two-and-a-half years old. The sweet Haitian boy leans against his father—who looks exhausted and weary—in the trailer that’s been set up to serve as the ICU of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, Domincan Republic. Sylvain’s stomach is wrapped in gauze and bandages, one arm hooked up to an IV and the other in a full cast. He stares with a blank expression at those who enter the room, his chubby cheeks indicating his young age and his eyes wet from crying.
Little Sylvain was at home in Carrefour, Haiti with his parents on Tuesday when the earthquake hit. It wasn’t just the falling house that injured the little boy. Water that his parents had been boiling fell on him as the ground shook, burning the skin on his chest and stomach.
“We took him to the hospital in Port-au-Prince, but because of the aftershocks they told everyone to go outside,” Sylvain’s father told me through a translator. There were also no supplies to treat the boy’s serious burn wounds.
While waiting outside, a Haitian woman arranged for the father and son to join a few others in a vehicle headed to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani. “We have no money and no house,” the father said. “Thank God that this woman helped us.”
Sylvain is being cared for here in the most critical location of the hospital, but that doesn’t change much in the little boy’s eyes. “He asks for his mom and wants to go back home,” his father said. “He’s usually so talkative, but now he’s so quiet and sad and he cries a lot. I have to stay right next to him.”
Unsure how long he will be here with his son, Sylvain’s father just waits to hear and see what tomorrow and the near future brings. He has no house back home where his wife waits for their return, but right now he only seems concerned about his young son who is dealing with such pain. He is happy to talk with us when he hears about Children of the Nations and why it exists. He tells me “thank you for the conversation” after he finishes telling me about the tragic day of the earthquake. And he holds his son to comfort his pain.
Please donate to COTN's Haiti Earthquake Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
** UPDATE ** Friday, January 22, 2010 (10:25am)
Jimani, Dominican Republic – We just found out that joining the burn victim [see post from 1/22/10)] on the military helicopter out of Good Samaritan Hospital just moments ago was the two-year-old boy, Sylvain Marc Roben, whom we wrote about a few days ago. Sylvain is also suffering from major burns on his stomach caused boiling water falling on him during the earthquake. He is in the ICU area here and is on the list of patients needing to be airlifted out for better and more immediate care. It was not planned for him to be on this helicopter, however.
According to COTN photographer, Scott Cook of Orlando, Florida, who was on the ground near the helicopter, Sylvain's father was crying to the doctors, asking why his son could not come along, as he was in desperate need of additional help that is not available at this location. The father—gentle and thankful when I interviewed him the other day about his son—was completely distraught for the care and need of his little son, according to Scott. The doctors and military eventually gave in to the father's plea for immediate help and they allowed for him and his son to join the other burn victim on the flight. "I almost lost it down there," Scott said, after photographing the entire emotional process of transporting the two critical patients into the helicopter. Since both Scott and I met and talked with the boy and father just a few days ago, it makes the entire situation that much more personal and that much more real.