.bria

I came in late on the miracle that is Bria - she arrived at the hospital
the day I quit working due to liver issues.

by the time I came back, she had been at the hospital almost 6 weeks,
and by the time she left, she had been here more than 2 months.

i am told that when she came in, no one expected her to live. Her left
arm, chest, and neck suffered horrible burns.

I posted a blog awhile back about Felix, a burn kid who we spent months
fighting for, he went home doing well also and i feel like through his
positive outcome we learned about how to adapt burn care to this
environment.

and we also were reminded never ever to give up.

the nurses at the hospital say the burn creme we cooked up when Felix
was with us (we were out of all other cremes) was a life saver for Bria.

Mary Charles, chief of pediatrics, worked tirelessly, washing her every
day and cleaning the puss out of her wounds carefully with a bleach
water solution.

she would scream and scream when he washed her and when we worked her
arm, trying to prevent the contracture that you see in the picture

by the time i got here, she was doing amazing.

her skin was healing, she was going to live

and it just makes me so happy - two kids in a row who had a horrible
prognosis and all the brutal odds against them - two kids who made it -
two kids who show us that little things do matter and miracles do happen.

now, she is almost all healed - eventually they will do surgery on her
contracted left arm - but she is alive

and she is beautiful.