Miracles happen everyday...

Capt. Thomas Negus

Mission Commander

CP09

I want to tell you a story that a Doctor from Project HOPE shared with me the other day...A woman brought her 7 month old son into a medical site a couple of days ago for evaluation and consideration for cleft palate surgery. Understanding the impact that a cleft palate would have on the trajectory of this young boy's life, the mother was very anxious that her baby might obtain corrective surgery. Unfortunately, since we had already been in El Salvador for a number of days, all of the surgical time available was booked up. The mother did not know this...while she patiently waited in line carrying her dreams for the future in her arms, she had no way of knowing that the odds were already greatly stacked against her. Yet she persisted, waiting for several hours in the long lines that generally form well before the medical sites are opened.

The mother finally made it into the site, where her baby was carefully checked in, weighed, measured by our on-site corpsmen and volunteers, and directed to the appropriate station for evaluation by a doctor. The mother held the baby in her arms as she sat at the desk that served as the doctor's office, describing her hopes for her son, while the doctor gently examined the young baby. He was very professional and compassionate when he explained that surgery would correct his cleft palate, but that he wasn't sure that there was any more surgical time available. He wanted to make sure that he didn't unnecessarily raise the mother's hopes against the long odds she unknowingly faced. Leaving the mother waiting, he hesitatingly consulted the OR administrators to check the remote possibility that there might somehow be an opening with the surgeons who perform this life-altering surgery. The doctor returned and, when he saw mother and child sitting at the desk with all the hopes of the world wrapped up in that tiny bundle, he said he had to wait several moments to compose himself before he could utter the words "Yes, we have room for your son".

Against all calculations, against all estimates, by a strange and wonderful combination of events, there happened to be one last opening. It was waiting for the precious baby from La Union, whose life will be forever changed thanks to the loving persistence of his mother and the miraculous surgical slot held open just for him.