Our little Jude had an echo check-up at Hadassah Hospital today. There were some difficulties about getting him the right appointments at the right times, so we took him to the echo clinic and asked if they had an opening for us.

After waiting a while, a very kind doctor took time for us out of his busy schedule. He answered a few of Jude’s mother’s worries, and told us that everything is progressing normally, and that Jude will be ready for his next operation after six months. He should return in three months for another echo.

Before Jude was okay to go back to Gaza, we also needed a doctor from the plastics department to make sure that Jude’s shoulder is healing the way it should be. We went to the pediatric department where Jude was hospitalized before his discharge, and asked who his plastics doctor is. They didn’t know, but they were very helpful with figuring out some details about Jude’s medicines, and they also told us where to ask about the plastics appointment.

We went up to the department and asked if they could make sure it was safe for him to go home. Even though it was a slightly unorthodox way of doing things, they were incredibly helpful.

Jude’s shoulder is healing well, and he can have his stitches out after a week or two. He will have to return here for that, though we don’t know exactly when yet. Thank God for all of the helpful and self-sacrificing doctors at Hadassah today! May God bless them for their good work. And praise God for Jude’s recovery – may he continue to do well after his return home to Gaza.

Little Jude had a surgery at Hadassah Hospital today to fix the infected wound on his shoulder. After his initial surgery at Hadassah, a misplaced IV opened the opportunity for a bacterial infection, which escalated to become a large wound. He has been on antibiotics and topical medications for a while now, but he hasn’t been making the progress the doctors wanted him to.

They decided to do a surgery to clean and close the wound. Yesterday, when I asked them about it, they said they would do a skin graft from his leg. However, they didn’t have to! They were able to clean and close the area without skin grafts, and he’s doing well so far.

When I first came in to visit today, he had been out of surgery for two hours, and he wasn’t allowed to eat yet. He was very hungry, and in a lot of pain from his shoulder as he woke up from his sedation. While I was there, he was sucking on his pacifier so strongly that it went in and out of his mouth. His mother said, “It hurts him, but he’s so strong.”

After I left the room, two doctors came in to do a blood test, after which he was allowed to eat. Jonathan and coworker Grant went in to visit him afterwards, and watched him have his first food after surgery. He was very hungry, and after calmed down a bit. Thank God for our sweet little boy’s good surgery!

Please pray that the infection will respond well to the antibiotics and that he will be able to go home soon.

Little Jude is continuing to improve well in most areas, but today he vomited a couple times. His doctor thinks he might have a virus. But that is one of the only things standing between him and being discharged from the hospital, as long as the sore on his shoulder gets looked at by a specialist. He is doing well, though for now he is in a special isolation room in the pediatric ward because of his virus.

When I came in, he was peacefully sleeping, and his sweet mother and I sat and talked quietly for a few minutes. Please pray that little Jude will recover quickly from whatever is causing his vomiting, and that he will soon be able to go home.

Today we visited Jude at Hadassah Hospital with my coworker Tineke. Jude is having an improvement, he’s eating from the bottle and he’s not using the sonda anymore. He has to make some stops to finish the bottle because he gets tired, he’s still learning how to do it. Jude was moved from the Pediatric ICU to the pediatric hospital wing.

Jude was staring at Tineke almost all the time. When we went to the room, the nurse was cleaning a wound in Jude’s shoulder, this appears because during the surgery, a needle came out.  Because of this, the nurses and doctors asked us to be careful and the next time to avoid entering his room with personal belongings. The person in charge of the infection’s department is worried about this issue because this is a resistant bacteria and could be transmitted easily; this is why Jude is isolated.

Praise God, Jude is already extubate and eating by his own; our prayer now should be for wisdom for the medical staff to take the correct next step for him, now is uncertain.

Today at Hadassah Hospital, I first met Jude’s mother in the floor kitchen, chatting with the grandmother of another child here. They were very kind and immediately offered me a cup of coffee. Then Jude’s mother and I went to visit Jude.

Jude was crying a bit, so I went over to pat his head and talk to him while his mother began to prepare his milk. It turns out Jude wasn’t hungry yet, he was just tired. He fell asleep quickly, and then his mother and I sat and chatted for a while.

