In 2002 when we were living in Cambodia with our daughter waiting on the embassy to process her paperwork, I had the occasion to visit another little girl in the hospital. She was just over a year old and had contracted pneumonia in the orphanage. My friend D~, who was waiting with her son, learned about the child through her agency and decided we should check on her ourselves. What we found was heartbreaking. She was in a hospital for “locals where the care was minimal and there was more than one patient to a bed. The doctors efforts to help her breathing resulted in a punctured lung that then became infected. Her prognosis was bleak. The facilitator/orphanage director in charge of this little girl was motivated primarily by his belief in karma and good old fashioned greed. He did not see the point in sending her to a better hospital ”“ he thought $4/day was already too much and besides, most hospitals would not accept orphans. But D~ was insistent that he do better for this child and so she was transferred to the best pediatric hospital in Cambodia. There she had a bed to herself and a wonderful French doctor who had an incredible heart for children and a great deal more knowledge than the local doctors. I believe this little girl’s complete recovery was a true miracle. At the same time, much credit can also be given to the level of care she received and the fact that everyone involved knew that two American women were personally invested in that little girl.
I was reminded of that girl today when I read about babies from orphanages in northern Vietnam who are sick and dying from an acute pneumonia that results from a mysterious virus. According to the Viet Nam News,
Paediatricians have yet to find the best way to treat a Rhino virus that has killed nine of 19 infected infants in northern Viet Nam during the past two months. …
Regarding possible causes for the fatalities, National Paediatrics Hospital deputy director Loc pointed to the prolonged cold spell and poor caring conditions.
He said, “All of the cases were of babies less than five-months-old, all of whom had fallen ill due to the harsh weather conditions.
The infants were not breast fed and lacked their mothers’ care, causing their overall health to plummet, in effect making them more vulnerable to the virus.”
Loc said that though these causes were inconclusive, they could be proved by the fact that none of the infected children had come from a family.
Most of the infected children are reported to have been from orphanages in Ha Tay, Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces and Ha Noi’s outlying Dong Anh District.
A hospital delegation that visited the Dong Anh orphanage before the lunar new year found that about 80 per cent of the children showed symptoms of the virus.
It is my understanding that conditions in Vietnam’s hospitals are much better than in Cambodia and it sounds like doctors are doing everything they can to help these babies. But my heart is breaking at the thought of these babies, sick and dying alone in a hospital with no one to hold them and comfort them, no one to love them as they deserve to be loved. The little girl in Cambodia had a nanny who cared for her and stayed with her in the hospital – maybe these babies have nannies with them too. I hope they do. But what I really want to know is, who is fighting for them? Were these babies in orphanages that do international adoptions? And if so, are the agencies stepping forward to advocate for these children? Are they offering to pay their medical expenses, regardless of the costs? Are they sending representatives to visit the children and make certain they are getting the best care? What if these babies aren’t in orphanages that have weathy foreigners to help with costs – are any agencies stepping forward to offer aid, regardless of whether it will benefit them or their clients?
I can only imagine how worried waiting families must be, especially if their child was referred from one of these areas. My thoughts and prayers are with them as they wait and pray. But regardless of whether any of the babies have families waiting for them, I hope that every one of them has someone advocating on their behalf – someone fighting for them as passionately as a parent would fight for their own child. When it comes down to it, isn’t that the very essence of what adoption is all about?
12 Responses
According to VVAI’s “agencies by province” list, there are American agencies working in all of those provinces. Perhaps any readers who are signed with one of those agencies could contact them to find out if their orphanages are affected and then report back here?
I had the same questions when I first read the article. I read on several blogs today that one child had in fact been referred to a family in the US. So heartbreaking!
There are several sick babies in the orphanage where my child is waiting. Two babies referred to other families working with my agency have died from this virus, both were between 3-4 months old. Its so incredibly sad. It does not help that the USCIS seems to be sitting on our paperwork in some sort of political game with Vietnam. We need to get those babies home.
It’s terribly sad. These children getting so sick without the proper care to heal. These families loosing their children to this virus. All of it is truly so heartbreaking.
I feel we should be careful when accusing USCIS for “sitting” on paperwork. If these babies are only 3-4 months old, there is no way they would have completed all the appropriate paperwork to be ready to come home. USCIS has made a committment to ensure these children haven’t been placed illegally or improperly. I’m tired of waiting myself, but thankful that when we do bring our child home I will feel as confident as possible that it will be through ethical means. Accusing the US of doing anything but having procedures in place to ensure ethical adoptions is counterproductive.
Again, my thoughts are with the children that are ill and the families dealing with their loss.
