I had a good cry last night. It's one thing to hear the word "poverty" as an American, and quite another to be there, to see it, to smell it, to touch dirty people who have flies crawling over their crusty scabs. To see children who are hungry -- and not just hungry, starving -- to say it's heartbreaking is not the right word. It's wrong. It is horribly, terribly wrong to have children starving in our world. And yet it's not just Haiti but so many other poor countries where this is happening. My brain is starting to see a small corner of the problem of world poverty, and my soul hurts.
And yet -- sitting down across from a dirty, poor, underfed Haitian, I looked in her eyes and all I saw was the humanity. That other than having been born in a different place, this person was human like me, was just like me. They could BE me. So I didn't have any reservations whatsoever about reaching out and touching them like I would anyone else, dirty or not. Their humanity was utterly compelling.
The experience really made me realize that we as Americans do so much categorizing people. "Muslims are..." or "Black people are..." or "People in poor countries do this..." and that when you sit across from a human being and touch them, you realize that categorizing people at all is fundamentally flawed. And when you take away the boxes that you have people in in your mind, you have to address each person in the world as an individual. That is hard to imagine, and yet so freeing.
- Megan
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tune into the the last episode of General Hospital
So rumor has it that another team is coming into General Hospital Friday and we don't need to come...well as Danielle said..that just won't do...see I had promised those kids in the tent that I would come back and seeing as they have had enough heartbreak of their mothers and fathers being killed in the earthquake and not coming back...I was not going to continue that streakIn Ohio if a physical therapist abandons their patients they can lose their license and even though I had brought my license to prove I was a bona fide therapist-no one checked it...heck I was on General Hospital so I could have even played a real doctor and they would not have checked it...but we all stayed in our scope of practice minus ordering xrays and triaging the emergency room....enough of words from our sponsor lets get back to regular programming......
So on my last day I was lucky to start my day working with the kids in the orphan tent. The two kids did not get their external fixators removed from their arms or legs, but were told it would be Friday instead. I worked with all of them and found that they all had worked on their homework diligently and from even the last few days were able to now walk without crutches, dance with their grandfather and family while singing Beyonce, Rihanna and Alicia Keyes...it was classical Me belting out "I am Superwoman" by Alicia Keyes and have the kids answer back in English "Yes I am....Yes I am!" we danced and sang to songs all the while they did not notice that they had managed to dance or walk for 5 to 10 minutes without using crutches and without pain.
One girl I was working with had a leg length discrepancy of close to 2 inches so that one leg was significantly shorter then the other. I had remembered to bring heel lifts that would help balance out the difference between her two legs...but her beat up flip flops and super glue was not going to work....so I asked Claude our wonderful translator if he was willing to find me sandals in the marketplace...which he did find a great pair of Haitian sandals for 8 dollars...so I gave her my tennis shoes and it made a big difference with her walking. ....as we were taking video we had the camera crew come in from Amsterdam to finish the follow up story of the little girl Julia who had been an international story of surviving for days under her dead mother. These film journalist had managed to get a Canadian plastic surgeon that had flown in to see if he could do surgery on her wounds so that she could return to "normal" whatever that is in Haiti. Unfortunately, they kept running into people that were roadblocks for the proper documentation to take her to the surgeon and to Canada for the surgery. Having spent my entire time at General Hospital, I realized the people that they needed to talk to in order to get the proper documentation and by 2 pm they had it in hand and the little girl was cleared for surgery in Canada....yeah!!!!
I had also promised Jonas that I would come back and wrap his amputation wound and teach his family how to wrap his stump so that it forms optimally and properly for best outcomes. I checked on Jonas and found unsurprisingly that no one had redid his dressing or given him pain medicine at all since yesterday at 9 pm......it was 2 pm at this point...can you imagine having your leg amputated on Tuesday and after 9 pm Thursday not getting any pain medication, or tylenol, or advil or anything at all...yikes! Well I had to take off a bandage that had been caked on a wound for 4 days on a kid that had not had any pain medication since Thursday. I needed to make sure that he had pain medication before I started this...so they search began........................see there are no nurses in the tent that the Haitian staff is running...I mean nooooooo nurses after asking the family that the last time they saw someone come through was at 8 that morning. I asked one of our doctors if he could get me pain medication, but although he could write the prescription -he could not administer it as it had to be the Haitian staff that put it into the I.V. ...ALLLLLLLright enough of this...we headed out to find the right person to solve it. We tripped across the leading orthopedic surgeon for Haiti in the Orthopedic tent. I used my P.R. schtick to have the translator tell the surgeon we desperately needed his help because his patient had not had the bandages removed because the American Doctors had not thought to remove them stupid American Doctors...I need you help great Haitian Doctor (okay orthopedic surgeons are impressed with them selves and the best way to get what you want is to appeal to their egos-it works-whatever it takes!) He immediately left all the people talking at him to help me (see I told you it works! :> ) He visited with the little boy and then demanded that the Haitian nurses get the pain medication and he even changed the saline solution himself. Once medicated and comfortable, I and wonderful Frances ( another volunteer from our camp) who was first mate in us doing our wound care on Jonas. We did the dressing change and taught his family to do it as well. We taught them how to rewrap the stump twice a day and confirmed that I had emailed the gentleman to get his prothestic device after 2 weeks...we left the supplies and wished them well knowing that they would be heading in the right direction in getting the help they need....and hopefully they will have their boy doing everything someone their age should do within a few months.
