Miraculous Martha Luz

Victor Hugo and Padre Jack living a miracle

She was in her house. The same house her other children were delivered, but something was wrong. Amidst her labor pains, she felt something different, something tickling her leg. Indeed it was her child's hand grasping for life. Her husband is a Kichwa community leader and a well informed man, and he knew that the mother's and baby's live were both in danger.

The state of Loreto (green area) is the size of Texas. 

Angoteros (where the arm prolapsed) is the purple arrow. Centro de Salud Santa Clotilde (CSSC) is the blue arrow. There are no roads. The family has only a wooden canoe with a small outboard motor. Time was of the essence, we know that most babies with prolapsed arms don't survive if they are this far from a hospital. They immediately went to the Angoteros Health Post, where the nurse technician there wisked the family onto the emergency speed boat and arrived here at CSSC 5 hours later. Gray clouds hung over CSSC, knowing the baby likely wouldn't survive. To our surprise, Martha Luz would hear nothing of gray skies. Upon arrival, Padre Jack found heart tones and immediately rolled the patient to operating room for a cesarean section. She was born weak, without a cry. For 20 minutes Brian helped her breath with a ambu bag.

I arrived 45 minutes later from down river to find an adorable crying chubby pink baby in the incubator. Her first week was rough. She was breathing at 100 breaths a minute and her oxygen would drop to 75% on room air. Now she is on 1 liter of oxygen, breathing at a normal rate, eating and gaining weight. Although her lungs sound clear, we haven't been able to take off the oxygen. It may be Meconium Aspiration Syndrome or Pulmonary Hypertension or a resolving pneumothorax. We don't have X-ray, (or a neonatologist) which may help us distinguish.

Her parents want to leave because they have a 6 and 11 year old at home. Dad says school starts tomorrow and the kids paddle a canoe (alone) across a stretch of water to get to school. If there are lots of waves, the dad will take them because the canoe easily tips over. He is worried for their safety while here. I encouraged him to stay here because without oxygen, Martha Luz's oxygen level drops to 80%, which could cause brain damage or suffocation.

Life on the river is not easy. God has a way of working through people and bringing hope and strength where it seems there is none. Pray for little Martha Luz and her family.