Hope and Healing

Darwin Masacela

Darwin Masacela Ayul is 4 years old and is from Cebadas, Ecuador. His mother is a single mom and works in agriculture. When members of MEDLIFE first met Darwin he was visibly sick and had an inguinal hernia. With MEDLIFE’s help Darwin saw an Ecuadorian doctor and his family realized that he had pneumonia and that surgery was not possible until he was cured of the infection. This sickness proved more difficult to cure than we had hoped, but after multiple trips to see the doctor and several medical prescriptions Darwin was well enough for surgery.&n

Christian

Christian is a young boy from a village near Llilla, where MEDLIFE credits its founding experience. Christian’s family had been waiting for the arrival of the MEDLIFE team. The doctors barely had a moment to convert a small room into an examination area, before they recognized that Christian was critically ill. Christian had fallen two weeks earlier.

Darwin

In May 2005, only days after meeting William, members of MEDLIFE’s team met Darwin. Before seeing the doctor, Darwin was examined by a nursing student. She mentioned that she thought his heart didn’t sound “right”. It turned out that she was right.

William

In May of 2005 a MEDLIFE volunteer doctor knew that, after examining William, he had a serious heart condition that would require surgery. As she informed William’s father of the diagnosis, she was surprised to learn that they were aware of his prognosis. “Yes”, he said gravely, “we’ve known he needed surgery for 5 years, but we don’t have the money”. Upon hearing this, MEDLIFE’s volunteers made raising money for William’s surgery a priority.