So this is the last episode of General Hospital...we had drama, hope and happy endings...a great way to end a show
kimberly
I am grateful for........
Sitting in an Air France plane after a week of living without real showers, air conditioners, ice, consistent electricity, beds, running water is something to be grateful for – and I was very grateful when I sank into 9B. We had done it. Made it to Haiti and performed our mission and safely made it back onto the plane in one piece. In fact, in the end we were not scared of the country or the people. We had gotten to know them individually, deeply individually as we watched their deaths, struggles, hunger, dehydration, grief and against all odds – happiness despite a minute on January 13th that changed all of their lives forever.
As the air conditioning came on and cooled the temperature on the plane, I thought about the family that had their son Jonas in a tent that was sweltering at 80 degrees and above all day long. As we ate the food handed to us, I thought about the 80 year old woman who asked for food from her hospital bed because they expect family to give them food and her 7 children had moved to the U.S. and had not visited her since the earthquake. I sipped the red wine thinking about the countless people who came into the emergency department and clinics from dehydration. I rested my head on my chair and thought of the countless people in the tent cities that did not have a chair or a bed in their makeshift tent and thus slept on the dirt…unless it rained and they had to stand up until it was over.
We landed and headed to customs. Waiting in line I looked around at the smooth marble floors, the building that was cool and well light, and at the surrounding buildings outside the window that all were neatly in order with shiny cars and free of debris and trash. A video was playing welcoming you to the United States – showing the many splendors of our country as the song goes from the mountains to the prairies…and Danielle and I discussed how emotional it made us feel to come home.
So I looked around slowly and took it all in and thought to myself I am grateful for all this…..and as I began to walk through the airport I started to think if you take the time to be in your surroundings enough to listen to life around you – you catch things you would have missed if you weren’t truly in the moment. Now people that know me….know how I whirl through life and my husband Michael laughs at how my idea of relaxing is doing something productive on my free time….but I stopped…..and thought about how the Haitian people were happy and grateful despite everything that was handed to them….and I decided to try to identify every little thing through my day that I should be grateful for in my life. I was aware now to be grateful for the shower and warm bed in the hotel in Miami-something I took for granted for before. Simple moments, simple pleasures.
I am grateful for husband Michael who is breathtaking to me. I am grateful for Luke who is an amazing soul, Ella who is magical and Jack who is a breath of fresh air. I am grateful for my family and friends and health. Grateful to spend an amazing week with four women who are dedicated to their profession, families and friends-what a great journey.
Kimberly
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Living the Dream
Working day 5, Megan and I got split up. It wasn't intentional, some general SNAFU stuff happened at General Hospital, which caused more people to be shunted to our team going to the camps. We ended up with a team of 9, including 5 paramedic/EMT guys from Portland. Now, in Haiti, 9 people is almost enough to staff an entire hospital, so it seemed too much to send to one tent city – even though, really, the need at Delmas 31 was so great we probably all could have worked around the clock and still not seen the end of it. For medical professionals, we had Megan, Myself, Cortney (just barely finished med school and not in her internship yet), and the Portland guys. We also still had Carson, the amazing woman with no medical training who somehow organized and facilitated every organization she was attached to. Cortney didn't feel comfortable being being the lone medial director of a group, and Megan had promised patients at Delmas that she would be back for follow up. So I teamed up with 2 paramedics and an EMT. Unfortunately, no one knew about the split before we got there, so we had to unpack, sort, split, and repack everything to stock 2 clinics.
So off I went with 3 kinda cute emergency med guys (Jason, Chris and Gordon) up through the very crowded, winding streets of Petionville. We passed through a huge street market, selling everything from knock-off purses to live chickens. On the trip, we worked out that we would have 3 clinic stations and one person as float / runner / triage / pharmacy. We initially thought we would switch out, but Jason turned out to be fantastic as the float so we stayed in our roles the whole day. I was the medical director, and the guys came to me with any complex patient questions. It was a little dream come true – me getting to boss around 3 action/adventure guys on a tropical island.
