Happy 6th Birthday Benjamin! Read his NICU/TEF story

Benjamin after his repair for his Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Fistula.
His esophogus stopped 14 cm down from his mouth and the fistula was between his
stomach and lung. He had emergancy surgery to repair the anomaly when he was a day old
at Children's of Alabama. He recovered at Children's for 14 days before he was released. 

This morning I could hear Jerry retelling Benjamin his birthday story while he was getting ready for work...it is quite a story and though Benjamin has heard it a million times he always chimes in at some spot. This morning he said..."and where did my esophogus stop?" and "yeah, I remember that surgery...it tickled:)" If you know Benjamin you know that he has amazing comedic timing and is never lacking for a punch line. He really is one of the kindest, most sincere individuals I've ever met. Today is his sixth birthday and we could not be more humbled or thankful to be his parents. Since the day Benjamin was born I have had to fight the natural tendancy to fear. Even today as he is eating cupcakes with his precious kindergarten class to celebrate his birthday I told him "don't laugh and eat your cupcake...you might choke." When Benjamin was born was our first time to blog...here is the link to that blog and if you look back to the March 2008 entries you will see the journey we went on (many of you were on that journey with us and we are forever grateful!)..

Benjamin Blog first days

Burundi Kibuye Hospital NICU/Pediatric Ward is a special place and ministry opportunity for the Grant family for many reasons. But one way God has knit us to this place is because of a friend who is a physician there, Alyssa Pfister. One of our memories of our friend living and being a part of our church community in Birmingham is when Benjamin was born and was recovering from his TEF repair at Children’s. As you can imagine each day felt very overwhelming, especially with a child with a major anomaly. Often these children have other anomalies that have to be addressed and in that first few weeks it felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop as we waited to hear back about tests, ultrasounds, ect. We came to the NICU early one morning when visitation began (this was before you could bed in with your NICU child like you can now at Children’s…yay new Children’s of Alabama NICU!) and there was a small index card on Benjamin’s incubator. It read…

About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." Deut. 33:12

God’s word is living and there are many moments in life as a Christian that you tangibly feel his word…this was one of them. Dear Alyssa had written this on his bed when she was there earlier during her rotations. We will be forever indebted to her for her friendship during those difficult few weeks.

Now we are working to help Alyssa in Burundi where she is on the ground working daily to care for babies and children. Here is the link to donate to adding oxygen to the pediatric wing of the hospital that will be underway soon! We have raise over $3,000 so far...we started on Jud's birthday, February 24th and today we are still working on Benjamin's birthday to raise more donations! Please consider contributing and if you are giving in Benjamin's honor thank you!!! Friends of Hope Africa University - Burundi NICU/Peds ward

Make sure to designate that your donation is for the Burundi NICU/Peds Ward at Kibuye Hope Hospital.

Benjamin with a central line in his head so he can receive antibiotics and
pain medication. This is after his repair but they are still feeding him down an OG tube
til they know the repair didn't have any leaks. The mittens are to keep him from pulling
his tubes and lines out. A NICU trick...we learned a lot while we were there.



 

Cherishing some "normal" at home infant time after a very "abnormal" NICU beginning. I know
many of you have had similar stories.

Sweet baby Benjamin, three weeks old.

This is from the top beam at the new Children's Hospital of Alabama. Jerry and I have served on
the Committee for the Future since Benjamin was there. Jerry signed Benjamin's name on the beam right before they finished topping the building off. Thankful for this place and the physicians that worked on Benjamin during his stay and since then. See if you can spot his name:)!

Our amazing 6 year old! Thankful for you Benjamin!

Burundian Babies and Grant Babies

We are so humbled that we have raised $3,000 so far to Kibuye Hope Hospital’s NICU and Pediatric ward project! This is enough to build the small NICU and to provide oxygen and incubators to the hospital’s smallest patients! Now we are working towards increasing the capability of having oxygen run throughout the wards so that oxygen is available to both the NICU and the pediatric ward. Currently only 4 patients at a time are able to receive oxygen. If you feel led to donate here is the direct link to Friends of Hope Africa University...


Friends of Hope Africa University


Make sure to note that your donation is for the NICU/Pediatric Ward project.

Infants sharing an oxygen concentrator (big blue box).

Dr. Alyssa Pfister with one of her tiny patients in Burundi.
Notice her University of Alabama lab coat:)

From Alyssa’s latest blog post…“In other news, we've really struggled lately in finding enough oxygen for the patients who need it. We brought 4 oxygen concentrators with us on the container (thankfully donated!), but they're all 110V, so they require either a transformer or one of our few 110V outlets here with a plug converter. Basically we can provide oxygen for up to 4 patients at a time - out of approximately 80 patients in the hospital. I often have 4 patients on pediatrics alone who qualify! And that doesn't leave any oxygen for the operating room or anywhere else. We lost a premie last week because he was taken off oxygen prematurely in the middle of the night. And when the power goes off (sometimes for several hours per day), no one gets supplemental oxygen. There are hard ethical questions sometimes on a daily basis deciding who gets the oxygen - I've dealt with these questions with limited ventilators in the ICU in Kenya, but never with something as simple and (relatively) harmless as oxygen by nasal cannula. 

