Pray for Latifo

Please pray as one of our little ones is being admitted to the hospital for respiratory problems. Latifo, who most of you remember, is almost 3 years old. He came to us battling severe malnutrition in March and then had to be hospitalized for 10 days from a simple GI bug because essentially he had no immune system. Since he returned at the end of March, he has gained over 14 lbs. He has been started on treatment for HIV and his CD4 counts which tells about his immune system and the number of cells in his body that are available to fight off infections has doubled. It is still remarkably low, but much much improved. This is our winter and so as you could guess our cold and flu season. Most of the babies and tots are with fevers, snotty noses, coughs, and just generally not feeling great. For most children, this is ok, but for our weakest (malnourished and/or HIV + and/or TB +) and our youngest (under 2 years) a simple cold can be life threatening.....because what is a simple cold for us is a virus called RSV that can put a child into respiratory failure.

Yesterday evening I was called to the Baby House because Latifo was not doing well. He had vomited 2x earlier in the day and spiked a tiny fever at lunchtime. My Mozambican nurse did a malaria test and it was negative. I had just left him an hour earlier without a fever, playing and happy, without any real problems, having just eaten a snack. When arrived he was burning up and was having a lot of trouble breathing. I gave him a nebulizer, started him on some meds, and gave him some ibuprofen. An hour later he was looking better, but not great. I gave him another respiratory treatment 2 hours after the first one and put him to bed. I checked on him at 10 pm and gave him a 3rd respiratory treatment and some more Tylenol and put him back to bed. At 2 am when I checked on him he looked great! This am, he was still looking good (respiratory wise) and the western nurse in charge of the HIV program packed him up and headed off to the Doctors without Borders HIV program we take our kids to so that they could once over him and discuss if they wanted to do anything differently than the treatment plan I started. While there with the doctor, Latifo vomited 2 times and when he did it was evident that he wasn't really vomited but instead coughing up massive amounts of stuff from his lungs. Immediately afterward he started having severe respiratory problems. Anna, the nurse with him is at this moment in the pediatric emergency room with him getting him admitted.

Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and nurses; for clarity as to his problem and how to treat it; for strength for Latifo; for healing and a quick recovery; for the Tia that will be staying with him. We are all a little worried as the last 2 children we have had to admit, died while in the hospital from very simple respiratory distress that they couldn't treat. Latifo has come so far in such a short time, we are really praying for him to pull through this as well! Please pray for his family and mother who absolutely love him! I will keep you updated as I hear more. Thanks in advance for lifting this little one up in prayer!

This is Latifo (left) from a month ago and yes he's the same size as Lena (Right) a 15 month old.