A Child's Story - Saudine of Haiti
POSTED ON Feb 10, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
7-year-old Saudine of Haiti
Saudine recuperating from a crushed pelvis at COTN's clinic in Barahona
Saudine Lois flashed a smile at her mom as she and her friend made their way into her family’s living room to play. They had just gotten back from school and the spunky 7-year-old was happy to have her friend over. The two girls were giggling together when the walls of the house began to shake around them. The earth’s loud noise burned their ears. They both jolted to their feet as Saudine heard her mom yelling from the other room to get out. The ground shook beneath the girls and dust from the ceiling was filling their hair and faces. She and her friend bolted from their play area, around a corner towards the door. They reached the opening, but not before one of the walls came tumbling down, falling on the two girls.
Saudine found herself on the ground under rubble. She opened her eyes and strained to see what was happening around her as neighbors struggled to find family members. Finally Saudine heard footsteps and her mother’s voice. She quickly moved the pieces of wall off of her daughter and swooped down by her side. Saudine just cried in relief that her mother was there. “When the concrete fell on me, I was crying and my mom came and got me,” Saudine said through an interpreter.
Her mom picked her up as gently as she could. Her whole body ached and stings of pain would shoot through her body. Her mother brought her to the closest hospital, but there, once they looked at Saudine, they turned her and her mother away saying they couldn’t do anything to help—she had broken bones, they said, and they were not equipped to fix them.
Someone told Saudine and her mother about the makeshift hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic, right across the border. It could be our only chance, her mother thought. She somehow found a taxi to transport the two of them. Saudine’s father agreed they should go—Saudine being their only child, her father was concerned for his daughter and told the two that he would come see them in Jimani. At the hospital, Saudine had her elbow and lower left arm set and put into a cast as well as her pelvic bone and upper legs. The days she was in Jimani with her mother were a blur to Saudine—there were many different doctors and nurses coming and going, her father came to visit her.
Eventually, Children of the Nations (COTN) medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata identified Saudine as being one of the children that COTN would be able to help in our medical clinic in nearby Barahona. Once at the COTN clinic for a few days, Saudine’s personality began to shine. She teased the nurses, wrote English phrases she had learned in school, and played silly games with the other children. Her favorite subject in school is math, she says, and she likes volleyball and the color red. In the future, she hopes to be a doctor.
“I’m feeling better being here,” Saudine said with a grin. Saudine and her mother now look forward to rebuilding their lives back in Haiti, grateful to have survived.
Please consider partnering with COTN as we continue to minister in Haiti!