A gift for an ailing Haitian boy: 2 cows

Almane Luxama did not know it yesterday as he headed to Haiti with his 1-year-old son, Dumanel, but some kind Massachusetts residents are planning a homecoming gift for the pair: two cows.

Luxama, a poor farmer, had sold his only two cows to seek medical care for Dumanel, who was born with a hole in his skull and a cyst in his brain. Left untreated, Dumanel would surely have died, but Dr. John Meara, chief of plastic surgery at Children's Hospital Boston, happened to see the boy while volunteering in Haiti last spring and helped arrange for Dumanel to be brought to Boston and operated on for free at Children's.

The Globe carried a story about Dumanel's complex surgery Monday, and three readers quickly responded with offers to help replace the cows. Children's Hospital referred them to Partners In Health, a nonprofit famed for providing healthcare to the poor in Haiti and elsewhere. It helped put together Dumanel's trip to Boston and will continue treating him in Haiti.

Anne Beckett, a patient coordinator for Partners In Health, said yesterday that she had looked into how much milk cows cost in the area of Haiti where the Luxamas live: It would be $250 for a so-so one, $500 for a good one, and $800 for a bull that could help with plowing.

She has received calls from the three people who want to help, and she said "it sounds like there's really enough interest that we'll be able to replace what he lost." The help is especially needed, she said, because while Almane Luxama was here caring for Dumanel as he recuperated, flooding destroyed the family's crops.

John and JoAnn Pike of Norfolk plan to use their family's Christmas gift money to buy a good cow or a bull for the Luxamas. They hope to gather small donations from friends as well. Another donor, Christopher Shustak of Holden, keeps a small herd of Jersey cows as pets, and said in an e-mail that he empathized with Almane Luxama: "I adore my cows, and would be heartbroken if I ever had to sell them."

Beckett said a social worker at a Partners In Health clinic could buy the cows for the Luxamas, and the donations would reimburse the clinic. Sometimes the needs in a place like Haiti can seem overwhelming, she said, but the response to the Luxamas' story "is a testament to how generous and kind people are when the need is really concrete."

Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.