The Jasein Garcia story

The Jasein Garcia story

Saturday, July 26, 2008

This month Sandy and I were given the awesome privilege of accompanying

a young boy from our village to Santo Domingo for an operation

thanks to a small group from First Baptist McKinney, Texas,  

After visiting Los Algodones with Mission Direct earlier in the year the small

group "GRACE SIX" raised $1500. to provide an operation for Jasein Garcia.  

Thanks to the efforts of John Huizinga and Dr Janet McCabe surgery was 

arranged at Centro de Ortopedia in Santo Domingo through Doctor Scott Nelson

and CURE INTERNATIONAL.

Here is what Doctor Scott said about Jasein.

Jasein has a type of cerebral palsy which is a short circuiting between the brain and the muscles.  There are all types and variations of this.  Different types of the body can be affected as well as various muscle manifestations and levels of intelligence.  Pre operatively Jasein was a minimal ambulator.  He has problems with balance and involuntary movements (athetosis) that can not be significantly improved by any types of procedures.  These typically are static – not improving or worsening over time.  However some of his deficits can be overcome by training therapy etc. just as any of the rest of us would learn to do a new sport.  He was noted to have an internal torsion of his Left femur and a contracture of the Left knee.  These both can be improved with surgery which we performed on July 22.

 

The surgery went well as planned.  The femur was cut and derotated and securely fixed in a position 40 degrees externally rotated from where he was.  As well some tendons behind his knee were lengthened.  The hardware is strong and can tolerate weight bearing.  He is to keep his knee immobilizer on full time for 4 weeks then may remove it in the day time only for another 4 weeks after which time he does not need it.  He also was given a plastic brace to help align the L foot which can be used as needed.  He does not need anything special in the weeks to come and can begin some short distance (in house) walking with assistance as his pain permits.  Starting in 4 weeks we can begin a more aggressive program of exercises and mobilization.

 

Scott Nelson MD

cure INTERNATIONAL

As of today, thanks to God, Jasein is smiling, strong and positive but there is still a long road ahead and we ask for your prayers .

Living in L.A.

Dave and Sandy   

Written june 22, 2008

(Moving) and the heat is rising...  Sandy and I have spent the last two weeks moving into the new apartment in the medical clinic in Los Algodones.  An interesting experience in this heat and humidity as the least bit of exertion leaves us completely soaked.  (The little kids look at me with funny faces because I'm completely wet and they are cool as a cucumber)  Elio's friend Guiseppe helped us by loading all the big things like the fridge, stove and bed into his pickup truck.  Guiseppe retired from his job in Germany and now devotes all his time  as a volunteer, working supervising the construction that Fundacion el Samaritano is doing in Los Algodones.  He is there early every morning making sure everything goes smoothly and has blessed us with making sure our apartment is cosy and that everything works (rare in the D.R.)  The kids of the village love Guiseppe as you can see from the pics on our new "imac" web site. (look for the link to the top right corner of our blog).

(God answers prayer)  Recently Sandy and I were feeling very discouraged so we prayed for a little encouragement.  God answered this prayer in abundance with encouragement from the people of L.A., with visitors with Mission Direct, with emails and with a return visit from Bill Stephenson of Barrie Ontario.

(Mission Direct blesses Algodones)  This week was a very busy one with a group of 40 from Texas here with Mission Direct helping out in Nazareth and Los Algodones.  They spent many days in Algodones working at the building site and establishing relationships with the people of L.A.  Wednesday afternoon they blessed Algodones with food for every family in the village.  Because of the amount packed into every bundle this was not a very easy task and they struggled carrying the food packs to every home.  Also the children of one of the families of the group made a financial contribution towards books for the school library.   There were many other things that the group did to bless the village and us.  We thank them for the encouragement that their love in action is to us and the people of Los Algodones. 

(Bill Stephenson and Pastor Joseph go to Haiti)  Let me tell you a little about Bill and Debbie Stephenson who have been periodicaly visiting the D.R. for a little over three years now.  We first met them about one month into our stay here when they visited L.A.  God has touched Bills heart with the need to reach Haiti with Jesus Christ.  Teaming up with Pastor Joseph, Bill is developing a plan to start a training centre to equip Haitian Ministers to return to Haiti,  plant churches and spread the Gospel there.  This Saturday Bill and Pastor Joseph went to Haiti to see the situation there.  They return here on Wednesday.  We look forward to hearing how the trip went.  God placed this plan to train Haitian ministers on Pastor Joseph's heart and he has been faithfully searching for ways to bring it into being.  It is exciting to see Gods hand in all of this.  I'll write more when they return but there are other exciting developments that I'm not at liberty to mention yet... (Please keep them  in your prayers).

(Small change, big Blessing)  Moses Di Sabatino, (Elio's friend)  visited Algodones recently and blessed us with a gift of support for some of the new parents in the village.  Apparently one of the ladies in his church saves up her small change and contributed it all to help out  in Algodones.  This will help out Jimiy and his wife in particular who have a newborn and no job, and need the extra support.  

I have to apologize for the lack of email communication recently as the move to L.A. has deprived us of easy access to an internet connection.   

Thank you for your continued prayers, we could not do this without our family in Christ helping us.  

Your friends, living in Los Algodones...

Dave and Sandy Chapman