Gillian Guin is fundraising
Preemie in dire circumstances- Dominican Republic
Meet Djoulie and Djoulisa. Their mom, Elise, is Haitian, living under tense circumstances in the Dominican Republic. She delivered the first twin in a field on a farm. The farmer tended to the baby as mom began hemorrhaging and passed out. The farmer was able to get her to the hospital.
A chiropractic mission group was on a trip with Chiromissions in the Dominican Republic serving the community and at the local hospital. That’s where we met the two-day old twins. Unfortunately, Elise had life-threateningly low hemoglobin, was a first time mom at 22, and only spoke Haitian-Creole, which none of the hospital staff spoke. She had no directions on how much to feed her babies. They were undernourished when we got there, severely dehydrated, and their lives were in imminent danger.
Our team of amazing doctors and students provided care and chiropractic for the babies and the mother day and night. They finally got enough milk to begin making wet diapers, and to get the nourishment they needed. The team worked with the mother to teach her how to bond with and care for her babies. They also aided in getting a blood transfusion for the mother’s life-threateningly low hemoglobin. With the Mom’s longstanding malnutrition and her low iron, despite our best efforts in the hospital to help her lactate, she was only able to produce teaspoons of her own breast milk. The formula the babies are on is a special one designed to help their survival. It also has to be a premixed formula with water already added due to risk of parasites in the local water supply.
One baby had a very weak suck reflex and was taking feedings too small to survive. Chiropractic and cranial work was continually provided, as was practice on primitive reflexes. By the end of our time together the weaker baby had developed the primitive reflexes she was lacking including rooting and suck reflex and had increased her average milk intake by a whopping 62%.
The girls were released from the hospital the day after we left, which was scary because they were premature, at only 34 weeks gestation, and were still in very real danger. The farmer put the mom and twins up at his farm. Unfortunately, moments after I wrote this story, I received news that one of the twins acquired an infection and despite going back to the hospital, she did not survive.
We want to help ensure the survival of the other twin. We are currently providing formula, which we want to continue to do for at least the first three months of her life to be sure she is stable. Mom also does not have a bed, we want to send a Medela hand breast pump to encourage the mother to begin making her own milk supply, and we are helping them secure wipes and diapers. And we would like to get her a phone temporarily to communicate with and encourage her. We are working with Life Straw to secure a clean water solution for the farm.
Students and doctors at Chiromission have already donated to get the next two weeks of supplies covered. We still need $1200 more dollars to meet our objectives. Please note, we are doing everything possible to help the mom and the surviving twin. If we are unsuccessful we will use this money to help the mom make a better life and to help the hospital where she was treated to get better supplies.
A special thank you to all who helped. Dr. Gillian Guin, Dr. Lindsay Peterson, Dr. Sydney Fenton, Grace Jonasson, Ashley Mann, Caitlyn Courtney, and Bethany Hatulan. Several students got tested in an attempt to donate blood for the mom including Na Liu, Caitlyn Courtney, and Miciah Hirr. Chiropractic student and translator Kevin Prosper worked with the hospital director to organize care that was needed. Chiropractic student Ashley Mann did continual exams, treatments, measured feeds, and recorded findings to produce a case study on their progress. To all the students and doctors who donated money to buy formula. You gave that baby so much love while she was here. And your work continues to help the surviving twin and mom. And a very special thank you to Dr. Peter Morgan for creating this amazing program to connect chiropractors to those in need without which none of this would have been possible.
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Thank you all so much for helping Dr. Patti and I raise money to provide solar panels for the chiropractic founded Mission Life International's orphanage in Haiti. As we were raising money, Mission Life International built the Baby Mama Haiti Birthing and Chiropractic Center that can provide labor and delivery for Haitian women with fully trained midwives and chiropractors. This became the priority for these solar panels because without electricity, providing high quality health care would be extremely challenging. Statistically, 1 in 263 women die in childbirth in Ouanaminthe, Haiti and 1 in 14 children die before the age of 5. This birthing center will definitely improve those statistics! With your help, birth and childhood is a lot safer and healthier in this part of Haiti. 
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