The right place at the right time

Jenny and I went to visit Laura's neighbor's little girl in the hospital on Saturday. She's three years old and has Guillan-Barre syndrome (progressive profound weakness that moves its way up the body, occasionally affecting the diaphragm enough that a person must be put on a ventilator - usually eventually completely resolves on its own - you can look it up online :). Since we have active polio in this area of the country everyone has been telling this little girl's mom that she has polio or some infection. Thanks to Laura's hard work of educating the family and calling in every connection she has and thanks to this little girl's stubborn and smart mom - she's doing pretty well. She can't walk or sit up on her own very well but she's able to feed herself and can push against your hand with her foot a bit. Her mom's foot got ran over by a taxi a few weeks ago (talk about adding insult to injury) and she ended up with her heel somewhat detached and a nasty open wound. She's also a single mom. So she's been hobbling around, carrying her seemingly newly paraplegic 3 yr old daughter in a land where people "comfort" you behind your back (and to your face) saying that it's your fate. Sound comforting?
somon, aka: about $2.70. As we left, he asked Laura if there were any programs that bring a doctor from a developing country like Tajikistan to a more modern country like the U.S. for more medical training. He told her that he recognizes that they are limited in what they know and without the help of the government or anyone else, they'll just continue to sit there, not doing much different. We all really admired his humility and eagerness to learn more, not acting like he already knew everything he needed to. If anyone knows any programs like that, please let us know. As for S, I really think her foot will heal well. This doctor told her he'd continue to do her wound care while she was there with her daughter. I'm so thankful for how that day and that visit worked out and that Jenny and I were there and that Laura suggested we look at her foot. She seriously could have lost her foot but God put everyone and everything into place for her to get the treatment she needed. As for S's daughter, she is at the peak of when the Guillan-Barre syndrome should be at its worst and will hopefully be starting to improve. S is a very attentive mom and is using her common sense, keeping her daughter upright a lot so pneumonia doesn't set in, doing range of motion exercises with her, moving her position a lot so she doesn't get bed sores. If I was S, I would have been having a major pity party. So though the state of the medical systems here are atrocious from a western standpoint, there are some real gems working here and some remarkable parents who are advocating for their children.