Chideley, the Future Soccer Star

Chideley is a five-year-old little boy. He was born in Cabaret, a city in the western department of Haiti.

He was one year old when he started to walk, run and explore the world around him, but one day he had an accident that changed his life. On April 2019, while he was running at his grandmother’s court, he fell down. What it seemed to be an ordinary fall for a toddler was going to have some serious complications in his right knee.

The days passed and the mother didn’t notice anything wrong until she realized one day that Shidley had a limp in his right lower extremity. 

Chideley was brought to a naturopath doctor where he spent over a week taking natural medicine. The mother didn’t see any improvement and decided to bring him to a clinic in the town. After evaluation, the doctor said the case should be seen by an orthopedist doctor because there are some complications. He was then referred to St Nicolas Hospital in St Marc.

After 4 days admitted to the hospital, he had surgery on his right knee for a bad infection. After spending one month and a half in the hospital he was discharged and the doctor recommended the mother to continue caring for the infection back in her town.

After a couple of weeks at home the mother noticed that the wound was not healing as expected. Chideley had a deformation in the right knee and couldn’t walk or run well. 

Days, months, and years passed, but unfortunately, there was no medical follow-up for Chideley. He was adapting his new life with that deformation. He tried to do what other children do at his age like playing soccer,  a game he loves a lot.

Chideley was 4 years old when His father decided to come with him to La Gônave. A nurse from his village recommended going to For You Haiti for help once they arrived in La Gonave. 

Chideley was evaluated by the FYH’s doctors and we referred him to the Adventist hospital for an orthopedic evaluation. After 6 days admitted, he had surgery to put a device (external fixation) to keep the limp straight. Unfortunately, after this surgery, he had severe anemia and was transfused. Nine days after the first surgery he had another surgical intervention (skin graft).

We hope this surgery will change the life of this little boy and soon he will walk and run properly as the other kids and hopefully can become a soccer player which is his passion.