We've been profiled in several forms of local media!  Some of those stories have been posted here so you can take a look.

Chain of strangers helps boy whose legs needed mending

By Bill Stevens, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, September 9, 2012


Applause greets a baby's first steps. Richard LaFleur's brought gasps.

He had seemed healthy, the first child born to Nalini LaFleur after four miscarriages. But when Richard tried to walk, his legs betrayed him.

For 15 years, the dark-eyed South American young man endured pain and stares. With each step, his knees collapsed and nearly scraped the ground.

Had Richard been born in this country, doctors likely would have corrected his defect before those first steps. But in tiny, poor Canje Village in Berbice, Guyana, modern health care is a luxury. It seemed Richard would never stand tall.

Then one day a woman from Michigan with an iron-willed devotion to Jesus Christ put Richard on a plane to the United States. She had searched two years for a surgeon who might fix the boy and now, finally, she headed to Tampa Bay.

Richard sat on an examination table. He told Dr. Drew Warnick he had seen athletes excel on artificial limbs. He said amputation would be better than this.

"I just want to walk,'' he said.

Without a cane or crutches or pain.

"I just want to walk.''

With that, a "village'' far from his own circled around him. Strangers in Pasco County gave him shelter, treated him like family. In return, he gave them so much more.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE: 
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1250506.ece

Girl takes first steps of new life
South American teen travels to Holland for surgery to repair club feet.

Beth Walton, The Holland Sentinel
December 26, 2005

Kameka has been living with the DeMoss famiy since September when the family volunteered to host her while she has corrective surgery to fix her club feet. 

Kameka Alexander didn't want dolls, board games, or fancy toys for Christmas. Instead, the 11-year-old from the South American nation of Guyana wanted nothing more than to be able to wear her new purple shoes to match her new purple dress on Christmas Eve.

Her wish was granted thanks to the work of Dr. Francois Harton, who volunteered to perform 5 1/2 hours of surgery to correct the girl's club feet, and to Jeff and Heidi DeMoss, who are hosting the child until her rehabilitation is complete at least until the end of the school year.

The casts Alexander has worn on her feet since her Nov. 7 operation at Holland Hospital were finally removed Tuesday.

"These are my new feet," she said, marveling at the improvement.

Alexander came to Holland on Sept. 17. Prior to the surgery Alexander's feet were turned inward and upside down.

"She was literally walking on top of her feet," said Heidi DeMoss, who picked up the girl at the Miami airport.

Alexander struck a deal with her doctor that if she could be walking by Christmas Eve with the help of crutches, he'd let her wear her new shoes to church instead of the chunky braces she now wears as part of her rehabilitation.

Children in the United States born with club feet usually have them put in casts right after birth to rotate the bones into the correct positions. The longer the feet are left untreated, the harder it is to fix, as the bones harden with age,  Harton said. Alexander's parents tried to have the club feet corrected in Guyana when she was younger, but the  surgery wasn't successful, said  Heidi DeMoss.

"In this community we talk about faith a lot, but how many of us have that kind of faith in God to send our child at 11, away for a year," Heidi DeMoss said. "She has had consistent schooling, she's not malnourished. In her world she would be middle class, for our world she would be living in poverty."

Alexander didn't just get to see her straightened feet for the first time while living in the United States. It was in Holland she saw her first snowfall, lived in her own room for the first time and enjoyed the benefits being the oldest and biggest child.


Thousands of miles away from her home at the Northeaster tip of South American near Brazil, Alexander will still get to celebrate Christmas with family -- an American family with funny accents, but family nonetheless, compete with little brothers she gets to boss around.

In the coastal town of Rose Hall, Guyana, Alexander is the second youngest of four siblings. There, she shares a bedroom with her younger brother. Alexander said her older brother and sister often tell her what to do.

"I like it here so much," she said with bright eyes and a little giggle. "Sometimes I tell (twins David and Drew, 9) what to do."

There was the time she made David dance and sing Christmas carols before she would share her candy, or the time she convinced the boys to play her favorite video game.

"Up until now David and Drew only had each other, they didn't have any other siblings this is wonderful for them to have another sibling, a sister," Heidi DeMoss said.

Despite her club feet, Alexander was able to walk, run, and ride bikes, though after a lot of activity Alexander's feet would often be red and sore.

"I was amazed though at how well she could move around," Heidi DeMoss said. "With pants on it just looked like she was standing screwy. It's fascinating, it affected her mobility really not at all."Without proper treatment, children with club feet will eventually live a life where they have to crawl on their knees to get around or have their feet amputated because of infection, Harton said.

