Undiagnosed

Fatimata came to the orphanage when she was 4 months old. She got sick and was sent to the hospital. She has spent the last three months at the hospital. First they treated her for malaria, then malnutrition. After three months she returned from the hospital looking worse than she went in.

During these three months were any other tests done? No. Is she any better? No. Is there anything more they can do for her? No. Do they have any idea what the problem is? No.

I can't tell you how many times that a diagnosis is unable to be made here. I want to pull my hair out sometimes. How is it that a child can be treated for 3 months and come back like this?

Is there anywhere else we can send her? We are told no. What do we do? This is not the first time we have been in a situation where we feel like we are on a death watch.

There may be hope! One problem that we saw immediately with Fatimata is that every time she has a bottle, she vomits. Maybe we are on to something here. An allergy to milk maybe? Or a digestive problem of some sort? We are just taking guesses.

We received a donation of some special hypoallergenic infant formula specifically for babies with digestive and allergy problems. With nothing to lose, I decided to give it a shot. So far, so good! Baby Fatimata is keeping it down.

Praise God for prompting the person to send this formula. Who would guess that this donation may likely save a baby's life!