By Shay Fontana

Dieuvensley was born 8 months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Two months later his father died of cholera brought in by the U.N. forces. His mother could not find work and Deven was very sickly and underweight. She decided to bring him to the Children’s Village (orphanage) hoping he would be adopted by an American family.

Each child admitted to the Village immediately visits a doctor and is given medication for parasites. Upon examination the physician detected problems with his heart which we later learned was called “single ventricle defect.” In other words, he had only one ventricle in his lower heart instead of two. This caused a major lack of oxygen in his blood and he was constantly very tired and pale. Most babies born with this congenital defect do not survive their first year of life. As hospitals in Haiti do not do open-heart surgeries, we tried for years, without success, to get him to a country that would be willing to do the recently developed surgical procedures.

Fast forward six years. Nurse Wendy and a medical team from Flagler ER organized a trip to the Fontana Village in Haiti to provide physical checkups for all of the 43 orphans and the 90 plus children at the grade school. After assessing Deven’s condition Wendy decided that she would try again to get Deven the help he needed so desperately just to stay alive.

For two years she contacted various hospitals all over the U.S. The only hospital she could find was in Orlando and for the $2.5 million surgery, they wanted $125,000 up front which of course was not exactly readily available at the time.

In the meantime, Wendy headed to the Abaco Islands with a medical team from Flagler to open a hospital/clinic after a major hurricane came through the islands. A local citizen volunteered to take the group in his private plane. While talking with the pilot, the group learned that the plane’s other owner was a group called Patrons of the Hearts from Jacksonville. They use the plane to bring in children from 3^rd world countries for free heart surgeries at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital. Hey! What are the chances?! Right?

In the following 5 months we were able to get all of Deven’s paperwork completed. This normally would have taken 2-3 years!!! So…on December 28, 2019, Flagler Hospital’s Nurse Wendy, Dr. Tim and Shay (his new guardian) flew to Haiti with a small oxygen machine and 6 suitcases of Christmas gifts for the children, plus medicine for the local hospital.

After returning to Florida and seeing the pediatric cardiologist at Wolfson’s, Dr. Jose Ettedgui, we were told that we got Deven here just in time. He probably would not have survived another six months! As Dr. Ettedgui stated “…just in the nick of time…a miracle!”

In January 2020, Deven had two catheter surgeries and his first 4- hour open-heart surgery. He stayed in the pediatric cardiology ICU for almost 3 weeks, hooked up to an endless number of devices. All he kept saying was that he wanted to come home and go back to school at R B Hunt! He also wanted to know if we could get him a bicycle… So, the plan was to get him an orange (his fav color) bike when he came home if he cooperated with the nurses and doctors… Well, upon returning home, his orange bike was waiting for him (see picture below) and he returned to Marsh Creek and R B Hunt!

Because it was necessary for his survival and because he had healed so quickly, his doctor wanted to schedule him for his second surgery in June 2020. right in the middle of Co-vid 19! He reminded us that the pediatric cardiology ICU was probably the cleanest place in Florida!

Dr. Ettedgui strongly recommended that we find him a forever family in the US because he needed to stay close to a hospital to get more treatments if necessary and for periodic testing of his “new designer heart!”  Before the second surgery we did find the perfect family right here in St. Augustine! This family of 4 had been to Haiti a few years earlier and knew him well. He now has an older brother and sister in high school. His mother is a grade school teacher and his father is in the medical field.

Deven’s second 4- hour surgery went very well except for the fact that his lungs kept filling up with fluid that continually needed to be drained. This time he was in the ICU for 5 weeks!! His new dad (who took time off work) and his mom took turns staying with him 24/7.

Our heartfelt thanks to all who visited him at the hospital, those who cared for him after he returned home (especially all the nurses!), those who provided meals and rides to and from the hospital, and especially all those who prayed! Deven is definitive proof that the impossible is possible and that miracles still do happen!

Deven is now fluent in English and has successfully completed the 4^th grade! He is taking taekwondo and is the fastest runner in his class! To top that off, about a month ago, he climbed all 222 steps to the top of the Lighthouse! An added plus is that Papa Peter and Mama Shay are now his official grandparents!

Editor’s note: Peter and Shay Fontana are generous founders and supporters of the Hope for Haiti Foundation, featured in this previous Spoonbill Courier story.