Alexander arrived in Holland on a Sunday, registered with Holland Public Schools on Monday and started fifth grade at Van Raalte School on Tuesday.

"My favorite things are candy and going to school," said Alexander. "I'm going to miss my friends but not the snow."

The DeMosses found out about Alexander's need for housing when an announcement was made at First United Methodist Church in Holland.

"I guess this is what God wanted me to do this year and when God tells you to do something, you do it," said Heidi DeMoss.

Children's Circle Mission of Rockford helped the child get to America. Holland Hospital, Holland Pediatrics, Holland Foot and Ankle Centers and Hanneken Physical Therapy all donated their services. First United Methodist Church paid for and installed a wheelchair ramp outside the DeMoss home.

Contact Beth Walton at elizabeth.walton@hollandsentinel.com or (616) 546-4273.



Family, surgeon, hospital aid toddler

Monday, June 11, 2007
By Emily Monacelli

MATTAWAN

Isaac Kolleh follows 21-month-old Johnathan Nowell, around the dining room of the Nowells' Mattawan home, piloting a plastic pickup truck. Loud, playful and full of smiles, Isaac looks like an average 2 1/2-year-old.

But Isaac's brief time on earth has been a struggle. He was born in Monrovia, Liberia, with a birth defect called high imperforate anus. Essentially, he did not have an anal opening, and instead, his colon was connected to his urinary tract.
His condition affects about one in 4,000 babies, according to Dr. Marc Downing, director of pediatric surgery at Bronson Methodist Hospital. Monrovia's surgeons, while dedicated, are poorly trained and have limited resources and medical facilities to do the type of surgery that Isaac needed, Downing said. He needed to travel outside of Liberia to get help.

To fund his trip to the United States for corrective surgery, Isaac received help from Children's Circle Mission, a nonprofit Christian organization based in Rockford and started by Lita Kharmai in 2004.

Kharmai came to the United States from, Guyana, in South America, 30 years ago.

Since 2004, Children's Circle Mission has helped with airplane tickets, passports and visas for children from Guyana and Africa to come to the United States for surgery. Host families are not paid, nor are they reimbursed the costs of caring for that child.

Isaac's need first came to James and Sara Nowell's attention in March 2006 through a member of their church, the Third Reformed Church in Kalamazoo. ``I immediately replied and said we would do it, and then asked (my husband),'' she said.

When Isaac arrived in November 2006, he weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces and was malnourished and dehydrated. An 18-inch segment of his colon protruded from his body. He couldn't stand up or walk on his own. All of his feces were excreted through an opening in his abdomen, called a stoma, which was connected to a colostomy bag.

The Nowells' son Johnathan, at 15 months and 30 pounds, was half of Isaac's age and weighed twice as much. ``I don't think he would have lived much longer,'' Sara Nowell said.

Eating took Isaac about an hour, involving chewing food and spitting it out. He had no interest in playing with Johnathan, his 4-year-old brother, Andrew, or their toys.

Initially, Downing said, he could tell that Sara Nowell felt overwhelmed. ``She was fearful and grossed out and up to her eyeballs in challenge with this, but she has grown a lot through this and done things that she never dreamed she would have needed to do or been able to do,'' he said.

The plan was for a surgeon to reverse the colostomy, create an anal opening and connect the colon to it, a process that should have taken two surgeries. But Isaac was so weak that Downing decided on a revised version of his first surgery. Isaac gained five pounds in five days after his first surgery, James Nowell said.

After that surgery in November, the plan was to allow him six to eight weeks to grow stronger, and then complete the reconstruction in January. Around the holidays, Isaac was noticeably bigger and more outgoing, the Nowells said. ``You noticed his reaction wasn't as lethargic anymore, he swallowed his food better, he was starting to play with the boys' toys,'' James Nowell said.

Complications with Isaac's surgery in January caused Downing to perform two additional surgeries that month, and Isaac was hospitalized 21 days that month.

But he was never alone; the Nowells juggled keeping him company and being at home with their young sons. ``I don't know how we did it,'' Sara Nowell said.

After his fifth and sixth surgeries in March and April, Isaac finally had a functioning anal opening. However, ``Now that he's hooked up medically, they don't know if he'll ever control his bowel movements,'' James Nowell said.

All of Isaac's surgeries were donated by Bronson and by Downing, and he received free well-child visits through Bronson Family Practice. Before Isaac came to the United States, Kharmai had approached Downing and asked him to donate his services.

``It really cost me nothing to take care of Isaac,'' he said. ``It's all Bronson's largesse. She asked me to do it and I was more than happy to do it.''

Bronson tries to perform surgery on two international children a year, according to Bob Doud, vice president for public affairs at Bronson.

Doud estimated the cost of Isaac's surgery at about $40,000, but the additional surgeries increased the cost.

On Saturday, James and Sara Nowell began a 20-hour plane ride to return Isaac to his family, almost 10 weeks later than originally planned. Isaac has 10 siblings and he's returning to a war-torn country with an unemployment level of 85 percent.

Isaac's father had inquired about the Nowells adopting him, but the family says it isn't possible.

``It's going to be hard sending him back to a place that's less fortunate than us, but his place is with his parents,'' Sara Nowell said. 

Asalim Khan on News3

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Sahil Khan on News3

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Isaac and Blessing on News3

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Isaac Kolleh Reunites with Biological Parents After Successful Surgery

By Mae Azango, Liberian Daily Observer. www.liberianobserver.com
Published:  12 June, 2007

MONROVIA, Little Isaac Kolleh who left Liberia last November to undergo surgery in order to have his anus restored has been reunited with his parents in Liberia.

The little boy touched down at the Roberts International Airport (RIA) Sunday afternoon along with his host parents. James and Sara Nowell of  the United States, who accompanied Isaac, were received by the boy's biological parents, Rudolph and Esther Kolleh, Rev. and Mrs. Sam Reeves of  the Providence Baptist Church and Ms. Sue Nipeh of the Analyst newspaper.

The Nowells said it was at first a bit difficult to get Isaac used to his biological 
parents because right now he only knows the Nowells as Mommy and Daddy.

On Monday the Nowells and Isaac, along with his biological parents, visited the Daily Observer newspaper family. Little Isaac demonstrated this by calling Mr. Nowell Daddy and Mrs. Nowell, Mommy throughout their time in the office of the managing director, Mr. Best.

Little Isaac jumped on Mr. Nowell to carry and show him around, then runs to Mrs. Nowell for comfort. Describing the scene, one would feel sad to know that little Isaac will miss his host parents because they taught him basic things, like walking, knowing his age and learning new words everyday.

Speaking with the Daily Observer, Mr. James Nowell explained: “Isaac came to us last November with an imperforated anus and since then he has been a part of our family for the past seven months. It is going to be hard for us because we will miss him a lot.”

The Nowells have two boys; the older is 4 and the younger, 2. “Isaac fitted in the gap because he is three and he became more attached to our younger son.”

Isaac is the first child they have ever hosted, though their organization “Children's Circle Mission” has brought several children from South America and Liberia to the USA for medical attention, Mr. Nowell said.

He works in a manufacturing plant as a purchasser while his wife Sara works as an office manager.

“Little Isaac brought a lot of pleasure to our lives during the time he spent with us, Sara Nowell said. “Though taking care of three boys with a year in between is not easy, yet we managed and we will miss him. But we will keep in close contact with the Kollehs, to see how well Isaac is getting along. Isaac is welcome to come for vacation at anytime and we will be happy to receive him,” Mrs. Nowell added.

For his part, Mr. Rudolph Kolleh, father of little Isaac expressed his thanks to the Nowell's for hosting and taking care of his son. “I'm grateful to God and to the family that hosted my son. I never knew that he could be looking so healthy because he was in a very bad condition when he left Liberia.”

Mr. Kolleh further disclosed that he and his wife are trying to find someone to adopt their son Isaac because he has been out of job since November of last year when he was retired as a tax collector at the Ministry of Finance. “Our only means of survival is a local cook shop my wife runs,” he said.

He said they have nine children to feed and send to school, so this is the reason we wants someone to adopt his son.

“I want to take this time to thank the “Children's Circle Mission for coming to the aid of my son when he was dying and I would also like to thank the Daily Observer family for their publication that brought help to us,” he said.

Madam Esther Kolleh, mother of little Isaac said, “I thank God that my tears have turn to happiness because my son is so healthy compared to the time he left Liberia. I would like to tell everybody that if you are serving God, he will never let you down.

Little Isaac Kolleh and baby Blessing Brown left Liberia last November to take surgeries to restore their anus. They were taken out of Liberia by a non-profit Christian Organization called “Children's Circle Mission.”