One story this year that generated a great deal of interest was that involving a 12-year-old Haitian boy, Dieuphete Celime.
In the fall of 2011, he suffered severe burns from a gas fire during a cooking accident but was left to let his wounds heal on their own in a poorly equipped hospital. Three months after the accident when Jim Scheller, a member of a Haiti Outreach team, saw Dieuphete, Scheller began investigating if there was any way he could get the boy proper treatment in a U.S. hospital. Upon learning the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston would offer their services, he began searching for a way to get Dieuphete safely and speedily to the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and eventually to Boston.
MAF was one of his first calls––its pilots were more than happy to oblige the request.
Over the past year, Dieuphete’s story has been well documented in mainstream media articles as well as in various MAF social media and publications. And in July, MAF had the privilege of seeing this story come full circle. MAF’s David Carwell flew Dieuphete and his family back home to the Haitian island of Gonave after he completed more than six months of surgeries, recovery, treatment and rehabilitation.