When Operation Blessing relief workers found Mejin she was severely dehydrated and mere hours from death.

DAUPHINE, Haiti – Sitting in her grandmother’s lap,
five-year-old Mejin was fading fast.

Only days before, her baby sister had died of the disease that wracked her small body. Now with each passing hour, Mejin was quickly losing her own battle against cholera.

Operation Blessing arrived to her community with a team of doctors who were working fast to treat the villagers when they noticed Mejin.

“Her head looked too heavy for her to hold up on her own,” said OBI staff. A doctor looked at the young girl, but the pronouncement was not good: Mejin was severely dehydrated and, without treatment, would likely have less than four hours to live.

The team worked quickly to get Mejin hooked up to an IV in an attempt to rehydrate her body, but they didn’t have the needed pediatric supplies for her small, frail frame. So Operation Blessing staff loaded Mejin and her grandmother into an SUV and headed several miles along a rough road to the nearest hospital.

Thanks to a donation of medical supplies from Operation Blessing earlier that day, the hospital had everything they needed to treat Mejin for cholera—saving her life.

“It is those victories that keep us going even when disease and death are all around us,” said Eric Lotz, deputy director for Operation Blessing Haiti and part of the team that helped save Mejin’s life. “That one victory was enough to keep us going.”

Mejin recovered from cholera and today she is happy and healthy.

Today, Operation Blessing is continuing to combat cholera and save lives like Mejin’s by providing clean water to communities in the Artibonite region through water purification systems—with each system capable of producing 10,000 gallons of drinking water a day.

Teams have also installed a water purification system at St. Luke Hospital, providing the entire hospital with safe, clean water, and are supplying chlorine manufactured at OBI’s Haiti headquarters to cholera clinics throughout the country for use as a disinfectant to keep the disease from spreading.

And the efforts are paying off.

Two months after treating Mejin, OBI staff returned to her village to check on her and the other villagers.

When they saw Mejin, they hardly recognized her. The once sickly girl was now vibrant, healthy and full of life—a Christmas miracle that friends like you helped make possible through your support of Operation Blessing.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Be a part of OBI's ongoing medical relief efforts by making an online contribution to help those suffering from extreme poverty and sickness.

 

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