Yvonise Augustin Scholarship

On the morning of Monday, January 12, 2015, I met a young girl who would change my life forever. 

I was volunteering on an international medical trip with nine other graduate nursing students at a clinic in Grand-Bois, Haiti.  The mountainous region of Grand-Bois has about 65,000 residents, and the St. Vincent de Paul Health Center run by the ServeHAITI is the only place to get medical attention within 200 square miles.

On the morning of January 12th, the clinic doors had opened for the day and as per usual, an influx of the sick and injured clamored in to register for treatment.  On one of the benches was a young, barefoot girl with swollen feet, in “tripod position”, struggling to breathe, and waiting to be seen.  A few of the students and myself, with our translator, performed the intake assessment on this young girl.  We learned from her medical chart is that she has been treated at the clinic numerous times over the past few years and she has what they believe to be right-sided heart failure.  Most-likely the result of a congenital abnormality, this beautiful young girl suffered from congestive heart failure which resulted in blood backing up into, or congesting the liver, abdomen, lower extremities, and lungs.  With my stethoscope, I listened to her lung sounds and her heart and assessed her extremely rapid pulse and heart murmur.  The clinic has been providing her with multiple medications to increase the efficacy of her heart’s contractions and decrease the workload.  Due to her health condition, this fifteen year old girl had not yet gone through puberty, could not attend school, or run around and play with her friends. 

We provided care for this girl, poking her many times for IVs and to drain the fluid from her abdomen.  We were able to medicate her to stabilize her breathing and vital signs, but this was not a cure.  She would need some type of open heart surgery to save her life.  


(Above photo:  She had never in her life colored anything... so I gave her some Sharpie markers I had brought on the trip and we drew pictures together.  This was her first time ever using a marker in her life)

While caring for Yvonise, I started asking questions to the doctor about how to get the process going so she could possibly have life-saving surgery in the Dominican Republic or some other nearby island (since Haiti does not have the resources to perform this type of surgery). 

In an attempt to make a REALLY long story short… I came home from Haiti, and got right to work.  I organized for Yvonise to have an echocardiogram performed in Port-au-Prince, I paid for her echocardiogram out of my pocket as well has her transportation to and from the hospital (4 hours down an unpaved mountain).  I received the echo results via email and sent along her echocardiogram to cardiologists and cardiac surgeons here in the States.  I also found out that she could be put on a list for surgery because a medical mission team of cardiac surgeons from the US and the UK were going to Haiti to perform heart surgeries on children in March of 2015.  I got in touch with the pediatric cardiac surgeons who would be performing the surgeries, and sent them Yvonise’s echocardiogram.  We communicated back and forth numerous times over three weeks, and they explained all of the various problems that were going on with Yvonise’s heart.  It seemed like she was in need of a heart-lung transplant, but they weren’t going to fully make that determination until they met and examined her on March 14th.  Yvonise was on a list to be evaluated and possibly operated on at St. Damien’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince for the afternoon of March 14, 2015. 

I received a phone call from Dr. Leopold at 11:18AM on February 14th, that Yvonise had passed away.  Even though I knew her heart was in bad shape… I didn’t think she would pass so soon.   The news was devastating.  In this one week since her death I have been trying to think of positive ways to help her family and ideas on ways keep her story and her name alive.  In these small villages in Haiti, there are no birth records, no social security cards or driver’s licenses, and no death certificates.  When someone passes away, it is almost as if they never existed.  I don’t want this to be the case for Yvonise Augustin.  I want her spirit and her story to stay alive forever. 

So I am creating the Yvonise Augustin Scholarship for International Nursing and Global Health.  This scholarship will be available to graduate nursing students at the University of San Diego who want to pursue a career in global health.  The scholarship needs an endowment of $50,000 to get started and then the interest generated will provide students with scholarships each year to help fund their medical mission trips.  (Each trip costs about $1,500+ and the students have to pay for this out of their pockets.)  I want to help support nursing student who want to devote their time to helping people like Yvonise. 

I am asking for donations… no amount is too small.  Please help me start this scholarship fund so nursing students can read about who Yvonise was, and how this scholarship will help fund their international nursing mission trips to serve people who have nothing and are in dire need of help.  By sending more nurses on these medical mission trips, children like Yvonise will receive medical care and diagnostic testing earlier in life and be placed on surgical lists, so they too can have a chance to live their lives. 

By starting the Yvonise Augustin Scholarship for International Nursing and Global Health, Yvonise's name and story will live on forever.  Please help me keep her name alive.  

Thank You!

Love,

Diana Appleby

 
* **  Sidenote- Many thanks to the ServeHAITI organization for covering Yvonise’s funeral costs.  She was given a beautiful (and very uncommon) funeral with a pastor, a beautiful casket, and the entire town attended.  I am forever grateful for this.  

 As they say in Creole, "Ke nanm ou repoze an pe ti zanj." 

Rest in Peace Sweet Angel.

 

Yvonise, myself, and her mother:

Me giving my sneakers to Yvonise on my last day at the clinic:


Yvonise's first "selfie".  She had never had a photo taken of her before this day.

Dr. Leopold and Yvonise: