You can tell a lot about people by the way they play cards.
Case in point: an 11-year-old Haitian boy who is facing months of recuperation, multiple surgeries and physical therapy for his leg, which was badly injured in the recent earthquake.
You can tell a lot about Jean Patrickson – even though he speaks little English.
“I don’t have an ace. Can I do this?” asked Kathy Corbett, executive director of the Missouri chapter of Healing the Children.
“No, you can’t,” said Romel Dufrene, Jean’s cousin, the 20-year-old seasoned card player in the group.
“Jean, why?” asked Corbett.
Jean leaned over and whispered to her.
At first, it seemed Jean was assisting Corbett because, as an American, she was new to the game, which is called Kazino. But there was more than a card game going on here.
They were playing in the recreational therapy room at Shriners Hospital in Frontenac. Corbett’s organization, Healing the Children, brings volunteer doctors, medical staff and supplies to operate on children who can’t get the care they need in their home country.
In Jean’s case, Healing for Children brought him and his cousin, Romel, from Haiti to the U.S. for treatment, therapy and a place to stay while he recovers – at no cost to his family.
Kathy had taken care of Jean. Now Jean was making sure he took care of Kathy.
Earthquake and infection
On January 12, portions of the roof at Jean’s home collapsed during the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 230,000 people. He suffered an open fracture to his right leg, which was already injured.
A bone infection prior to the earthquake resulted in some 10 inches of his tibia (the larger lower leg bone between the knee and the ankle) being removed in a previous surgery in Haiti, so Jean couldn’t put weight on his leg or walk unassisted.
Doctors were thinking about amputating – until an orthopedic surgeon from Washington, who was in Haiti after the quake, decided the young boy’s leg could be saved if he could be treated at Shriners Hospital in St. Louis, which specializes in pediatric orthopedics.
Dr. Edward Fink eventually made contact with the local chapter of Healing for Children, which brought Jean and his cousin to St. Louis.
A team of doctors in St. Louis performed a fibular osteotomy, where they cut a lengthwise portion of Jean’s fibula (the skinny bone next to the shinbone) to slowly transport it and eventually connect it to his remaining tibia (shinbone) through the use of a fixator ? a circular brace attached around the outside of his leg.
When he came out of surgery in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, Romel said, Jean was happy to see the hardware attached to his leg.
“When he came out of surgery he could see something was being done to save his leg, not just clean it,” Corbett said.
The cut portion of bone is attached to wires and rings connected to the fixator to help it move along in a slow, controlled fashion.
“You move them at about a millimeter a day and then that will develop and form new bone between those two pieces that you are moving around,” said Dr. Eric Gordon, orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Hospital and associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine.
The clickers on the fixator are adjusted four times a day to move the bone just a fraction toward where Jean is missing his weight-bearing bone.
Once in place under the tibia, the bone will be attached in its new location and hopefully will continue to grow into a thicker, new tibia.
“That should be thick enough and strong enough for him to be able to lead a normal life walking on it,” Gordon said.
Physical therapy twice a day and adjusting the fixator to slowly move the bone four times a day is painful, but you can’t tell by looking at Jean. Wearing latex gloves to grip the wheels, he glides around with agility in his wheelchair while his mending leg is outstretched and stationary.
Using crutches, doctors and therapists help Jean up on his leg to keep him as active as possible and to bear as much weight as he can to stimulate bone growth.
Once Jean leaves the hospital and becomes an outpatient, his host family and cousin will be trained to make the adjustments and continue physical therapy at home.
“They write something in French that I can read perfectly and we have drawing, so I just can read the paper and ask him what to do,” Romel said.
“And I think part of your job too, Romel, is encouragement: ‘You can do it, Jean, come on,’” Corbett said.
“I always do that,” Romel reassured her. “And I am here for that.”
A first time visitor to the U.S., Romel enjoyed seeing snow for the first time and meeting many nice people. However, coming from a tropical climate, he can do without St. Louis’ cold winter weather.
“I do not like the temperatures,” Romel said. “I just hope my cousin will be better and I can come back home with something in the mind.”
He would like to learn more about electronics and computers. He already speaks a couple of languages fluently, but he wants to build his English skills to help others when he returns home.
“I will be able to teach in English when I get back to Haiti,” Romel said.
For more information on Healing the Children, call 314-781-0244 or visit www.htcmo.org.
For more about Shriners Hospital, go to www.shrinershospitals.org.
