Chantee

Hoy Chantee:

On the 30th May 2009 our team from the church were in one of the villages that we visit. We minister there to the children as well as bringing medical help and support to the families who live there to try to improve their lives. Mr Bon, the village chief, took Pam, one of our nurses from the International Church and Ann to visit a mother who five days earlier had given birth to her sixth child, a baby girl called Chantee who weighed only 1.5kilos. The baby had a hair lip and double cleft palette.

The mother was distressed as the baby couldn’t breast feed and was having difficulty feeding from a bottle, which had watered down condensed milk in it. The mother couldn’t afford the proper powdered milk for the baby. They assured the mother that God is good and He would supply what the baby needed in terms of food, special feeding bottles etc. They encouraged her by telling her that we would help her.
Tears filled their eyes at the distress of the mother and that the little baby was clearly dying through malnutrition.

They knew she needed immediate attention. Saturday is a bad day to try and find a hospital to help as doctors and nurses work on minimum staff at weekends. They were desperate but determined to help the baby. They tried three different hospitals but couldn’t get any help. Ann and Pam remember sitting outside the third hospital in the Tuk Tuk with the mother and baby crying and praying to God that the baby would start sucking from the bottle, as she desperately needed nourishment. It was clear that only God could help this tiny baby. Then, before their eyes, she miraculously started to suck on the bottle. They praised God as He intervened in the desperate situation.

On Monday morning we took the baby to the National Paediatric Hospital where the doctors told us she was seriously malnourished and very weak and sent us away saying that if she became sick to bring her back to the hospital.
We found out that the baby needed special feeding bottles, silicone, flexible ones which could be squeezed during feeding the help the baby as sucking for her was a problem due to her deformity. The hospital couldn’t help us with the special bottles so we used regular bottles with normal teats but with enlarged holes. Consequently, she could feed but it was exhausting for her. We got advice on which milk formula to give her and showed her mother the best way to feed her baby given the circumstances.

We visited mother and baby every other day, checking what was needed but worryingly, the baby showed no improvement. We as a church thought it would best for Chantee to stay with her family and we would supply everything that was needed. Sadly the hygiene of the mother and conditions were they lived as a family were extremely poor and the mother wasn’t giving Chantee the care she needed. She had five other children and she had to leave the baby each day to work, gathering recyclable rubbish at the local dump.
Then, without warning, we received a phone call to say Chantee had been admitted to the hospital. She was unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit and on life support. The doctors gave little hope for her. However, prayer is powerful and the Elim churches prayed that God would undertake and touch this little life. We prayed for healing and that the baby would pull through.
We visited the hospital everyday and spent many hours praying for her and the other little babies in the ICU. On the third afternoon we got a phone call to say Chantee was taking convulsions and the doctors said she was not going to survive as her heart was weakening. They said we should prepare ourselves for the worst as babies like Chantee usually die. They said that we and they had done all that we could do.
We thank God that He and we didn’t give up on Chantee. We kept praying as we watched her having convulsions and her eyes rolling in her head. We felt so helpless and frightened, but our God is amazing and wonderfully she survived the convulsions and ever so slowly there were little signs of improvement. Chantee slowly began to recover but she remained critical for many days. She gradually grew stronger and stronger and eventually she was brought out of the ICU and was placed in a normal ward.
Then, one Saturday morning, we received a surprise phone call from the hospital to say she was to be discharged that morning. We knew she wasn’t strong enough to leave hospital let alone return to the village where she had almost died but the doctors were insistent that she couldn’t stay any longer. They also told us she was still a sick baby and would need a lot of care but they said that the mother's hygiene was not good and if the baby was taken back to the village she would probably die.
We took Chantee and her mother back to the village and explained to her her and her husband what the doctors had said. The mother told us she needed to work and that she had her other children to look after. We organised a meeting with the village chief, two of our church leadership team who are closely involved with the village and Chantee’s parents and family. With the well being of the child a priority we explored the possibilities for the child. Then, in a lull in the discussions, Chantee’s mother got up and quietly walked across to us and handed Chantee to us wrapped in a dirty towel.
We said we, as a church, would try to help the baby, certainly to recover and in the short term to get her through her first operation. They said they were happy and relieved that we could take the baby and help her.

We left in the Tuk tuk with the baby not really knowing what to do with her. Our first thoughts were who in the church would look after her and for how long? But we were sure of one thing God had spared this little baby in response to the prayers of the church and He seemed to have put this little one in our care.
With little option we took her home and along with our housekeeper, Gumli, we started to care for the baby who was still undernourished and weak. We were able to get special bottles from Ireland and they seemed to work. But it was not easy for us as she cried constantly and needed a lot of attention and care. It was clear to us that she was a special baby but with very special needs.

We have been looking after her for around 4 months now and it has been hard work. One of our ladies in the church with her youngest of three children at 6 years was keen to help and to take her for a while to give us a break. However, she was only able to help for two weeks and brought her the baby back. Chantee was really hard work and the lady was exhausted. We had offered her help in the form of a night nanny but she returned Chantee before that could happen.

We now employ two full time live-in nanny/housekeepers. They are Khmei women, they love Chantee dearly, and they have also fallen under the spell of that peculiarly beautiful smile of hers.
Chantee goes once a month for her weight check and last month we met with the surgeon who will do her first operation. He was delighted with her and told us she was now a healthy baby girl at 5 kilo and that he is planning her operation for mid November.
Chantee is thriving now and she has just cut her first tooth. We believe she is a miracle. We give God all the honour and glory for what He has done and will do for this very special baby.

She has a long road of operations ahead of her. We understand she will need one operation a year for several years. We have explored the possibility of finding a Christian NGO( Non-Governmental Organisation) who specialises in helping such babies but with no success so far.
Please pray for her future that we can find Godly caring Christians to care for her and protect her.

We were shocked to learn that a child with such a deformity would probably be abused and would almost certainly end up in prostitution.
God seems to have put this child in the hands of the church and He has restored her to good health for a purpose.

Chantee was dedicated last week in our Sunday church services. The services were a blessing and very emotional for many. She was beautiful in her dedication outfit and she didn’t cry once – many did - but she didn’t.

Please remember to pray for this little one and others like her here in Cambodia.

John & Ann Turner