She showed me pictures of Jude’s older brother and father, and I showed her pictures of my family. After we had been chatting for maybe ten minutes, Jude’s oxygen dropped from 70% to 50%, which made the alarms on his screen go off. A nurse leaned in and asked us to wake him up a bit to see if that would improve his oxygen level. It did, and he jumped back up to 78%.

But as soon as he fell asleep again, it dropped back down. The nurse came in and turned him onto his back – it worked like magic, and he was sleeping peacefully with good oxygen levels in no time.

Jude’s mom says he is eating well, though it remains a time-consuming process. Please pray that this sweet boy will continue to improve, and that God will encourage his mother while she is away from the rest of her family.

Our adorable little Jude is doing very well after his surgery at Hadassah Hospital. Today the doctors were helping his mother to teach him how to drink milk. They gave him the nipple from a bottle to train his mouth how to drink. When I came in to visit today he was comfortably snuggled on his mom’s lap. He is even able to drink mother’s milk, only using some formula to fill in the gaps.

Today he needed a special bottle to help him drink. The doctor gave me a handwritten note with the specific details written down, along with a bit of money to pay for it. I told her that Shevet could pay for it, but she shook her head and said, “No, no, I want to help!” Jude’s mother was very happy and thankful to have the bottle. It’s beautiful to see how well the doctors care for this baby. Since he has hypoplastic left, Jude will most likely need at least two more surgeries, but for now he is doing very well.

Please pray that he will continue to recover, and that his learning to drink will go well.

Jude’s mother was able to swap places with Jude’s Grandpa has been with Jude at Hadassah Hospital since his arrival there last week.

When we arrived at the Gaza border this morning, Jude’s mother was not there.  Moments later, it became clear that she was sitting at a bus stop near Ashkelon, together with a cousin.  Her cousin wanted to accompany her to the hospital, and he also speaks English.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jude’s Grandpa had already gone outside the hospital, a very big place, and was nowhere to be found.  On the ward, Jude’s mother was taken under the care of a dear sister.  We had time for a quick photo of Jude in an electric bouncer, and then we went looking for grandpa, because we were set to return him to Gaza and the border would close at 3 pm. We found him eventually, and returned him in time to the crossing.

We pray for Jude and his mother.  that Jude also feels his mother’s presence.  Thank God for all He has done thus far.

Today Jonathan and I visited Jude at the Hadassah Hospital PICU unit. He seems to be doing okay with the help of a little extra oxygen, but his breathing is still shallow and rapid.

Please pray for this beautiful little man, that our father would watch over him as he recovers and help stabilize his breathing so he can safely move to the next stage on his road  to wellness and growth.

Father we thank you for your hand on this little precious life.

Jude had his first surgery today, and surprised us by coming out of the OR already by 11:30 am. Upon beginning the operation, the surgeons discovered that they were able to do a simpler surgery than expected, and they are very pleased with the result. Jude has several defects in his heart, and the doctors decided to proceed with the difficult series of surgeries needed to reroute blood to the lungs to accommodate a single-ventricle heart rather than attempt reconstruction with two functional ventricles. For now, Jude is on his way to recovery in the ICU at Hadassah with his grandfather by his side:

Pray for a full recovery for this little guy, who still has quite a long road ahead of him.

Even though Hadassah’s new surgeon Prof. Serraf will only arrive from Sheba on Sunday, they accepted Jude to their cardiac critical care unit on Friday:

It turned out on echo that Jude has a hypoplastic heart, the most difficult defect to treat:

Jude’s on the schedule for surgery Thursday, the day after Yom Kippur, and will be the first child operated on by the new surgeon. Hadassah has a new pediatric cardiac ICU with eight beds that is empty at this point, so they have great potential to bless Israel’s neighbors:
 

Please pray for four newborns in Gaza, with difficult diagnoses who are all awaiting transfer to a hospital in Israel for urgent heart surgeries. After a lengthy delay while we searched for a place, Hadassah hospital has accepted little Jude, who has multiple heart defects and will be transported to Hadassah tomorrow God willing:

We hope the other children will also be accepted soon. Please pray for the shepherd’s staff of protection over all these precious babies and their families.