The mission team of Mike Wnek, Ricky Rowe, Ryan Alex, and their Haitian support staff of Josue Thelusmar, Ederson Pierre-Luis, and Frantz Vil had an incredibly productive trip delivering over 300 tents, clothing, shoes, and even soccer balls, but it was all overshadowed by Mona.
Mona Izma is the 38 year old mother of a 12 year old boy who had a wall colapse on her outside her home in Port Au Prince causing life threatening injuries. She was airlifted to the Jimani Hospital on the Haiti border with the Dominican Republic with severe trauma to both legs, head, teeth, and jaw area. The immediate response was to amputate her left leg above the knee and set the break in her right leg and bind it. The medical staff then laid her on a rubber mat on the floor of the overflowing ward, and went on to tend to the hundreds of other trauma cases overwhelming them.
That night of January 17th, Mike Wnek returning from delivering aid to Croix des Boquet took a 4 year old girl with a 105' fever and a young lady with a crushed shoulder to the hospital. Mike says "I was totally blown away by the amount of severe injuries and "civil war" medical conditions at the hospital. While holdng the four year old who was resisting the anti-biotic shot she so despeartely needed I was an arms length from a man enduring chest surgery with the only pain relief coming from a bottle of Vodka, and 5 feet away an elderly lady having a severe leg break set with no pain relief at all. Leaving my 2 "charges" with a nurse I wandered the halls in shock.
That's when I found Mona and knelt down beside her. She reached for my hand, held it tight and looked me in the eye with an intensity I have never experienced and I can only describe the experience as "connecting at the soul". We prayed together, and I found myself crying profusely at an emotional level I am not sure I have ever experienced. I promised her I would come back and see her every night while I was in Haiti, and an unbreakable bond was formed. We spent the rest of the evening (and every night of our trip) ministering to the patients and medical staff bringing them boxed juice and bread".
On the third night Mike and the mission team returned to the hospital only to find Mona and her brother and sister who were attending to her, in an emotional panic. The doctors had decided that it was easier and less expensive to amputate Mona's other leg than to try and treat her for recovery. That's when Wnek went into overdrive. "I went to the hospital administrator and used every persuasive bone in my body to enlist his help. I offered to pay for any expense for drugs or other aid. He was well aware that we had been attending to his staff and patients and had just delivered suture kits and antibiotics earlier that day. He agreed to have her upgraded in priority and directed me to a couple of volunteer doctors from New York to enlist their aid. Everybody pulled together and Mona's leg was saved!"
Mona was later moved to the Love a Child Recovery Center where Mike and the mission team have stayed in contact. On this, the third trip since the earthquake, Mike stopped to check in on Mona and delivered a new wardrobe his wife Peggy had picked out for her. Mona had just finished physical therapy and was overjoyed when Mike and Ricky Rowe met Mona and her sister and brother at her tent. After hugs and kisses and being overjoyed at the reunion, Mona told us she had a surprise of her own. She reached under her bunk and pulled out a walker and after a couple of false starts rocked herself to develop momentum and stood up in her walker and walked across the tent floor.
Tears of joy were flowing everywhere. Mike said "I have been blessed in life and experienced several "peak" events but only a few that I have experienced a spiritual epiphany. I will never forget that moment as long as I live".