We entered a small camp, all enclosed in a fence with a gate, which had an open area covered in chairs and benches (and luckily some tarps for shade) in front of a still-standing house. It looked like an open-air church, filled with people nodding cordially and wearing their best clothes. I wondered what the event was – but it was us. We were the first medical team to visit the camp since the earthquake and just about everyone who lived there and the surrounding neighborhood at least stopped by to see the show. The people at this camp weren't as poor as Delmas 31. The neighborhood had been wealthier and more people spoke French or even a little English. There was still desperate need, though. The kids were still skinny, the adults exhausted and traumatized, and we saw several patients who would have been turfed immediately to the ED if I saw them in clinic at home. Still not much of an option here. Highlights included a child with a bad asthmatic bronchitis which we cleared pretty well with steroids and inhalers (we made the family stay for a few hours so we could keep an eye on him). I saw an older guy who probably had a DVT – luckily he knew someone with a car and could get to a hospital. The team saw 3 different adults with systolic blood pressure > 220. (We kept a close eye on them, too, and saw there BP's go down with meds). We still saw the majority of “since the earthquake, I've got a headache, I've got a stomach ache, I don't sleep, I get exhausted easily”. The kids had thin limbs, scabies and worms. I began to perfect my PTSD speech “We are seeing so many people here with your same symptoms and it is very normal. After a trauma, most people feel very stressed in their bodies and their minds. These symptoms are not life threatening. They will pass as life becomes more normal, but I know you are uncomfortable and I would like to help you with that”. Most people seemed reassured, and then we gave them the “Haiti Gift Bag” (named by the paramedics) of Tylenol, Zantac and Vitamins (plus anything else acutely we needed to treat). I was again blessed with a terrific translator named Alex, who is hoping to get back to university soon.
That day my team saw > 100 people in 5 hours. We also accomplished 2 great things. When we got back to Quisqueya, we told Miquette and the staff about the camp, and they assured me that they would send another team there in 1-2 weeks with more cardiovascular and asthma meds. So hopefully, these people will not be abandoned and they will feel more secure and cared-for. With less worry about basic health and survival, they may be able to move forward, start working, start repairing, start buying, start rebuilding (is re- the right term for a place that was such a mess to begin with?).
The second great thing we did, was with a little boy named Peter Lee. Peter Lee is 9 years old. 2 years ago, he started complaining of pain in his right hip. There was no preceding injury. He started limping, developed pain to his back and knee. He is in constant pain, and could barely walk without support. Chris saw him and called me in to consult. I'm pretty sure Peter Lee has something called avascular necrosis at his hip joint – this can be repaired with surgery / therapy, but definitely needed more than some Ibuprofen. We got his mother's contact information (strangely, everyone in Haiti, even very poor people have cell phones – Digitel, the cell phone company is the most profitable business in Haiti), and Miquette called her that night to arrange for Peter Lee to be transferred to a hospital for X-rays and a orthopedic referral. I saw Peter Lee the next morning before transport and was able to give his mother a bag including a blanket, towel, and some extra food. I'm looking forward to contacting some people still at Quisqueya to find out about him. Miquette told me the mother was crying on the phone, so grateful that we had kept our promise.
I think the experience I had with this family was a microcosm of what the world needs to do with Haiti. WE NEED TO KEEP OUR PROMISES. If the world offers aid, then we need to go, triage the major issues, choose problems that we CAN help with, be honest about WHAT we can do to help, give realistic timelines, educate people scrupulously on how to sustain any improvements, train local leaders and staff to manage ongoing progress, and allow constant local feedback so Haitians know that they can and must ultimately take care of themselves. This process can work with health care, infrastructure, education, government, you name it. I hope that whoever is in charge – Preval, the UN, the Clinton Foundation, the Red Cross, the World Bank have this kind of framework in mind when they think about aid. I also hope that they get off their butts and start applying aid soon, while the country is in such a teachable moment.
Jamie said something to me that I love – she wants to get her emergency medical training, so someday she can be part of a delegation where Haiti sends aid to some other country in need. She and most other educated Haitians I met feel strongly that Haiti needs more than aid, it needs to become self sufficient and develop national pride. If there is enough people who think like she does, and the right help is applied at the right times, it might just happen.
Thanks again, everyone for your attention and support. Love, Rachel.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Last Day.
