This is why God sent me here

RoseMarie is a little girl who's parents died. At the young age of 9 she got taken in by a family as a "Rest-Avek". A rest-avek in Haiti is a slave. Usually it is a young girl with no where to go and she is enslaved to work. Moping, washing, sweeping, cleaning, living in filth, sleeping on the floor, beatings and sexual abuse. She endured all of this. Then one day in December of 09 the beatings (with large stocks of sugar cane) got so bad that her left shoulder shattered; her bone broken in pieces... a part of the bone sticking out of her skin. They left her like that. They did not take her for help. She endured the pain and infection until the ground started to shake. The earthquake of Jan 12 was a horror to many, but for RoseMarie, it was escape. After the earthquake, she made her way to a nearby orphanage. Now 12 years old, the Pastor and his wife took her in.
Being extremely poor themselves, they had little to give her but food and water. The kids sleep on the floor and they had no money for health care. They took her to a local clinic who did not have orthopedic docs so all they could do was dress her wound once in a while. It was then, 6 months after her bones were shattered that I got the e-mail regarding whether we would accept this little girl. They brought her in and we did surgery on her infection riddled shoulder, a shoulder that she will never use properly again.
Before she went in for surgery, we became fast friends. I told her that many people were going to love her while she stayed with us, feed her, give her clothes and do her hair. And as I sat and talked with her about Jesus, listened to her quiet yet strong words and looked at her beautiful smile; I was reminded; this is why God sent me here.

Marie Joseph is a young girl of about 8 years old. I hear the crackle of the radio telling me that there is a paediatric emergency in the ER. The visiting paediatrician and our paramedic are there so thankfully I sigh, I do not have to play paramedic today too. However, I do wander over to see what they have and if I can be a set of hands. When I get there, I see they are working to keep her breathing. She breathes independently but barely. With an O2 mask over her face, she waits for the doc to prepare what she needs to intubate.
Marie Joseph can not talk, she has no energy. All she can do is squeeze out desperate moans. As approach her, I see the voodoo necklace around her neck and I have a terrible sense of dread in knowing that she does not know the saving grace of Jesus. Her family members explain to our Chaplain that the voodoo necklace is to protect her from evil spirits and he starts to talk to the family.
No one is beside her now as they prepare the materials to intubate and transfer, so I step in. Looking into her eyes of desperation I know she has little chance. I tell her to focus on my face and I lean in close to calm her. I ask her if she has heard of Jesus and she motions "yes". I ask her if she knows that He is all she needs to depend on and she motions "no". I look deep into her soul and tell her that I want her to listen to me really carefully. I tell her  that Jesus is right there next to her, holding her in His arms and no matter what happens to her He is all she needs. I tell her He died for her He loves her that much. He is more powerful than any evil spirits that may be around and that right now in her heart and in her head she can cry out to Jesus to be her Lord. I tell her that no matter what happens to her today, that Jesus will not leave her and He is all she needs to focus on. I tell her just to hold on to Jesus, keep talking to him in her heart and not worry about anything else. As we break the voodoo necklace off, they intubate her and pack her in the ambulance to take her to a facility we hope can save her.
I got the call the next day. Two hours after I saw her, she died.
As I remember her eyes focused on mine hearing the good news of Jesus, I am reminded; this is why God sent me here.

Chrislene is a young girl of 11. Her right hand is crushed from a concrete block that fell on her in the earthquake. Her leg bears the scars of many wounds from that night. Now 5 1/2 months after, she sits in my orthopaedic unit while her mom weeps as she tells me the story.  Chrislene's mom sends her to school in Port-au-Prince where she stays with her Aunt.
The afternoon of the earthquake Chrislene sat in her class with 600 other students. When the shaking stopped, all 600 of the kids were under the rubble; dead. Chrislene, the sole survivor was pulled from the wreckage, her leg wounded and her hand crushed and deformed. She does not remember but her mother talks through her tears of going to many different hospital locations in PAP to no avail. She talks of bodies lying everywhere in the parking lots and how she could not get any help. She talks of being accepted in one, only to be put out again. She talks of the hospital she ended up staying in for weeks but they were too busy to do anything for her daughter. She talks of giving up and going home to her town outside of PAP and caring for her daughter's mangled hand until today. Today she heard of the white bone doctor in Titanyen and so she has come.
Chrislene is now on our surgical schedule for July and God happens to be sending us an orthopedic hand specialist. As I talk to her mother, she says in guilty anguish; if I knew this hospital was here, I would have brought her earlier. And then she says but I know God has sent me to you in this place now. And as she gives me a hug, I am reminded; this is why God sent me here.