It took 30 days for him to get help, but tonight 10-year-old Darwin Cruz is at a burn center in Galveston Texas receiving treatment for burns to 80% of his body, from his mouth to his ankle. Today we were at the hospital when the boy was taken from the Karl Heusner to the airport en route to Galveston.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Seeming almost disbelieving of what was happening this morning Adrian Cruz anxiously thumbed through his passport while emergency medical technicians made final preparations to have him his grandson Darwin Cruz transported from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to Shriner's Hospital in Galveston Texas. Dr. Olaff Cravioto is one of two doctors traveling with Darwin.
Dr. Olaff Cravioto,
"Right now the child is stable, he is fine. He is with pain but this is because of the burn injuries so we are putting morphine and that kind of medicine, IV fluids, to put him okay and right now I spoke with the neurosurgeon at Shriner's Burn Hospital in Galveston Texas. I talked with the person at Shriner's
and the nurse gave me the green light to go.
In all these kind of flights that are with critical patients like this one, we are flying with both doctors. Dr. Israel is an ICU doctor specializing in unit care and I am in emergency medicine. I hope our flight is going to be very stable."
And Dr. Cravioto says the two and a half hour flight to Texas will go without any problems. But while Darwin will make it through his first step of recovery, there is some concern about why it took a month for him to get help.
Yvette Burks, B.E.R.T.
"I can only think it's a breakdown of communication because as you know, this is not the first child, in fact its well over…I think this child is the nineteenth child that I have been personally involved with helping and I assume that the surgeons who were in charge of this case were not aware that there was an option. That's what I am guessing; it's very very unfortunate."
Burks says that's behind them now and the focus is on trying to ensure that he recovers fully and that the costs of his recovery are met
Yvette Burks,
"It's an overdraft that I personally approved in the interest of getting the child out; we thought it would have been yesterday but we had some holdups. We got the payment in already and then of course we are dependent on assistance from the public.
Really I know I'll get back some of the money but I don't know how much; you never know from time to time and case to case. I will say this is the most I have ever spent on a case. The cost has just absolutely escalating on the air ambulances. I hadn't had to use an air ambulance in two and a half years. The last child I sent was able to travel commercially still and I was blown away, I have never ever had to guarantee so much."
Alfonso Noble,
So for all intents and purposes this is a personal loan you took out?
Yvette Burks,
Yes, that is correct. For all intents and purposes that's true and yes I know I'm crazy but I believe that the public is generous enough and who can afford…I know that we can't afford it all the time, quite frankly all of us have our highs and our lows but I know that those who can afford to help and do know the program and understand that sincerely it goes to this specific cause will assist so I just have faith that it will be ok."
And she has that confidence of everything being ok from past experiences. Over the past ten years she's sent 18 children with severe burns away for medical assistance. Darwin Cruz now becomes her 19th child and as these pictures show, what is done for the children is nothing short of miraculous.
As Burks pointed out, the air ambulance transport to Galveston was made possible through an overdraft from the Burn Victim Mercy Fund set up 7 years ago at the Belize Bank. So far one businessman, Junior Espat has donated $5,000. For anyone wishing to do the same, the account number is 505-2111.
