It is with unexpressable regret that we have to let you know that Paula did not pull through from her illness.  On the night of the 18th August she slipped away.   To say she will be sorely missed would be too much of an understatement.  But we are consoled by the knowledge that she must now be in heaven with her saviour.  Our hope and purpose now is to carry on her work and to join her one day.

On behalf of her family and closest friends we wish to thank you all so very much for your reaction to our appeal, which has touched the hearts of us all here in Brazil.

The total bill reached about 22,500 pounds.  We have entered into a judicial process here to try to establish liability with the government health authority.  We are hopeful but not expectant of a favourable decision, and of course we will let everyone know as soon as we can.  In the event of the government covering her medical expenses we will be contacting you all in order to return your kind gifts. 

Paula is a 25 year old Brazilian full-time volunteer on Rainbow Farm, Brazil, caring for 10 children in the Orange House.   Paula is an exceptional person of great integrity, totally dedicated to helping children in need.

On 20th July she was admitted into a state-run hospital with severe stomach pains and sickness. The doctors were unable to diagnose the problem but as her health deteriorated, they performed emergency exploratory surgery. Her condition became critical and she became completely paralysed; the doctors were unable to make a diagnosis.  In this life and death situation, we had to transfer Paula to a private hospital in Belo Horizonte. Within an hour of arrival she stopped breathing and had to be put on a life-support machine. The doctors diagnosed a rare hereditary blood disorder called porphyria and immediately put her on intravenous glucose. She remains in intensive care,  temporarily paralysed from the neck down and still on life-support but is making small but significant steps of progress each day. Doctors who at first were pessimistic about her chances of survival, are now optimistic although often recovery can be extremely slow.

Whilst she is in intensive care, the average cost per day is approximately 1300 pounds. Our fund-raising target allows for 20 days in intensive care plus a week in a general ward. We hope of course that this will be sufficient but we will need to monitor this according to her progress.

We will update this bulletin regularly here :

12 August:  Paula had a high fever over the weekend and also faced prospect of further exploratory surgery due to suspected problems in her intestines.  However the news today is much better.  The fever subsided and the doctors also now will not need to do any surgery, at least not until she is out of intensive care.  Also the Psychologist has upped the visitiing hours to three times a day.  Erica is staying close to the hospital and visiting whenever she is allowed in.  The big problem remains that Paula still relies on the machine to maintain her breathing.

13 August:  This morning Erica was not allowed to see Paula.  She had a fever and the doctors needed to take further blood tests to check for infection.  Later Andy and Erica visited her in the aternoon and she was asleep for the whole hour of the visit.  Her facial muscles seemed to be partially paralysed. Later in the evening Erica was told that her condition had stabilised again, without any  recurrence of fever.  Thank you for your tremendous reaction to our appeal.  All the signs are that we are facing a long road to recovery. We are trying to find a way for the government to assume the costs and have an excellent lawyer to help us and will let you know as soon as any real progress is made on that front.

14 August:  From Erica, "Today Paulinha was better than yesterday. The doctors have said that she is making progress.... Alleluia!!!  He said that they have started to reduce the help of the respirator and that little by little she will start to breath on her own".   This is particularly good news as up to now the doctors have been very reluctant to raise our hopes.

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