Faustina--2006

In May 2006, Maria and I went to Haiti again. 

Maria and I were visiting Luke in his orphanage when I saw Faustina walking towards us. She had a long white dress on and was walking slowly like a little old lady. And her mom was at her side. I remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach that Maria and I were going to need to put Faustina in the small room with us where we were staying and turn it into a mini intensive care unit like we had done for Jean-Baptiste six months earlier. 

Like Jean-Baptiste, Faustina was operated at OSF in the late 90's at OSF. And she desperately needed to come back for repeat surgery. 

Date: Sun May 14 06:57:18 2006
From: "John Carroll, MD"
To: sisterjudithann@osfhealthcare.org,keith steffen,paulkramer,doug marshall
gerald mcshane,joe piccione
CC: pgibson@cdop.org
Subject: Faustina Jacques
May 13, 2006

Dear Sister Judith Ann, Bishop Jenky, Keith, Paul, Doug, Gerry, and Joe,

We are back in Haiti and need your help.

Last year I emailed you a few times regarding Faustina Jacques. 

Faustina is 13 years old and was operated at OSF in the late 90’s for rheumatic
heart disease. When I examined her last September (2005), she was quite sick. I
put her on medications to control her heart rate and tried to dry up her
lungs from congestive heart failure. Her echocardiogram reveals that her
mitral valve is stenotic and needs repeat surgery.

She improved fairly dramatically with the medicines and looked much better
in December. We were disappointed not to hear from all of you regarding
this sick girl last year, but we were able to find a medical center to
accept her at no charge.

Today she and her mom showed up and she is quite ill. She lives about 2
hours by public transportation from where we are in the capital. She is in
congestive heart failure and breathing fast. She can't walk well and lives
a long way away. So we decided to keep her with us in the same room we
cared for Jackson Jean-Baptiste in December. She is too unstable to return
to her home. I need to control her heart rate and clear up some of her
pulmonary edema.

If Faustina turns the corner, we will get on the plane and fly back to
Peoria on Thursday. If she needs help once we arrive in Peoria, can I
count on you and OSF to take care of her if we need to use the emergency
department or hospital for her care before her heart surgery? Once she
improves, we could move her to the hospital where her surgery will be
performed. We cannot offer OSF any money for her care at this point, but
we have heard OSF say many times that you refuse no one and take care of
everyone with the greatest care and love.

Her host family in the Peoria area is hoping for the very best for
Faustina.

Please pray for Faustina that she will improve and make the trip to Peoria
safely.

I will wait to hear from you.

Sincerely,

John

(I never received a response.)

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My comments in 2021--

We were able to bring Faustina to Illinois and she stayed with Maria and me. And she left one of her black leather shoes with us by mistake and I returned it to her family many years later. 

She had successful surgery and did well for many years. 

Faustina's story ends up with an ending which is tragic. Too tragic and sad for me to tell here and now. 

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