In the midst of these challenges, I have been so encouraged to see help on the way via some friends in Birmingham, AL. The Grants are friends from my church (Red Mountain Church) there and have two children who are NICU survivors. In honor of their sons, they are raising funds for our new NICU and pediatric wards here - to include oxygen! People have already given so generously and we've started renovating a room in the OB ward for a small NICU. It's now painted and we're just waiting for incubators to be constructed so we can start caring for our smallest patients in a warmer, cleaner, more controlled setting.”  

Here is the link to Alyssa's blog...

Dr. Alyssa Pfister's blog

This little one has my heart...amazing eyes.

We were first moved by this project when we saw a picture of Alyssa holding a preemie baby girl who just needed oxygen and an incubator to live. Unfortunately, they did not have those resources available and the baby died the next day. Our hope is that now more babies will survive and thrive because of the new equipment and resources.

When Jerry and I look at the pictures of Burundian children on oxygen, head pick lines and in rustic versions of an incubator we feel so connected to them. Benjamin and Jud are amazing miracles and God used the NICU and Children’s of Alabama to make those miracles happen. If we can in the tiniest way help even one child we are so humbled and grateful! Here are a few pictures of Burundian babies and Grant babies using oxygen concentrators (the big blue box as Barrett and Benjamin call it) and nasel cannula. 

Newborn on nasel cannula

After Jud came off the ventilator and his chest tube was removed
all that was left was his little nasal cannula. This was my first Instagram
pic of the little guy. Til then it was way to hard to even share pictures. Feels
like a distant memory now but he was a very sick boy.

The night before we left the NICU (day 28) we stayed in
a "family room" to learn how to use all of Jud's new equiptment...
and yes it was as overwhelming as it looks in this picture. Amazing
to now think of all that equiptment as a luxury.

I'll never forget our neonatologist saying to us
"You want to go home on oxygen?" I mean...really?
Then she explained how important bonding with
parents and siblings would be to Jud's physical
and developmental growth...this is his first day home
with his brothers. We stayed in PJs all day and took
turns snuggling with him...heaven on earth.

Benjamin's favorite person on earth

and Barrett's too...

OUR NEXT BLOG POST...later this week will be for Benjamin's 6th Birthday. We will

share more of his journey as a NICU baby with a TEF repair at a day old at

Children's Of Alabama.

Family and friends we have done it! We helped build a NICU in Burundi! Now over the next three weeks help us make a Pediatric Ward in that same hospital happen!



Jud at 28 days old when he finally came home from the NICU.
He was on Oxygen for 3.5 more months at home and then
just finally came off a oxygen monitor this month.



The outpouring of love and support for our efforts of building a NICU in Burundi Africa in honor of our sons has been amazing! And because of the quick response to the needs in Burundi they are now going into full renovations and beginning construction on the NICU!!!! We are amazed and humbled by God’s mercy to let us watch this project happen!

When we first started thinking about this opportunity our hope was just to provide oxygen capabilities to this hospital where our dear friend and doctor Alyssa Pfister is working. But quickly our goals were expanded to not only equipping a NICU but beginning the fundraising for a pediatric ward as well.

So many of us have benefitted from the services of a Children’s hospital and can understand the desperate feeling of having a sick baby or child. We wanted to give you a better idea of what your donation would be providing to one of the poorest regions in the world and to children who are in great need.

Kibuye Hope Hospital, Burundi Africa

THE NICU IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION NOW!!!

“I'm amazed and encouraged by the generous gifts. We're getting started here and the room in the OB ward is already cleared out to begin renovations. As you can see in the below pic, there's not much to it yet and we will begin with cleaning and painting, but there will definitely be room for 6 incubators, a nursing desk, and a hand washing station.”  Dr. Alyssa Pfister (http://www.alyssa-in-kenya.blogspot.com/)



The before of the NEW NICU!!! Can't wait to see the
renovations and best of all the equiptment to take
care of the sweet babies in Burundi! Thrilled to see it all start to happen!



Please Donate and help us keep building!!!!

THE PLAN FOR THE FUTURE PEDIATRIC WARD AT KIBUYE HOPE HOSPITAL

The ward will be on the ground floor so that the children will have good access to being outside.

A play area adjacent to the building will entice the children to be outside, which will help with their recovery.

There is also a procedure and resuscitation room close to the ward so that when a child needs to be resuscitated, or if a child needs a procedure like a lumbar puncture, this does not have to be done in front of all the other children.

The target bed count for the Pediatric Ward is 48. Ideally, oxygen would be available to most of the beds. There would be a large oxygen concentrator which would pipe oxygen to the ward. In order to achieve good ventilation and lighting, the wards have been designed similar to those which have recently been built at Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Their innovative design of centrally located beds allows for more windows on the walls, and the sloping ceilings allow for superior passive ventilation.

