vim - Marion General Hospital

A Blessed
Little girl
Born with a debilitating birth defect, young Bedonia travels
from Haiti to MGH so surgeons can save her foot
By Randy dEffEnBaugh
Eight-year-old Bedonia Michel’s young life has been
filled with many miracles. Her first came eight years
ago when she was only 4 days old.
Bedonia was born in Haiti with spina bifida, a birth defect
in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before
birth. The surgery and expertise to correct her condition
were not available in her native country, so she and a missionary
nurse made the journey from Haiti to Indianapolis
to have corrective surgery.
How that initial trip came about was in itself a miracle.
The missionary nurse had to travel to the U.S. Embassy
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and largest city, to get a
medical visa for Bedonia. To confirm the nurse’s story, the
embassy staff member by telephone spoke directly to the
American pediatrician who was arranging for the necessary
surgery. After the call, the embassy worker quickly granted
the visa.
Bedonia’s second miracle followed when she and her father,
Rousvel, returned to America when she was 2 for follow-up
neurological evaluation and new braces for her feet.
InfectIon RequIRes suRgeRy
For years after her follow-up, Bedonia enjoyed a fairly typical
Haitian childhood. Then, two years ago, “she was taking
a simple walk barefoot in her yard when she cut her foot
on something sharp,” says Marilyn Hunter, M.D., a Grant
County pediatrician, family friend and frequent missionary
to Haiti. Because of the symptoms of her spina bifida,
Bedonia has no feeling or sensation below her ankles or on
the outside of her legs. “No one knew of the injury until her
bone was infected,” Dr. Hunter adds.
For two long years, Bedonia and her family dealt with the
infection as best they could in a country where medical care
is not nearly as advanced as the U.S. Bedonia was in and
out of several Haitian hospitals before the grim news came:
“The physicians in Haiti suggested her foot be amputated,”
Dr. Hunter says. “In the often rough and tough world she
has to grow up in, her life would have been much harder had
that happened.”
50
Vim & Vigor • SPRING 2011