Albertiny One Year Later

Albertiny, now 10 years old, had his left arm broken in the earthquake of August 14, 2021. His mother, Roseterline, traveled with him for hours to reach St. Boniface Hospital. She explains, “As a mother, it hurt me that my child’s arm was hurt. Whenever he was crying, I was crying too.” 

At SBH, orthopedic surgeons operated on Albertiny’s arm, inserting a metal fixation device to hold the bones in place while they healed. Later, Albertiny returned to the hospital to have the device removed. “When they removed the metal, I was finally able to extend my arm,” he says.

Albertiny has regained almost the full range of motion in his arm, compared to when he was first injured and could barely move it at all. He has been able to return to his usual activities, playing cars with his friends in the neighborhood and attending school.

SBH is far from Albertiny’s village of Dubreuil and the cost of transportation is high, yet Roseterline has faithfully brought Albertiny to multiple follow-up appointments. Our team also connected them with a location in Les Cayes for physical therapy. Although even Les Cayes is two hours away from Dubreuil, Roseterline takes Albertiny to appointments there twice every week. She says that although his arm is not as normal as she had hoped it would be by now, it is getting better.

Because Albertiny missed so many days of school last year, he will need to repeat fifth grade, but his mother reports that he is very intelligent. Her faith in God and her determination to persevere are strong. One year after the earthquake, the family has not received any aid to rebuild their home so they are still living under a tent, like so many other families in southern Haiti. “My hope is that one day things will improve for me,” states Roseterline. Then she adds, “Thank you to everyone who contributed to the hospital financially so that my child could access care for free.”