Baltimore doctor flies Haitian boy to his operating room
Union Memorial's Gashti has made his spring pilgrimages to the poor since 1994
February 1, 2009
Natalie Pierre averts her eyes from the cancerous growth that threatens the life of her son, Osly St. Preux, as he is examined by surgeons in preparation for tomorrow' operation at Union Memorial Hospital. (Baltimore Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby / January 28, 2009)
Osly St. Preux and his mother hopped on the back of a truck and rode for hours along rutted roads in northern
When Osly, then 12, took off his shirt for a surgeon from
Dr. Mojtaba Gashti knew almost immediately that he and his team, who every spring make a pilgrimage to Haiti to perform surgery, would not be able to save Osly - not there, in fairly primitive conditions in one of the poorest places on the planet.
The doctor looked into the boy's big brown eyes and saw his own young son, an American teenager who wanted for nothing. His heartstrings tugged, his head spinning with thoughts of how best to help, Gashti decided he had to bring Osly to the United States and make him well.
Gashti slogged through diplomatic red tape, lobbied his surgeon friends to donate their time and persuaded his hospital to approve the operation and help pay for it. And finally, last week Osly and his mother, Natalie Pierre, entered an airport for the first time, flew on an airplane for the first time, and made their way to
Tomorrow, Osly will have his sarcoma removed during a six-hour procedure at
"We've seen so many people there - you can't bring everyone back," Gashti said. "Something about his smile and his face and his cap. ...
"Our hope is that it's not too late and we can resect it and cure it."
Gashti, 47, has been going to Haiti since 1994, when he was training at St. Barnabas Hospital in
The first trip happened that spring. The operating room at Hopital Sacre Coeur, just 12 beds at the time, had no air conditioning, no ventilation of any kind, flies buzzing all around. But they were able to do so much in those five days. Gashti has been returning ever since, taking a week's vacation, paying his own way, to work from early morning until late at night, doing as many as 67 surgeries in one trip.
"Ever since that first year, I tell everyone they need to go to
"I don't come from a very rich family or a rich place. I know what poverty is," he continued. Haiti, though, ís "beyond poverty. It's not like people are poor. They just don't have anything. Poor means you have little. These people have nothing."
The first time Osly had ever seen a doctor was in 2005, at age 9, when he and his mother trekked to Milot the week that Gashti was there. Osly's case was simple - a small fluid-filled cyst under his right arm needed to be removed. It required only a local anesthetic.
Most surgeries Gashti does in
Last May, when Gashti returned to
The tumor was painful. Osly couldn't put his arm down. He could barely fit into his shirt. Gashti saw right away that this tumor might kill the boy if it remained. At the very least, he would likely need his arm amputated.
The surgery couldn't be done in
Gashti took 10 or 15 minutes to think. He looked at Osly. If this boy were Joshua, his now 15-year-old son, his wish would be that someone do everything possible to help. So he did something he had never done. Gashti had the Creole-speaking nurse tell Osly and his mother he wanted to bring them to the
Osly's smile went from ear to ear. He grabbed the doctor's hand, shaking it with joy.
His mother was jubilant. "She said she woke up that morning and knew God was sending somebody to help Osly," Gashti recalled. "I thought maybe that someone was us."
Passports secured, fees paid, plane tickets purchased, the visas came through three weeks ago. Osly and his mother began their journey to
At the last minute, Gashti had to wire money - neither Osly, now 13, nor his mother owned shoes, something they would need in the
They departed for
Mother and son spent their first full day in the United States at the sprawling new Ellicott City home - with its high ceilings, flat-screen televisions and granite countertops - that Gashti shares with his wife, Leida, his 12-year-old daughter, Jasmin, and Joshua. This will be Osly and
Language is an obstacle. Neither speaks the other's tongue. The Gashtis have a Creole phrase book. Venezuelan-born Leida knows some rudimentary French. But most importantly they have Haitian-American friends who are a phone call away. That has helped in confusing moments.
Osly and Joshua seem to speak the common language of teenage boys. They both sit slack-jawed in front of a Sylvester Stallone action movie. They spend hours on the PlayStation 2.
Pierre, 48, communicates in her own way. She did something she had never done in her life, making snow angels and rolling down hills in the Gashtis' backyard.
On Wednesday, Osly went to Union Memorial so doctors could finally see inside the tumor. There is no diagnostic equipment at the Haitian hospital, no X-ray machines or CT scans.
Osly's tumor was also inspected by Dr. Vinay K. Gupta, chief of oncologic surgery at Union Memorial. When Gupta pulled away Osly's shirt - a soccer jersey borrowed from Jasmin - Pierre had to look away. It is too hard for her to see her baby this way, she said through an interpreter.
Gupta sensed her angst. "This will be very good for him," the doctor reassured her.
Osly was a bit of a celebrity at the hospital that day. People kept tracking him down with little gifts - a lacrosse jersey, a baseball cap, a notebook, a football and a little radio with earbuds. He greeted every present with a merci or a beaucoup. He hugged these strangers, trying to find a way to express his gratitude without shared words.
Wearing the cap and the earbuds, he looked very much like an American kid.
Marilyn Cook, a New Jersey nurse who has gone on several of Gashti's missions to Haiti, sat and watched Osly with a big smile.
There have been times in their travels when she has felt there was just too much need, too deep a hole to fill, that they could never do enough.
But, she said, "Dr. Gashti always says, 'little steps.' You can only do so much. You have to believe you're doing as much as you can."
Said Gashti: "We have made a lot of difference. We take care of them the same way we would take care of any patients in the
"Any little thing we do there is something they didn't have or something nobody else was going to offer them."
And he has done so very much for this one boy and his family, arranging the trip, putting them up in his home, paying thousands of dollars out of his own pocket for a chance at a cure.
"She is thanking the doctor and God for blessing this child," the translator said, relaying
"If not by the power of God, the doctor would not have found this child's case. This child could have lost this life."
Echoed Osly, "Thank everyone for giving me my life back." 
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opyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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