Meet the Staff: Li Nai Ru

Our next "Meet the Staff" post features Li Nai Ru. We went to the hospital with her to learn more about what she does for Little Flower.

1. What is your job at Little Flower, and what do you do for your job?
 I am a medical liaison. My job is to bring children to the hospital when they need medical treatment or surgery. I basically play the role of the parent - asking questions and gathering as much information as possible.  In some cases the diagnosis is simple and the treatment is straightforward - like for a baby with cleft lip or palate.  Other times we are faced with a rare birth defect or complicated medical problem with several possibilities for treatment.    At those times I'll need to find out what the options are so the entire Little Flower medical team can discuss and make the best decisions.  If a child needs hospitalization, I am responsible for communicating with the doctors during the child's hospital stay, and also for reporting back to the Little Flower medical team and individual project managers with any updates about the child.

2. What is a typical work day like for you?
In the morning, I go to the train station to pick up children that have been sent from their orphanages, often taking them directly to the hospital. Babies in need of emergency surgery will be hospitalized that day.  Some days I'll go into the city with children already in our projects who need to see a doctor or be admitted.  Each baby is accompanied during their hospital stay by a Little Flower nanny, so I am also responsible for making sure each nanny has the supplies she needs (formula, clothing, diapers) to care for the baby in the hospital.

If a nanny needs a break from her hospital duty shift (hospital nannies work 24/7) then I will bring a replacement to cover for her so she can rest.

Because I am responsible for many babies admitted to different hospitals across this large city, I cannot visit each one every day.  So if there is a change to a baby's condition the doctors will call me to give an update.  When the sending orphanages want an update on a child's medical situation they will call me, so I also act as liaison between Little Flower and our cooperating orphanages.

3. What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Through our help, a child's condition is helped or completely cured. If we can help children in a timely manner after surgery, they can grow to live a nearly normal life can or can take care of themselves.

4. What is one of the difficult parts of your job?
Sometimes a baby needs emergency hospitalization, but there are no available hospital beds.  This often happens in the summer, when the pediatric wards are especially busy due to the school holiday.  If a hospital has no beds I might have to try another hospital, delay the surgery, or see if there is a doctor who might try to make an exception for us.

5. Who was the baby we visited in the hospital today?
Fen.

6. Why was she in the hospital?

Earlier this year, we found that she had started to enter puberty. We took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with hypothalamic hamartoma . She was admitted for surgery to remove this tumor in her brain.

7. You spoke a bit with the doctors and nurses; what did you talk about?
I asked the doctor about Fen; is a slight fever a normal reaction after surgery, and will her symptoms really go away after the surgery? I also asked when they think she could be discharged from the hospital.

We have another child in the ICU, Meng Yi; I asked about her condition. Would they do her hydrocephalus shunt surgery that day?

Also, I asked how the nannies who were caring for our children in the hospital were doing in terms of their care-giving. The nurses could give the nannies some directions on how to further care for our children and save us some hospital fees as a result. Then I asked about getting a bed in the hospital for another one of our babies, Xuan, who also needed surgery.

 

Little Flower is grateful to Li Nai Ru for accepting this difficult and exhausting job.  Because of her hard work and dedication many little lives have been changed
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Look out world, here she comes!

Little You is tired of being on the floor.  She is ready to be part of the action!

 

So what to do about it?  Well, time to stand up and make some changes:

  

  

"Look at ME!  I can do it all by myself!"

 

 

  

You has been practicing and practicing:

  Practicing things like walking around obstacles - toys and other babies, without losing her balance:

 

She knows there's always a big hug waiting when she gets there:

And what could be better motivation than that?

 

 Have you ever seen such a beautiful combination of pure joy and determination?

Sweet little You has faced many challenges in her short life.  She was born with Down Syndrome and has already had major heart surgery.  She is still waiting for a mom and dad of her own.  But she'll go far - we are sure of that.  Look our world, here she comes!

Hua - A Beautiful Flower

 Hua arrived just two days ago,a tiny frail little girl with a serious heart defect.  Her name means "flower" and she certainly is a beautiful little blossom!

Her orphanage told us she was 4 months old, but based on our observations and her development we estimate she's a bit older than that.  Despite her age, she barely weighs as much as a newborn - just 8.5 lbs (3.8 kg).  We were able to take her for a heart echo yesterday and her diagnosis was confirmed as Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV). 

 

We hadn't had time to map out a surgery plan or find funding yet (doctors were still planning additional tests next week), but this morning she took a turn for the worse. Her already low oxygen levels plummeted and she struggled to breathe.  Our staff worked hard to stabilize her and make her comfortable, while at the same time trying to make arrangements to get her to the hospital. 

