Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Haitian boy gets new shot at life

By Keith Edwards kedwards@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

MANCHESTER -- Just one day after his most recent chemotherapy treatment for eye cancer, 3-year-old Widerson Mompremier bounces around the lakeside yard of Dr. Laurel Coleman, beaming.

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A VISION: Widerson Mompremier, 3, has received a prosthetic right eye at a Boston hospital after being evacuated from Haiti. Dr. Laurel Coleman, a Manchester resident, facilitated his transfer to the United States and oversees his care.

Staff photo by Andy Molloy

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NEW JOY: Widerson Mompremier, 3, plays with Ralph West and Dr. Laurel Coleman at the latter's Manchester home Friday. Mompremier has received a prosthetic eye at a Boston hospital after being evacuated from Haiti through the intervention of West and Coleman. The neighbors both volunteered in Haiti after a devastating earthquake in January.

Staff photo by Andy Molloy

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The joyful, outgoing youngster kicks a soccer ball around but stops frequently to plant kisses and hugs on two people who spent months getting him from Soufrière, his impoverished mountain village in Haiti, so he could undergo lifesaving surgery in Boston.

A conversation between Coleman and a reporter is put on hold for this exchange between Coleman and Widerson, who speaks Creole but has clearly picked up some English:

Widerson: "I love you."

Coleman: "I love you more."

Widerson: "I love YOU more."

On a mission

Coleman's neighbor, fellow Fayette Baptist Church member Ralph "Rock" West, smiles at the exchange. He too, is on the receiving end of Widerson's hugs.

The pair, as well as West's wife, Dr. Lesley West, were part of a medical mission to northern Haiti around Cap Haitien when, at a makeshift medical clinic in a remote village reached by a two-hour hike up a mountain, Widerson was plopped onto Coleman's lap.

"They said, 'Something is wrong with his eye. Can you fix it?'" Coleman said.

That something wrong was retinoblastoma -- a eye cancer that is fatal if left untreated.

The team took the boy from the village to Cap Haitien, where the diagnosis was confirmed.

"We carried him down the mountain on our backs, like a little backpack," Coleman said. "There was nothing we could do there. They had no medical care there, nothing."

Through friends in Boston, Coleman spoke with surgeon Dr. Shizuo Mukai, who agreed to donate his skills to remove Widerson's right eye and replace it with a prosthetic one.

First they had to get him there -- no easy task when dealing with a 3-year-old with no passport or birth certificate, nor any parents on hand to help, in an earthquake-ravaged country.

Widerson's mother is dead, and his father is a migrant worker in the Dominican Republic, Coleman said.

For months, Coleman, upon returning home, lobbied government officials in Haiti and the United States to bring Widerson to the United States.

She credits U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' staff for eventually helping secure the necessary paperwork and permissions to bring Widerson to Boston for surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Just in time

Initially, they thought Widerson's problem eye could be removed before the cancer spread.

However, it took so long to secure permission to bring him out of Haiti, the disease spread, making chemotherapy necessary.

The tiny youth underwent chemotherapy for four weeks in a row, five days a week.

It wasn't easy. Coleman said sometimes, while vomitting from the chemotherapy, Widerson would ask whether they could go back to Maine.

He stayed in Boston at the Ronald McDonald House with his aunt from Haiti, Chacilia Richalien.

"She has been so helpful, to stay with Widerson night and day," Coleman said of the aunt. "Their village had no electricity, no bathroom, no running water; and one day they're put on a plane and are in Boston in one of the most high-tech medical facilities in the world."

Widerson also needed all his childhood vaccines and other pediatric care, all donated by Dr. Kieran Kammerer, through MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta.

Widerson also was given a free pair of eyeglasses to protect his one remaining good eye -- donated by Smart Eyecare Center, also in Augusta.

The outgoing youth who frolicked beside Cobbossee Lake on Friday was not quite what Coleman and West were expecting.

When they met him, he was shy, and probably scared to death of the white strangers visiting his village.

His vibrant personality didn't stay under wraps for long, though.

"We walk into Mass General now and everybody knows him, everybody loves him," Coleman said of Widerson.

About survival

Coleman said Widerson should have a 90 percent chance of survival upon completion of treatment.

Still ahead of him is proton beam radiation -- a treatment available only at the Boston hospital and one or two other hospitals in the country.

West, who has made seven trips volunteering in Haiti, said Widerson never would have gotten the help he needed to live without both Coleman's persistence and the Fayette Baptist Church's trips to Haiti.

They both believe Widerson is destined for big things -- perhaps a career as a doctor, or even president of Haiti.

"Being a man of faith, certainly I think the good Lord had something to do with helping this little guy out," West said. "It's against all odds. Every step of the way, there were obstacles and roadblocks.

"Through Laurel's persistence, the roadblocks gradually disappeared."

If his medical care progresses well, Widerson could be home in Haiti in October.

Coleman said Widerson has a large, extended, loving family there.

"We'll miss him," Coleman said. "It's going to be hard."

West already has plans to return to Haiti, and Coleman said she'll be down to check on him, too.

"We're not going to forget him," West added. "We're going to continue to support him, make sure he has the opportunity to go to school. We're going to continue to go to Haiti, so we'll be able to check on him, and love on him."

"And get loved in return," Coleman added.

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com