The Miracle Baby of Haiti

28 December 2010

Landina Seignon is not even a year old, yet in her short lifetime she has cheated death many times over and endured agonising injuries that most could only imagine. The tiny, fragile infant was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed hospital two days after Haiti 's devastating earthquake. Believed at the time to be one of thousands of orphans, she was saved after the intervention of a British surgeon who was volunteering in Haiti . And then later, in a remarkable turn of events, she was eventually reunited with a mother who had herself presumed her child was dead. During this time Landina made headlines around the world, becoming a symbol of Haiti 's earthquake tragedy and the country's ongoing battle for survival. 

This film follows the extraordinary chain of events that led to her rescue and the many individuals and organisations that played a role in saving her life.

Barely a month old, Landina was severely injured in a fire at her home on Christmas Day last year. The fire nearly claimed her life, and she was saved when a neighbour rushed to her rescue. She had suffered terrible burns, her right arm had to be amputated but critically it was the injuries to her skull which placed her under such grave threat.

In a twist of fate, the devastating earthquake that claimed the lives of 300,000 of her compatriots, led to her salvation. When the quake struck on January 12 this year, the hospital in which she was being treated, was reduced to rubble. She lay under the debris for two days. A surgeon, several nurses and other patients were killed around her. Her survival was truly remarkable and she fell under the care of British Surgeon David Nott, a world-renowned vascular surgeon, famous for rushing to Tony Blair's side on a motorbike when he had suffered a heart attack. Nott had gone to Haiti as a volunteer to work with Médecins Sans Frontières.

David Nott explains how he realised her life-threatening head injuries could not be treated in Haiti - and that she needed specialist surgery to remove the dead bone and join the rest of the skull together in a complex procedure. While the infection of her skull was a big worry, he was optimistic she was strong enough to make it to Great Ormond Street Hospital for the surgery, without which she would not survive. But how was he going to get her to London ? The Haitian government had just issued a huge clampdown and imposed tight travel restrictions - especially for infants - after a group of American missionaries were accused of trying to 'kidnap' a group of Haitian kids.

Her death seemed imminent if the paperwork was not obtained quickly, but fortune was once again on Landina's side as Channel Four News reporter Inigo Gilmore discovered her plight. He filed reports each day about this tiny baby who represented the desperation of the Haitian people in the wake of the earthquake. The reports raised awareness in government circles and internationally about her plight, and Gilmore and Nott were relentless in their efforts to ensure she would leave the country and be saved.

Eventually two Haitian government ministries agreed to issues Landina with the necessary papers but even then there was no certainty she could leave. On the morning of her planned departure Nott had to battle his way through the desperate crowds at the immigration office to secure a passport and just minutes before departure, the Dominican Embassy finally issued an urgent transit visa, without which the team would not have been able to travel.  

The Chief Executive of a small British charity, Facing The World, Sarah Driver-Jowitt agreed to cover the costs of her evacuation. British officials had seen Landina's story and agreed to grant her a visa. It was touch and go but with the clock ticking, somehow all the pieces fell into place at the last moment. After two helicopter flights from Port au Prince to Santo Domingo and then to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republican, Landina was carried aboard a British Airways flight to London .

Driver-Jowitt met Landina as she arrived at Great Ormond Street and agreed to stay with her after she learnt that the baby needed to have a guardian with her at the hospital. The operation, in which dead bone was removed and the skull pulled together, was successful but she was very weak and twice in the next seven days, she nearly succumbed to her injuries. She had to have a further operation on her burned leg and repair to her amputated arm. These operations were carried out under the auspices of Facing The World, with the doctors and nurses donating their time and skills for free.

A second charity, Chain of Hope, contacted Najma Latif and her family to ask them to take care of Landina after she was released from hospital. They agreed and with love and affection Landina began to thrive and put on weight. But there were difficult questions hanging over Landina's future: did she have a family back in Haiti and if so, could they be found? Attempts to find any relatives or even establish exactly where she was from came to nothing. Landina faced the prospect of returning to an orphanage or foster home in Haiti , many of which had been devastated in the quake.  Would a girl with one arm and severe head injuries be able to survive there?

Gilmore returned to Haiti and for more than six weeks searched for Landina's family. It was a frustrating search, which involved many false leads and dead ends. But eventually he came into contact with a nurse who believed she may know where Landina's mother might be living. At around the same time Gilmore had put out an appeal on local radio for help to locate the family. Finally he was led to one of Port au Prince's most notorious slums where he was taken to the home of Landina's mother whose name could not have been more fitting - Marie Miracle.

The film captures the moment Marie Miracle is told of her baby's survival. She told Gilmore she had grieved for her lost baby after being told she had died in hospital a day after the fire at her home. Arrangements were put in place to bring her to the UK , leaving her three other children in Haiti in the care of family and friends. The film follows her joyous reunion with the baby she never dreamt she would see again and documents the process of them learning to bond as mother and daughter.

After two months Marie Miracle had to return to Haiti but what would happen to her and her family and what will be Landina's fate? Marie tells the charity in London that she wants Landina to return to Haiti when she is recovered but will she be able to cope with her severely injured whilst living in a slum?

As chairman of a newly-formed charity set up help with her future, Friends of Landina, David Nott decides to return to Haiti to see Marie Miracle and the country for himself. He wants to see the conditions that Landina might be returning to. But he is appalled by what he finds. Only a small percentage of the billions pledged by high profile international politicians and governments has been handed to Haiti and help have long moved on.

Landina's family live in a grim slum with terrible hygiene and in extreme poverty. In the roads around her neighbourhood sewage flows openly as pigs wallow in cesspools of filth. Nott worries if it will ever be safe for Landina to live in such place, given her ongoing medical needs.

This is just one of the questions Nott has to grapple with. When he first met and helped a little baby girl he never dreamt he would face so many challenges. He is determined to support Landina and her family long term. But what will that help entail and ultimately what will be Landina's fate?