Haitian Communities Of Minnesota

Lourdes Saraseide, “Sara”, is 7 months old and needs surgery to reconstruct her lower digestive tract.

Sara’s mom delivered Sara on the street. A good Samaritan found them, and they were brought to the hospital. The hospital looked over the baby, but failed to notice her congenital defect, she was born without an anal opening.  The mother was concerned the baby wasn’t pooping and noticed the defect days later while giving the baby a bath. Sara’s mom took her to a hospital in Hinche. Sara needed an emergency ostomy surgery. The hospital in Hinche was not comfortable doing the surgery so they sent mom and baby many miles away to Mirebalais.

The doctors at Mirebalias tried to do an ostomy, but there were complications, so they ended up making and opening for waste to drain into the baby’s vagina. This is a short-term emergency fix and is not a good option for baby Sara going forward.  She is already having difficulty eliminating waste this way. What she really needs is reconstructive surgery to create an anus, complete the connection to her colon, and have the opening to her vagina closed. Anyone who has had abdominal surgery knows this is a BIG DEAL. We are working with St. Damien’s in Port-a-Prince to do the surgery. We have already sent two children for the same surgery at this hospital with success.

Sara already had her first surgery to create an ostomy, the surgery the other hospitals couldn’t do. She is home healing and will have reconstructive surgery in a few weeks. After she heals they will close the ostomy in a third surgery. The bill for the first surgery was 28,500 Gourde which is about $300USD.  Yes $300!  She needs to have a test done that is $200USD.  We are estimating the future costs based on the previous cases.

We are asking for your help healing baby Sara. Any amount is helpful.

Haitian Community of MN