Do you know for a fact this just isn’t BS politics rather than the US doing what’s ethical? When a process that used to take 10 days is taking upwards of 60-90, and they’re not communicating with us at all, and then you read something like this (http://www.goodhappenings.com/WordPress/?p=297), you have to wonder…
well, no one knows anything “for a fact” regarding why or how things happen except for the USCIS themselves. since this is offically a new process they have always said it would take approx 60 days not 10.
i also don’t think that ONE families blog & opinion is the best resource to site as a place to form judgements about the entire process.
i’m just tired of hearing so many people blame USCIS, yet claim they want ethical adoptions.
So we should be careful when it comes to accusing the USCIS, but its a free for all when we want to accuse agencies and families on this blog.
Since the process changed in Oct/Nov, I have believed that the USCIS had our best interests in mind. That post I linked to was an example of what I’ve been hearing in the past few weeks, and is from someone who also seems to have had her mind changed as to whether this is for the best interest of Vietnam adoption or political leveraging. It’s all gotten quite murky, and the USCIS isn’t being very upfront with PAPs.
And for my family, the wait is going on day 70. Look around in blogland, you’ll see lots of people who’ve gone past 60 days, prompting the USCIS to say “oh, we’ve changed that detail, its 60 working days now, not calendar days,” but still not giving families the first idea as to when they will have a decision, or what the status of their paperwork is. Yeah, we want ethical adoptions, but we don’t want to be political pawns either.
I thought this was a comments section about sick orphans and here we are once again beating each other up. With all due respect, can we please now return to the issue at hand in Christina’s article?
Anyone have any more news about the affected orphanages?
this is an open forum. a blog. discussions/topics don’t have required limits. i 100% agree with you e, that this is about the sick children. i have sat back & read quietly for months & months. but when one of the 1st posters to this topic goes right back down the path of accussing USCIS, i feel it needs to be addressed. but yes, back to the topic at hand…
agreed that most importantly, we’d all love updates on the sick children and those waiting families trying to get them home. there is nothing more heartbreaking than reading about these children that can’t get the proper medical care. i know that this type of care is the unfortunate reality in a country like VN; it’s just so sickening, terribly sad and of course gives us all a feeling of helplessness.
Does anyone know how much input the agencies are allowed to have with the sick children? I 100% agree that they should be doing whatever they can (medicine, best hospital/medical care etc) that they can for ALL the children of the orphanages they work in (not just those assigned to their agency). But I am wondering how much control they really have since the children are technically not the agencies but the orphanages (if that makes sense)? I know when we adopted our son in April 07 there was a child in our referral group that died of something very similar to what this virus sounds like. I know as a parent with a child in that same orphanage at that time I was despirate to go get him and “keep him safe”, so I feel for the families right now with referrals that aren’t able to travel, it’s a very helpless feeling. I am really hoping the answer to my question is the agencies are allowed to do whatever they can to keep these children healthy. The agencies certainly have the funds available (I know we paid a hefty in-country fee to our agency)-so lack of funds should NEVER be an excuse-IMO
Since we know that a few of the children who died were referred by agencies, and we know that one of the issues (according to newspaper articles) that affected health and recovery was malnutrition, maybe the issue is the kind of support that these orphanages are receiving is inadequate. Children who suffer from malnutrition are not going to rebound as easily as well fed, healthy children. My question refers back to my tired and haggard refrain (will probably be my epitaph)…… WHERE ARE THE AGENCIES AND THE FEES PAID FOR SUPPORT OF ORPHANAGES? I can not imagine that an agency providing food and formula would be unwelcome or seen as crossing a boundary. My hopes with all of the JCICS best practices was that this type of support issue would have been addressed but sadly it has not. I know that there are orphanages who do not refer children like some special needs orphanages who are often in need of more support but orphanages who refer to any other countries receive fees and have humanitarian relationships. Let’s push our agencies to further detail the aid and how the money is spent. If it is not going to ongoing nutrition and health support, let’s make some more noise. My own child has suffered from the lack of quality medical care and is forever changed because of this— not in a good way either. (I also believe that items like wells are important so don’t think I am clueless in this.)The ramifications can be permanent for many children who suffer from diseases like RSV and pneumonia at early vulnerable ages. Community living is very difficult for anyone especially infants. Since these children are not breast fed (getting important antibodies) and group care is not optimal for most babies, we owe it to them to ask our providers for their position and actions to support not only the orphanages that refer to them but also the orphanages where children are not referred to anyone. All children deserve to have a shot at a healthy life. Good living and care conditions will make it so that children can be more durable and less susceptable(?) to diseases. Food and nutrition are equally as important as medications. If paperwork and investigative processes take time ( we know they do), then we and the children are better served if we argue for healthy living conditions. All children will not escape death or serious illness but fewer will.
[…] for Babies Posted on March 3, 2008 by Christina I blogged a couple of weeks ago over on VVAI about babies from orphanages in northern Vietnam who are sick and dying from an acute pneumonia […]