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. His leg was terribly swollen, he was in severe pain, and had a very high fever. The MEDLIFE doctors recognized they would not be able to treat him in the make-shift clinic and so our Ecuadorian partners took Christian and his father to the nearest city hospital. Christian had a life threatening infection in his leg and needed surgery. Christian’s father was reluctant to have the surgery; he had lost faith in the medical system in Ecuador. MEDLIFE team members advocated for Christian and got lucky. One of MEDLIFE’s team members knew the surgeon at the hospital and made arrangements accompany Christian in the operating room. This extra step gave Christian’s family the confidence that MEDLIFE was going to be there for them until Christian got better. After a series of surgeries and an aggressive antibiotic treatment Christian was released from the hospital and went home.