Here is a note we received from Maureen Casey, founder of Los Gozosos home for special needs children in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Maureen takes care of kids who, in some cases, no one else can or will care for. It’s incredibly difficult work, and she’s been doing it for decades. She sent this note to us, but it’s really for you who support Vine.
This is [“Maria”]. She was left on the street at a couple days old by her family because she suffers from Epileptic seizures. Her birth certificate has a long line of numbers in place of her name and the address of the storefront where she was abandoned. After a month in the hospital she was sent to an orphanage that has lots of babies in line for adoption.
After almost two years there, she came to us dying from severe acute malnutrition, advanced pneumonia, and with extensive brain damage because they had never kept her seizures under control.
She spent less than two days in our home before we admitted her to the public hospital. She has been there, on and off the ventilator five times for the last four months. YOUR medical supplies have saved her life and many others:
-You gave us pediatric tubes for the ventilator that allowed this underfunded public hospital to replace their contaminated lines.
-Then you gave us some super antibiotics in IV solutions [which we passed on to hospital staff], right when our Maria had a super resistant hospital infection. We do not know how many lives were saved through that medicine, since the medical staff is not allowed to give me specific information.
-Then you gave us adult ventilator tubes. I am an eyewitness to the fact that the same pediatric unit has been able to help and heal more older children than ever before. That is more lives saved because these national hospitals are severely limited by their lack of supplies. They can only help the patients that they have the equipment to serve.
So thank you a thousand thank yous for all your hard work to serve the medical needs here in Guatemala.
Wiggly Hugs and Sloppy Kisses from all my Special needs kids,
Maureen Casey
Founder/Director Los Gozosos Chimaltenango
We will only add that our while our medical supplies come from partners all over the US and Europe, this time the antibiotics and tubing came from MAP International out of Georgia. The timing was providential, of course - we haven’t had that kind of antibiotics before or since Maria’s need. Our job at Vine is to put vital resources in the hands of the people who need it most - in this case, Maureen, for Maria - and that can only be done together, with you who support Vine. Thank you!