Jimmy Polifort

Jimmy Guerrier may spend a few months at Lehigh Regional Medical Center or as long as it takes, according to Dr. Stephen Schroering because the youngster is recovering from sickle cell anemia, a disease that can cause amputation of his legs and even eventual death if not medically treated.

Schroering, who keeps in touch with an orphanage north of Port-au-Prince in Haiti says Jimmy, who may be 16, but says he is 13, was flown to Miami and then to Fort Myers last week to receive treatment at the hospital.

The cost of the extensive treatment is being picked up by Lehigh Regional Medical Center in an effort to help support Schroering’s orphanage in Haiti. The local physician visits the orphanage every few months and sometimes every few weeks. He is the chief physician at the orphanage and says there are few doctors in Haiti. He said there is one physician who steps in to help with needed.

Jimmy sat on a bed in Lehigh Regional Medical Center one day last week while his open wounds were treated by Schroering and eventually wrapped by a nurse technician in the hospital.

Jimmy can speak some English and smiles often when doctors and nurses address him in English. Schroering speaks to him in French and Creole and told him to lie down while the treatment was taking place.

Jimmy Guerrier’s two legs are being bandaged following treatment for sickle cell anemia by Lehigh’s Dr. Stephen Schroering. Jimmy was flown to Lehigh by a special flight by Schroering to receive emergency medical treatment. If he had not been brought to LRMC’s Wound Center, he may have died. Photo by Mel Toadvine

“He was in very bad condition when we flew him over here,” Schroering said. “He needed immediate treatment with constant observance and we’ll see him every day or so here at Lehigh Regional Medical Center.

Schroering said he was trying to find someone in Lehigh to care for the youngster two weeks ago and was overheard making that remark by Yolanda Halliday in the hall of LRMC.

“I work at the hospital and told Dr. Schroering our family would be more than happy to take him into our home while he is in the U.S.,” she said. ‘We have already come to love Jimmy. He is such a bright and happy youngster.” Yolanda and her husband have three children with one grown. They live on 22nd St. in Lehigh.

“Anytime the hospital calls for me to bring him, it is not a problem,” she said.

Jimmy is now spending hours in a new unit that provides enriched pure oxygen which will help to aid the healing process.

Staying with Lehigh family: Jimmy Guerrier sits between Yolanda Halliday and her husband. They will supply him a home while he is being treated at Lehigh Regional Medical Center for sickle cell anemia. It could take a few months before the disease is healed. Photo by Mel Toadvine

When he was told, it wasn’t clear that he understood, so Schroering and Oscar Gamble, who heads the Wound Clinic at the hospital, took him down the hall the a large room and Maria Creed, the public information officer at the hospital, got into the unit, which is surrounded by clear hard plastic and has a color TV above to view, to show the youngster that there is no pain in the treatment.

“We tried to tell him that it will make him well,” Schroering said.

Peter is only one of many children in Haiti who have sickle cell anemia, but his at the present is in the worst stage, bad enough that Schroering felt he had to bring him to the U.S. immediately or he would not survive.

Schroering brings other children from the orphanage he helps run and all expenses are picked up by Lehigh Regional Medical Center.

“It’s something we will continue to help Dr. Schroering with. He is an amazing person who has compassion for those children,” Gamble said.

Schroering said Jimmy may spend a few months at the hospital.

“We won’t be flying him back to Haiti until he is completely healed,” Schroering said.

He said Peter was left at the front door in a box when he was around three years old. We do not know who is parents are. And the reason he has not been adopted out is that the Haitian government doesn’t permit very many adoptions.

His Lehigh Family said they would probably be happy to adopt him.

Jimmy is not exactly sure how old he is. He says he is 13, but because of his six foot height and appearance, it is believe that he is 16 years old.

At the Halliday home, the family says he loves playing video games and watching TV.

He seemed excited when he was told he could watch TV in the enriched oxygen unit, which could mean a daily dose that last for a few hours.

“He is going to pull through this. He is going to be healed because we have got him now before it got any worse. There are literally hundreds of children all over Haiti who are suffering this disease.

“We have more than 100 children at our orphanage and we are looking very closely at each and everyone of them. Sickle cell anemia is a common disease among blacks,” he said.

To date, Schroering says he has brought about eight youngsters over from Haiti to received special medical treatment at LRMC in order to save their lives. The back roof of the orphanage was damaged in the major earthquake earlier this year but none of the children were injured, Schroering said.