The nurses' stations have generally been placed near the entrances to the ward so that the nurses can control the patients and family who come in and out of the ward. There is a storage closet near each nurses' station to securely store medication, supplies, equipment, and linens.

There is ample seating at each of the nurses' stations, not only for the nurses, but also for other health professionals who will need to sit there and write notes. There is also a procedure room provided for each ward, as well as access to a meeting room. The meeting room will serve two main purposes: meeting with patients and their families for private discussion, and also a place where teaching in a small group can occur for nursing and medical students.

Dear Friends and family you can help us make the pediatric ward a reality as well! Any donation is appreciated! Please use our secure online donation link or send a check to the address in the left-hand bar of our blog (if you are on your cell make sure to click on View Web Version to see the donation information).



The Finch fam selling lemonade for Kibuye Hope Hospital in Burundi!



Jud turns 1! Benjamin turns 6! Help our family build a NICU in Burundi Africa!

A make-shift incubator for a preemie at Kibuye Hope Hospital in Burundi Africa
where our friend Dr. Alyssa Pfister is on the medical team trying to
build a much-needed NICU and Pediatric Ward in a rural part of
the country. We hope we can help raise enough money for multiple
incubators and oxygen that would be available for the babies in the new NICU. 

   We can’t believe our Sweet Jud turns 1 on February 24th. For many of you who were there with us that day and the days after you know it was a heartbreaking beginning to a dear and precious life. Jud’s severe meconium aspiration caused a pneumo thorax (small hole in his lung) during delivery which combined could have ended his life. I'll never forget looking at Jud's xray the day he was born and his lungs, which should show up as black on an xray, looked like a snowstorm. They were filled from top to bottom with foreign material that was the consistency of tar or bubble gum. But by God’s mercy we had a NICU medical team that was able to ventilate and stabilize him and essentially saved his life!

    His birthday was the beginning of a very long road, but after 28 days in the NICU and then 3 months at home on oxygen his lungs are healing and will one day be “normal” and healthy! But many of you also know this is not the first time that, by God’s mercy, medical  technology has saved one of our children.



On Jud's birthday after he was ventilated
and the NICU put in a chest tube to keep him stable.

 

     Benjamin, who will be 6 on March 27th, was born without a complete Esophagus. This anomaly was a total surprise and a sudden and terrifying entry into the world of neonatal intensive care. Instead of Benjamin's esophagus going straight from his mouth to his stomach it stopped 14 centimeters down from his mouth. Then the rest of the tissue went from his stomach to his lung. So a few hours after he was born he was rushed from Brookwood Hospital here in Birmingham to Children’s Hospital of Alabama.  On day 2 of Benjamin’s life a pediatric surgery team at Children's performed a Tracheoesophogeal Fistula (TEF) repair where they went through his back, deflated his lung and then reconstructed his esophagus. He spent 14 days in the Children's NICU as he recovered from his TEF repair surgery.



Benjamin at 2 days old after his TEF repair at Children's Hospital.
He is ventilated, has a chest tube and is heavily sedated. He was in
the NICU for 14 days.

How humbling to think of the hundreds of hands that touched our Benjamin and Jud to keep them alive and to help care for them during their NICU stays. So how can we celebrate the anniversary of both these boys coming into the world? Well God has revealed an amazing opportunity for our little family to help raise the money to build a much-needed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in one of the poorest countries in the world!

Alyssa Pfister is a doctor who trained here at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and was in our community group at our church during her training. Alyssa has been working and living with an amazing team of doctors and nurses in the small African country of Burundi and serving at both Hope Africa University and Kibuye Hope Hospital. Their hope is to provide teaching to medical students at the hospital and to provide care for infants and children. Alyssa shared with us that their goal is to renovate a room in what is currently an OB ward to become a small NICU with 6 Incubators. Right now the project is small until they can train enough nurses to handle the needs of their smallest patients. The approximate costs for this mini-NICU is estimated to be approximately $1,000. Our hope is that any funds we raise over that will go towards a larger renovation to build a $80,000 pediatric ward. "A large number of our patients are age 1 and under with malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition. We can currently only provide oxygen for one patient at a time. I hope to have oxygen available throughout the peds ward and an oxygen saturation monitor for the nurses to use with the patients," Alyssa told us.

How humbling that in those three months after Jud came home from the NICU we had an oxygen concentration machine, a large oxygen tank, several mini oxygen tanks for when we left the house and our own oxygen saturation monitor. We had as many nasal cannulas (tube that runs the oxygen into the baby's nose) and foot probes as we needed. Unbelievable! And how gracious of God to now, a year later, let us be thankful for the items that we were so heartbroken to have to use.

If our story resonates with you at all we hope that you will give any donation you can to help Alyssa and her team care for the precious babies in Burundi. And for those of you who do not know where Burundi is on the globe...it is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of Southeast Africa and is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzani to the east and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. There is no Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in this region of the country. Our hope is that we can change that!

Baby Jud

The brothers. Benjamin, Barrett and Jud.

 



Thankful for our family and the chance to help other families in need.