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Surgeon works on medical mission to poor island nation

Jessica Michel, 3, was born with a club foot, a condition in which the foot grows against the tibia.

For more than two years, the little girl from Haiti walked on her ankle

The genetic condition is more than a physical ailment. In Haiti, where belief in voodoo is strong, having a disability can indicate the presence of evil spirits.

Thanks to the efforts of a team that included Dr. Wilmont Kreis at the Blue Water Surgery Center/Orthopedic Associates of Port Huron and a nonprofit group in Haiti, Jessica had corrective surgery on Sept. 10.

She is recovering in the Port Huron home of Marti and Rob Aho, who have hosted three Haitian children since 2004 following surgeries performed by Kreis.

"It's hard enough to live with a healthy body over there," said Marti Aho, 36. "It's such a small thing on our end, but it will completely change her life."

Kreis, who spent a few weeks in 1983 working as a visiting orthopedist at St. Vincent's Crippled Children's Hospital in Port-au-Prince, said Jessica's surgery was more complicated than others because of her age. In the United States, most children born with a club foot have corrective surgery immediately after birth to prevent damage to the bones and feet, Kreis said.

He said performing surgeries on children from out of the country means doctors may have only one chance to fix a problem. He previously has operated on two other Haitian children who also stayed with the Ahos.

"You usually have only one shot at it," Kreis said. "Kids who are local, you can do it in stages."

Kreis and his team at the Blue Water Surgery Center performed Jessica's surgery for free.

Life in Haiti

Jessica's parents, a migrant farmer named Genis Michel and his wife, Siliana Michel, live with their seven children in a one-room shack in Wharf Jeremy, a poor section of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Like many Haitian parents, the Michels can't afford to educate their seven children or pay out-of-pocket for medical care.

Rob Aho, 35, is a physical therapy assistant who works with Kreis, and Marti Aho is a medical assistant who works for Dr. Aaron Clark, a local family practitioner.

"We love children," Marti said. "We have four other children so our situation meshes well with what we can do."

Jessica's journey was organized through Reach Out to Haiti, a nonprofit group based in Port-au-Prince. The organization facilitates adoptions of Haitian children to parents around the world.

Heaven's Helping Hands, a local nonprofit started by Dr. Aaron Clark and his wife, Theresa Clark, also helped get Jessica to Port Huron for her surgery.

Clark has been taking medical mission trips to Haiti for eight or nine years. He said he's been more active with the mission in the last three or four years. The Clarks and Marti Aho traveled to Haiti in August to conduct a medical clinic. At the clinics, the doctor treats people for intestinal worms, anemia, malnutrition, malaria and typhoid fever.

"The medical care that's available there isn't very good at all," Clark said. "The vast majority of people can't afford any medical care. There is no kind of government medical care. What medical care they do get, they have to pay cash for."

He said the corrective surgery done on Jessica is a rare opportunity for Haitian people.

"For her, it's something she wouldn't be able to get done in Haiti at all," he said. "And even if she did, she wouldn't be able to afford it."

Jessica will have her cast removed Oct. 19 and Rob Aho said they hope to send her home by Thanksgiving.

As she recovers from surgery, Jessica is running around, playing with the Ahos' four daughters. Although she speaks only bits of Creole, Marti said the girl communicates through singing, dancing and playing.

"She is joyful and alive," Marti said. "She has us laughing constantly."

In the future

Rob Aho said it will be hard for the family to return Jessica to a country filled with poverty, struggles and instability.

"The need in Haiti is huge. There's a lot of need. A startling number of kids don't have any education. That's what we're sending her back to," he said. "It's hard to look at her and realize that without involvement, this kid won't have any education."

Marti said two churches, Lighthouse Baptist Church in Fort Gratiot and the New Covenant Church of God in Kimball Township, are collecting money to send each of the children in Jessica's family to school.

It costs between $300 and $400 a year to pay for uniforms, school supplies and tuition, said Aaron Clark.

In addition to giving children more opportunities to succeed and escape poverty, sending kids to school in Haiti also means they may receive up to two meals a day. Feeding the children at school eliminates an expense that parents often struggle to afford.

Area churches have raised $1,400 so far, Clark said. That's enough to cover schooling for one year for three or four children.

He said donors would like to continue the effort every year so Jessica's family can have a hand up in life.

Marti Aho said area residents involved in the project want to expand their work.

"The need is obviously there," she said. "We'd like to get other people doing it also and share. But unless we get more doctors and hospitals involved, we're kind of limited as to what we can do."

Source: Times Herald