Stories from the Field: Christella Debreus

In April 2005, six-year-old Christella was brought to Grace Children’s Hospital by her parents. She was suffering from a fever and persistent cough and her mother, a vendor, and father, a driver, thought she had pneumonia. Once examined by the medical staff at the hospital it was determined that Christella had something even more threatening - tuberculosis. She was quickly admitted to Grace Children’s Hospital to begin treatment for her illness.

Due to the fact that tuberculosis bacteria are airborne and highly contagious, the disease can easily spread among family members living in close quarters. Since it was probable that Christella had either contracted tuberculosis from or passed it to her parents or siblings, the staff at Grace Children’s Hospital strongly recommended that her immediate family also be tested. Fortunately, her family all tested negative for the disease.

Although Grace Children’s Hospital expanded its services to offer general pediatric care in 2000, Grace is still considered the leading children’s facility in Haiti for the treatment of tuberculosis. More that half of the children admitted to Grace’s inpatient ward in 2005 suffered from tuberculosis as their primary diagnosis. Families travel from all over the country to bring their children to Grace Children’s Hospital for exceptional medical care.

During her two-and-a-half month stay as an inpatient at Grace Children’s Hospital, Christella was labeled the “funny” girl, due to her great sense of humor. She enjoyed attending school at the hospital and liked to watch TV with the friends she made on the ward. Christella’s parents and siblings, who were very attached to her, visited her every day and sometimes even twice a day, even though they lived a distance from the hospital in Carrefour, a neighborhood on the south edge of Port-au-Prince.

Christella was released from Grace Children’s Hospital this past July, but continues to return weekly to the outpatient TB clinic at the hospital for her medication and follow-up exams. She will complete her full TB treatment regimen this month.

To read more about children who have been helped by ICC’s programs, visit the Stories from the Field page.