 

She improved a bit, but then shortly after crashed again.  The second time it didn't seem we would get her back.  Her oxygen levels were only at 30-40%.  We knew she would never make it to the hospital alive.

But this little fighter surprised us all.  She slowly fought back.  Her oxygen levels came up a bit and her heart rate stabilized.

 

 And a little while later, she showed even more improvement. 

 

Through it all, we struggled to make sure she was comforted and that she was loved.  We measure our success on that basis alone.  We can not guarantee that our babies will be healed, that their medical treatments will work, whether their surgeries will be be successful, or whether their lives will be saved.  Those things are out of our control.  What IS in our control is that these abandoned babies will know love.

 As her condition stabilized, once again we made plans to take her to the hospital. 

 

Hua's surgeon had been traveling, but returned to Beijing today.  He rushed back to the hospital to see her.  His team will consider her situation and make a surgery plan.  A complete repair would be ideal, but she is so small and so frail she may not be ready for that.  The surgeons may first attempt a shunt that will buy her some time to get bigger and stronger for a full repair of her heart.

We don't have funds yet for Hua's surgery. In fact, Hua is just one of three of our babies (two with heart defects) who were diagnosed today with serious problems and need emergency surgery.  We trust that God will provide.

 

Please pray for little Hua, that her surgery can be done without delay, and that we will be successful in raising the funds to pay for it.

 

Bo Yu Feeding His Duck

Little Qian

In March of this year we were contacted by a cardiologist at the children's hospital where we arrange most of our heart surgeries. The doctor was treating a patient, a 9 month old little boy who had recently had heart surgery. Little Qian's surgery was successful, but his recovery was complicated and he was very ill. His parents had spent all of their savings and had just run out of money. It was on the very day that doctors were able to extubate him and switch him over to a lower level of ventilatory support when his dad admitted that they had no more money and would be forced to discontinue all treatment.

The doctor was sad to think these parents would have to discharge the child.  He knew the little boy was already starting to improve but that his chances of survival were pretty slim if could not pay for any further treatment.  So he he called us at Little Flower and asked if there was any way we could help this family.  We were able to find a donor to cover the costs of Qian's remaining hospitalization.

Unfortunately, while Qian continued to recover from his heart surgery, he was set back when he contracted meningitis.  His hospital bill exceeded everyone's expectations, but the generous donor agreed to pay the extra costs.

 

His mom and dad stayed by his side in the hospital during this difficult time, doing their best to soothe and comfort him.  They brought his favorite toys and assisted the nurses in all aspects of his care.

Finally he was well enough to return home.  He recently contracted pneumonia and returned to receive treatment for that. (The local hospitals in his province were not able to provide the care he needed).  Again, the donor agreed to pay for his additional medical costs.  He is doing well, and we are so happy to see that sparkle in his eyes again!

We are working on a new program that will help families who are struggling to coordinate care for babies with heart defects like little Qian.  We are grateful to all who support us in this work and excited to share the details of our new program just as soon as we can!

RacingThePlanet for Little Flower

We at Little Flower are blessed to be supported by wonderful people all over the world. We'd like to introduce you to Virginie, who is preparing to run a 250 km self-sustained race in Iceland on behalf of the children of Little Flower. 

 Virginie tells us a little bit about this: 

"I am 37 year old lawyer and mum of three kids, currently living in Beijing. When I arrived in China three year ago, my family was welcomed very warmly by the Eblen family from Saint Louis (MO) in the US, Jacquie and Kevin and their 4 wonderful kids. Their hearts were open to  everybody, and they were pillars of our community, until God's hand decided otherwise almost one year ago. Kevin passed away unexpectedly, leaving a huge emptiness in our lives. In memory of Kevin and to continue his involvement with China Little Flower, I would like to dedicate my next self sustained race to this great man. I indeed signed up for a 250km self sustained race in Iceland from August 4 to August 10.  Only  a place in a tent to sleep at night and water is provided, I will thus carry 8kg on my back, mainly food and emergency gear.  Hopefully the beautiful scenery will make me insensitive to the distance and the cold. Please contribute to this challenge in memory of Kevin Eblen and in honour of all the Little Flower kids"


You can learn more about RacingThePlanet Iceland 2013 and follow Virginie's progress in her blog. 

If you would like to contribute directly to Little Flower on behalf of Virginie's run, please use the button below.

Thank you, Virginie!

Fun with bubbles