Estelhomme Peterson, a 12-year-old Haitian boy with a large malignant tumor on his neck, arrived in Fort Lauderdale around 7:30 last night with his mother. The boy, whom volunteers call "Peter," is in stable condition at Broward General.
"Peter is here and looking wonderful," said Lauren Odman, the registered nurse at the center of the effort to get the boy treatment in Fort Lauderdale. Odman met Peter while volunteering in Haiti after the earthquake.
For Odman, this is a birthday gift. Her birthday was April 30, and when her father, an oncologist, asked what she'd like as a gift, she told him, "I want someone to save this little boy."
Her father told her to call him back when she found something she wanted from a store.
But her friend Aaron Jackson, founder of the charity Planting Peace, overheard the conversation and insisted he would do everything in his power to get Peter to the U.S. for desperately needed treatment. With the help of Sen. George LeMieux and a local benefactor they call "Saint Bob," they worked through the bureaucracy involved with the State Department, Haitian embassy, and local hospital.
