A Child's Story - Silo of Haiti
POSTED ON Feb 26, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
Silo Henderson lay in bed last month at Children of the Nations' (COTN) medical clinic in the Dominican Republic. His mother sat by his side. The shy 16-year-old had a bandaged leg and looked off into the distance. He cracked a smile every once in a while, but not often. In his first week or so at COTN’s medical clinic, Silo had trouble sleeping. He’d wake up with nightmares or just lay awake—unable to sleep at all. He had pain due to fear and anxiety. Anxiety from what he had just gone through—Haiti’s earthquake.
Silo is an only child. He loves soccer and math and says he wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He and his parents live in a town called Nazon in Haiti. Their humble home was on the sixth floor of a building and that’s where Silo was when the earth began to shake far below. He was alone in the house and when the earthquake was finished, he was alone in the rubble—buried by cinderblocks and parts of wall. “When it happened, I was very afraid and praying to Jesus at the same time,” Silo said.
It wasn’t until about 11 p.m. that Silo heard people who were searching for him and others who might be alive under the fallen building. They were calling him—calling his name, in fact. “I called back and said, ‘I’m here!’” Silo remembers.
His mom looks at him as he retells the story. She and her husband had been at work when the earthquake hit. She didn’t know if she’d ever see her only son again. “I was very sad because I thought that he was dead, but when they brought him to me, I felt really happy because he was still alive, and I thank Jesus for that,” said Maggetta, Silo’s mother, through an interpreter.
Silo’s parents were eventually able to find a hospital in Haiti for their son, but the doctors there looked at his deep wound on his leg and determined he needed better care than they could provide. They sent him and his mother to Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, just over the Haitian border into the Dominican Republic. It was there that COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata became familiar with Silo and his medical situation and needs. She determined that he could be better cared for in COTN’s medical clinic about two hours away in Barahona. So, after being treated in Jimani for at least a week or two, Silo and his mother agreed to be transported to Barahona for better care. This was a big decision since they had no way of telling Silo’s father where they were going.
Even after just a week of full-time attention from COTN medical team members, Silo was showing signs of improvement. “He is now doing much better,” his mother said.
Now, more than a month after arriving at COTN’s clinic in Barahona, Silo is able to walk around with crutches. He had a skin graft on his deep leg wound and it is healing nicely, according to the COTN medical team members who are caring for him. Silo is also sleeping through the night with less anxiety than he when he arrived in Barahona. As he recovers, he looks forward to reuniting with his father and starting over, grateful to be alive.
Please consider helping Silo long-term by partnering with COTN as we minister in Haiti.