Christians send surgeons to Haiti in effort to save teenager’s life

Jean Wilson, also known as Lobe, grew up at the church-supported Cap Haitien Children’s Home. He will undergo surgery in Haiti this weekend. (PHOTO BY HUNTER KITTRELL)

Two surgeons from Johnson City, Tenn., will fly to the Caribbean nation of Haiti this weekend to perform potentially life-saving surgery on a teenager.

The teenager, Jean Wilson (also known as Lobe), suffers constant headaches from a subdural hematoma — a mass of blood collecting in his head, pushing against his brain. The hematoma is the result of a July 4 injury, when Wilson fell out of tree.

Wilson is one of the youths served by Emmaus House, a church-supported ministry in Cap Haitien, Haiti. It’s a transition home for young adults who grew up at the Cap Haitien Children’s Home. Hunter and Jillian Kittrell, who oversaw the children’s home, transitioned into the new ministry earlier this year. (See our 2012 story about the Kittrells and the ministry, “Faith in a land of zombies.”) The Northwest Church of Christ in Westminster, Colo., supports the work.

On her personal blog, Jillian Kittrell writes about the experience of finding doctors and making arrangements for the surgery. Flying surgeons from the U.S. to Haiti will be easier than obtaining a medical visa for Wilson to have the procedure done in the U.S., she says.

God has had a plan all along.

This week two doctors from Johnson City, TN (my hometown) have volunteered their time to come and perform Lobe’s surgery free of charge IN HAITI. And the equipment, medications, and operating room have all been donated. The surgery will be a simple operation- but extremely necessary nonetheless.

In other words: PRAISE GOD!

…

Just the other day I spoke with Lobe on Facetime. Trying not to cry I said, “Lobe, God must have such BIG plans for you. All these doctors think you should be dead, but He has kept you safe!” Laughing he said, “I know, right?” All of us at Emmaus House can’t wait to see what God has in store for Lobe. Apparently it must be HUGE or He would not have seen him through in such miraculous ways these past few months.

Read the full blog post.