Little Zeke was found at about 5pm, January 9th and it didn’t take long for the orphanage to see that he was a very sick little boy, only three days old, in need of emergency surgery. The next day the orphanage made arrangements for him to come into our care, and we met them at the bus station where Zeke was then rushed to the hospital via taxi. It was nearly midnight when Zeke was finally admitted into the hospital and diagnosed with anal atresia. By 6:45am Zeke was in surgery.
The emergency surgery on tiny Zeke took five hours but the surgeon’s report was not hopeful. It was too late. Zeke’s body had already begun to deteriorate before surgery, and his blood struggled to clot during the operation. A blood transfusion didn’t seem to help and Zeke was still bleeding and there was a high chance of infection. If the surgery had been done even one day sooner, he might have made it… but it was too late. Or so the doctor said.
A few hours later we heard back from the surgeon. Zeke’s situation was still very critical and the next few hours would decide his fate. His stomach was not working right and his color was very poor. The hospital told us to mentally prepare that he wouldn’t make it.
Mentally preparing for a child to die is painful. It hurts. Even though we had only known Zeke for a few hours, we struggled and grieved at the thought that he would not live to see the next morning… to learn how to smile, crawl or babble… that he would never have the chance to know the unconditional love of a forever family.
So, instead of preparing for Zeke to die, we prayed that he would live.
And Zeke did live.
Two days later, January 12th, the report from the surgeon was hopeful, although still nerve-wracking. The doctor’s report was that Zeke was not getting worse, and his intestines seemed to still be moving. His stomach was still distended but the doctors felt like it was acceptable and, if he continued to remain in his current condition without any changes for the worst, then in a few days he would be considered “stable.”
January 15th Zeke was removed from the breathing machine and seemed to be making small improvements bit by bit. He is still in ICU, but our hope for his life is being realized and we cannot wait to welcome him home.
