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First order of business: helping a burned baby By PAUL FATTIG Photo by Paul Fattig Jan Woods holds an infant burned in a fire that killed his mother as the father shows the baby's wound. The father, a rice farmer, had ridden all night on a bus to reach the East Meets West Foundation office in Da Nang, Vietnam. DA NANG, Vietnam -- Retired registered nurse Jan Woods had just arrived in town when she found herself clinging to the back of a motorcycle on an errand of mercy. A poor farmer who had spent all night on a bus had just brought in his burned baby boy to seek help at the East Meets West Foundation office. The baby, about 10 months old, had survived a fire. His mother had not. But the baby had a third-degree burn that stretched 7 inches down from the middle of his shoulder blades. A clear liquid oozed out of the deep burn. After inspecting the bandaged wound, Woods determined the first thing the baby needed was nutritionally rich food. Holding tight to the back of a Vietnamese social worker driving the motorcycle, Woods was bound for Da Nang General Hospital. She quickly purchased sterile water and Similac, a type of infant milk fortified with iron and nutrients. Upon her return, she gave the father instructions, through an interpreter, on how to feed the baby. She also explained to the father that the baby would need a skin graft. He listened intently, frequently nodding his head. "You could tell by the way the father was holding him that he was very attached and very comfortable with the baby," Woods said. "But he had traveled from a village way up in the mountains. He was very worried." The baby's skin graft operation was completed the next day at the hospital, thanks to East Meets West. The graft was taken from the baby's right hip. Using $100 in donations sent by former Vietnamese residents now living in the Rogue Valley who had asked only that the money be put to good use, Woods later purchased a case of Similac and other materials for the baby. She also bought work clothes for the father, as well as his first pair of shoes. And she bought two pair of shoes for his daughters, ages 5 and 9, back home in the village. The day after the operation, Woods went to visit the father and the baby in the hospital. "I had never seen such an excited face on a person," she said. "He wanted to show us how well his baby was doing. He was so relieved, so thankful, so appreciative. "It was just one of those precious moments in nursing that reminds you why you are in it," she added. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA