July 9, 1999

Ten-year-old Shodener Andre from Haiti wasn't expected to live past August because of his failing heart. But thanks to a group of volunteer physicians and his health care team at the MGH, Shodener went home a happy, healthier child this week.

Shodener had acute rheumatic fever that developed from an untreated strep infection. The disease caused severe damage to his heart valves. For Shodener, who lives in a remote part of Haiti – far from medical facilities that could handle his health care needs – the future was bleak.

Shodener's journey to recovery started in late May when his parents – hard-working peasant farmers – traveled for six hours on a mule to bring their son to a hospital run by a Cambridge-based volunteer organization called Partners in Health (PIH). PIH provides medical care to the poor in Haiti's central plateau region.

Upon examination, the clinic's staff knew the only way Shodener would survive would be to travel to the United States for heart surgery. Shodener's American chaperones, Jennifer Furin, MD, and Evan Lyon of PIH, brought him to Boston after they found a team of doctors at the MGH to care for the sick child.

The emaciated boy was placed in the care of Michael de Moor, MD, of MGH Pediatric Cardiology, and Gus Vlahakes, MD, of MGH Cardiac Surgery, along with a team of nurses, including: KiKi Benjamin, RN, Geraldine Gardner, RN, Juliette Hardiman, RN, and Roseann McClory, RN. Shodener then underwent successful mitral valve surgery.

"We were very fortunate to find the care Shodener needed at the MGH," says Furin, who also is a resident at BWH. "This has been a gift. The MGH saved his life."

During his monthlong stay in Boston, Shodener experienced a world very different from his home in Haiti. He took his first airplane ride to come to Boston, and after his surgery, he talked on a telephone for the first time with his mother in Haiti. He had never seen a television or a video game. And he had never been inside an enclosed building with central air conditioning.

His transition into the modern world of the MGH was made a little easier with help from Haitian MGHers. When Yves Bourjolly, a nutrition service coordinator from Dietary, heard about Shodener, he immediately called upon a network of employees who hail from Haiti to come visit the child and speak to him in his native tongue. "When I found out he was by himself without his family so far away from home, I knew I had to offer my help," says Bourjolly, who came to the United States 10 years ago from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. "He started to miss home and his mother, so I tried to make him feel more comfortable."

Bourjolly helped Shodener select foods from the hospital menu that more closely resembled meals from home, such as beans and rice, soups and chili.

A host of Haitian natives visited Shodener's room on Ellison 18 during his stay at the MGH. And they all came to say good-bye and wish him well when he was discharged June 28. "What touched me the most when Shodener was leaving," says Bourjolly, "was that we finally made him smile."

Upon Shodener's return home, community physicians from the PIH hospital will continue to follow his condition. And with donations and grants, the organization is building a home for the child's family near the hospital.

For more information about Partners in Health, call (617) 661-2669.

From left, Furin, Lyon, Shodener and Hardiman.