When I first met Mesfin, he was a young teen lying in a bed at Mother Teresa's Mission in Addis Ababa, near death from severe heart failure. His mitral valve had been destroyed by rheumatic fever. I thought he had little hope of survival. He had come up from rural Sidamo, nearly 200 miles to the south. Alone.
Mesfin tells his story best in this essay he wrote in high school in Atlanta:
Where I am In Life
It seems I have already lived my entire life. I was born happy like anybody else, with a large family, the fourth of thirteen brothers and sisters. I was born in southern Ethiopia in a small village without electricity or automobiles, but we never lacked for love or family closeness. We were happy with what we had. I could have lived my entire life in that naturally beautiful village, but I became dreadfully sick and my life took a different course.
An unexpected complication from a sore throat caused an infection to my heart and it began to fail. I used to walk four hours a day back and forth to my school, but I became so weak that I could not even walk across the room, I could never get to sleep, everyday I coughed, and was short of breath. It became increasingly difficult to perform simple daily tasks.
In my village my relatives tried tribal medicine continuously for three years until I met my medical doctor. By then I was at the point of death and I was praying to be delivered from my suffering. I was not afraid to die, for I had lost my hope to live. Struggling to breathe, it felt like I was drowning all the time. I gave up hope but my parents never did. They were sure I would live and yet they didn't know how. I guess that is what you call faith. It's their greatest gift to me.
At fourteen I suddenly decided that I was a burden to my family, because they stayed up every night with me as I struggled to breathe. When I hurt, they hurt. I felt my family was dying with me. Then I made a hard decision: to die alone. I left the village to go to Mother Theresa Mission, a place for people to die. After long journey from my village to the capital of Ethiopia with the help of many people, I was able to make it into the city.
While I was at the mission I met this man whom I called "my angel:" his real name is Dr. Rick Hodes. He come to the mission as a volunteer and met me. After he checked my situation he knew that I had only a 25% chance of surviving, and that I must have heart surgery as soon as possible in order to live.
Dr. Rick knew that there were no heart surgeons in Ethiopia. He had to find a surgeon in the United States who would help me. He contacted many hospitals and finally I was accepted in Atlanta, through Children's Cross Connection Organization and my great American family that I am still living with.
Then after my arrival in Atlanta I stayed for a couple of weeks with my host family. My doctors decided to operate on me and I had my first surgery performed on October 1 2001. Thus they repaired my valve. Afterward I had to stay again with my host family for more than two months in order to recover from my surgery. In order to prevent serious heart infection they pulled out my wisdom teeth. They gave them to me. In my culture it is the custom that when your teeth are removed they should be cast in the exact place of your birth. But I decided I loved America and its people so much that I would give my teeth to my second birthplace, America.
After every thing was completed, I returned to Ethiopia. I was so happy, and thankful to the Lord and the people that helped me. It wasn't over yet, very unexpectedly my mouth became infected. The infection spread to my heart before I knew it I was dying again. My "angel", Rick, came to my rescue again and arranged the flight back to America. The ambulance took me to the emergency room, but I can't remember it at all. They repeated the heart surgery by replacing my heart valve and after that I was given a new American family. My American dad just happened to be my cardiologist! My new mom is a nurse and I have four new brothers and four new sisters.
See, I already have lived my entire life. However, "In the middle of trouble lies a good opportunity." I was blessed with a second life to live, to grow, to go to school, to be happy with my American family and great Samaritan people. I love my family and friends as well as the country. Again and again, I say, "God Bless America!"
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Let me return to my original question - why the mask?
Mesfin graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in respiratory therapy and several years ago studied at Baylor College of Medicine and became a perfusionist. This boy who was dying at "the homefor sick and dying destitutes" in Addis Ababa is now running heart-lung machines during open-heart surgery and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), helping save some of the sickest people in hospital.
