Five-year-old Alice Jean Baptiste arrived at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital fighting for her life.
After months of unexplained illness, delayed diagnosis, and a dangerous journey across the country, doctors confirmed what her family feared most: Alice had high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow that progresses rapidly without treatment.
Any further delay could have cost her life.
This moment marked the beginning of a long and uncertain fight, one shaped by a mother’s determination, a medical team working against extraordinary odds, and a hospital that remains the only place in Haiti where children like Alice can receive specialized pediatric cancer care.
Before the diagnosis, Alice’s life unfolded far from the hospital corridors of Port-au-Prince. Her family lived in Saint-Marc, a coastal city in Haiti’s Artibonite department, where access to specialized pediatric care is limited and serious illnesses often require long, difficult journeys to reach treatment.
Before her illness, Alice lived a typical childhood in Saint-Marc. She attended school, played with her younger brother, and was surrounded by her parents’ love.
Then came the fever.
At first, it seemed manageable. Her parents sought care at multiple local clinics, but treatments brought no improvement. Alice grew weaker. She stopped playing. She barely ate. And she completely withdrew from school.
Doctors eventually raised the news no parent is prepared to hear: cancer.
For Alice’s mother, Anne Marie Jean Baptiste, the diagnosis was devastating, not only because of the illness itself, but because of the uncertainty that followed. Some dismissed Alice’s symptoms entirely, attributing them to superstition rather than medicine.
Still, one truth became clear: Alice needed specialized care that could not be found locally.
With no access to specialized cancer care in Saint-Marc, Alice’s parents faced an impossible choice, stay and risk losing their child, or attempt a dangerous journey in search of treatment. For families across Haiti, the path to life-saving care is often as perilous as the illness itself.
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Alice was referred to St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince—the only hospital in Haiti equipped to treat children with cancer.
Getting there was its own battle.
Traveling from Saint-Marc meant crossing areas affected by insecurity, passing armed checkpoints, and navigating unsafe roads with a critically ill child. Every stop brought fear. Every mile carried the same question: Will we make it?
On April 5, 2025, Alice arrived at St. Damien.
For her parents, it was the first moment of relief after months of uncertainty—and the first real chance for their daughter to survive.
Reaching St. Damien brought hope, but it also revealed how little time remained. The months of uncertainty and delayed care had taken a devastating toll, and Alice’s condition was far more critical than anyone had imagined.
Once admitted, doctors quickly understood the urgency of Alice’s condition.
She was not suffering from an infection, as previously assumed. Alice had advanced leukemia with involvement in her central nervous system—an especially dangerous stage of the disease. Her condition was so severe that she had to be stabilized in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) before cancer treatment could even begin.
Blood transfusions were urgently required. Diagnostic testing was delayed by flight restrictions, forcing doctors to begin treatment without confirmation from international laboratories.
Despite every obstacle, the medical team moved forward—because waiting was not an option.
Any further delay, doctors later confirmed, could have been fatal.
Saving Alice’s life required more than medical intervention. It demanded sacrifices no family should ever be forced to make, sacrifices that reshaped every part of her parents’ lives.
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Alice’s treatment required her family to remain in Port-au-Prince for months. With no relatives nearby, they were forced to rebuild daily life far from home, navigating an unfamiliar city while caring for a critically ill child.
Anne Marie, a teacher, lost her job. Her husband did as well. Their financial stability vanished almost overnight.
But for Alice’s mother, there was never a question of choice.
Her daughter’s life came first.
Alice required constant care, careful monitoring, and steady emotional support, especially during the most difficult months of chemotherapy. For Anne Marie, each day became an act of vigilance, devotion, and resolve.
Through months of uncertainty, loss, and sacrifice, Alice’s family held on to one guiding belief: that healing meant more than surviving the disease. It meant protecting who Alice was, and who she could still become.
Treatment for high-risk leukemia is long and demanding. Alice’s protocol spans 30 months and includes multiple phases of intensive chemotherapy.
She spent nine months hospitalized.
The side effects were severe. Nausea, hair loss, and exhaustion. But alongside the physical toll, something else took root, something as powerful as the medicine itself.
Alice kept learning.
Each day, her mother transformed the hospital room into a classroom, guiding her through schoolwork and math lessons. The oncology team encouraged these moments, determined that Alice would be seen not only as a patient, but as a child with a future.
Slowly, the change became visible.
Alice smiled again. She regained her appetite. She began to feel like herself.
Today, Alice continues treatment as an outpatient. Her hair is growing back. She studies. She laughs. She hopes.
Alice’s progress is a testament to what becomes possible when specialized care, committed families, and sustained support at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital come together. But her story also reveals a harder truth: for most children in Haiti facing cancer, access to this level of care remains painfully rare.
Before pediatric oncology services existed at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital, children with cancer in Haiti had nowhere to turn.
Many were never diagnosed. Many never received treatment. Many died without dignity or relief from suffering.
Today, St. Damien offers life-saving pediatric cancer care in a country where no other option exists. Yet the need far exceeds capacity. With just 11 pediatric oncology beds serving the entire nation, difficult decisions are made every day.
Every bed matters. Every treatment matters. Every child matters.
Alice matters.
Behind every statistic, every hospital bed, and every life saved is a family carrying the weight of uncertainty. For Alice’s mother, the care her daughter received is the reason her child is alive.
Alice’s mother speaks with deep gratitude for those who made her daughter’s treatment possible.
Without support, she says, her family could never have afforded the hospital stays, medications, treatments, or even daily necessities during Alice’s illness. What sustained them was not only medical care, but the knowledge that they were not facing this fight alone.
But her gratitude is paired with urgency.
More children are waiting. More families are searching for care.
And without sustained support, access to life-saving treatment is never guaranteed.
Your donation will provide essential medicine, equipment, and support needed to keep the hospital operating and ensure Haitian children receive the dignified care they deserve.
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