Valcin Chenet: May 15,1977—May 30, 2021

 

Mr. and Mrs. Valcin–July 2020 (Photo by John Carroll)

Yesterday morning I received a WhatsApp text from Madanm Valcin. She is the wife of Valcin Chenet, my Haitian patient who needed heart surgery.

In her text she stated that she was grateful for all I had done for her husband and she used the word “desole” in her text. She also stated that she knew I loved her husband. None of this sounded good and I wondered if Valcin was sick or had died and so I called her. She confirmed that Valcin had died the night before and his funeral would be this Friday in Port au Prince.

I met and examined Valcin for the first time in Haiti in July 2020. Two valves in his heart were not functioning well which put him into heart failure. He was not able to continue working as a teacher and the only breadwinner for his family of two young children and his wife.

After returning to the United States last year, I presented his echocardiogram to a heart surgeon and medical center who accepted Valcin for pro bono heart surgery.

However, it was not meant to be.

We applied twice for a non-immigrant visa for Mr. Valcin to travel to the United States for heart surgery. In early September, on his first application, after a very short interview at the US Consulate in Port au Prince, he was denied a visa to travel to the US for heart surgery.  And with his second application, Mr. Valcin was not granted an interview. Multiple influential people in the United States sent emails to the Consulate in support of Mr. Valcin. We have not been given a reason by the American Embassy for their refusal to grant him the visa. We followed up with an extensive application for a travel visa under Humanitarian Parole which was still being considered at the time of his death.

Mr. Valcin was a faithful and steady man. We texted each other a couple of times each week for most of the past year. His last message to me on Friday, two days before he died–

“Bonsoir Dr John, bon vendredi, et bon weekend en Jesus Christ notre Sauveur.” (Good afternoon, Dr. John, good Friday and good weekend in Jesus Christ, our Savior.)

(To be continued…)

 

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org