"He Had a Great Smile"

My wife always said that Dukens had a "great smile". He did.

I followed Dukens in Haiti for about one year. He had severe congestive heart failure due to rheumatic heart disease. He was very weak and could not attend school any longer. He had been a very good student. Dukens was 16 years old.

I was unable to get him accepted into a hospital in the United States for heart surgery to replace his tattered and incompetent valves.

Haitian Hearts treated him with medicine which helped just a little.

One day three weeks ago he told his mother that he was going to die. Fifteen minutes later Dukens and his "great smile" were gone.