Today was a strange one. We got up early, packed all of our things, then Rachel went to help another team with all of our medical supplies that we gave while Kimberly wandered off down the street with an interpreter to try to find a needy Haitian family to give her small camping air mattresses to. By the time Kimberly returned, my blood sugar was so low from missing breakfast that I had already dragged Lisa off down the street to Epi D'or, a European style coffee shop complete with a crepe stand inside.
After a delicious breakfast (in which Rachel, Danielle, and Kimberly did show up to join us) we went back to Quisqueya to pick up our taptap. We had agreed to pay the drivers $100 to take us wherever we wanted to go. We were excited to go up to a lookout point and see the city, but instead our drivers took us way past the lookout point to a Baptist Mission where there was a museum, a zoo, and a bunch of shopkeepers desperate for some American money.
We did a little shopping but got kind of annoyed at not being taken where we had wanted to go, and then on the (very long) way back down, the car was overheating and we wound up begging the driver to take us back to Quisqueya. When we arrived, we enlisted the help of a Quisqueya employee named Theo to explain to the drivers that 1) they didn't take us where we wanted to go and 2) our trip was cut short because of the car trouble, and so 3) we didn't think $100 was a fair price for that. So we agreed to pay them $70 -- there is a severe gas shortage until 4/24 when some more gas will arrive, so prices are steep right now.
Then we lazed around for a little while. About 10 minutes before our scheduled departure time for the airport, Miquette came running into the compound yelling for a doctor because there had been a "big accident" right outside. Rachel and I grabbed gloves and a BP cuff and hauled ass in the heat, where we found a Haitian man having been hit by a car while walking, being tended to by an American military medic. He was injured pretty badly, lots of cuts and scrapes and likely a big nasty ankle fracture. We kicked it into high gear, assessed his vitals, made a splint with the material in the medic's bag and wrapped his ankle, then Hans the German ER doc from Humedica jumped in and took over, started an I.V., had one of his staff bring a canvas stretcher, onto which we gently placed the man and carried him to the bed of a truck in the Quisqueya compound.
I couldn't help but think, dude, if you're gonna get hit by a car in Port au Prince, you really couldn't have picked a better place than the one where there was a small military unit and a compound full of American doctors. Really.
Anyway, it really helped me feel better about my last medical act in Haiti. Not abandoning a child in a dark empty hospital, but putting my hands to work helping a man who was in serious pain.
When I looked up after loading the man into the truck, I noticed Rachel was gone. I went up to our room and found it empty. My friends had finished grabbing all of my stuff and we were packed and ready to leave for the airport (at this point a little bit late.) We got to the airport at 2:30pm for a 5:45pm flight.
In the waiting area we met Faustian Desir, a Haitian-born American Army Staff Sergeant. He and 50 other young Haitian men took off in a boat headed for Cuba in 1990 when he was 18 years old. At the time, young men in Haiti were being murdered by the thousands by troops during the transition of government that led to Jean Bertrand Aristide's "presidency." An American Coast Guard ship picked them up, took them to Guantanamo, and after 2 weeks they let him go to the US along with 15 other Haitians. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, Faustian volunteered for the US Army and he is now a recruiter but is also being used as an interpreter during this time of need. Today, he and his mother were on our flight -- he has arranged for her to live here permanently. Truly a fantastic story.
As our wheels lifted off the ground, my eyes welled with tears. I'm just not sure I'll ever see this place again, and to leave these poor people in the state they're in is so hard. The sun was setting and there were no street lights, no electricity anywhere other than the airport. The only light we saw was from fires on the ground -- likely people burning trash. Flying over Miami was a stark contrast. Everything is clean here, and the lights work, and the traffic flows, and there is a working infrastructure.
If the government officials in Haiti took the tax money they receive and hired Haitians to rebuild their country (instead of lining their own pockets), those Haitians would have money to spend, which would create demand, which would create business, which would create jobs. Not that these issues are so simple, really, but government corruption is the first place to start to fix things there. I believe that.
But for now, I am looking forward to seeing my family tomorrow. And I will remember to feel grateful for the blessings we have in our own country.
Signing off from Haiti,
- Megan
A Major Apology
Hey everyone.
In my very upset state last night I accidentally inserted the word "military" in the sentence I was writing about the poor American response here. That was not intended and is indeed not true. The military are here, have been here. I've seen them everywhere. They were here in the beginning, building piers and offloading supplies and helping to rescue people and dig up bodies and help ensure that thousands didn't starve or die of thirst or a major epidemic of disease.
The American military were here setting up huge tents on the Quisqueya compound within days of the earthquake. I saw photos of them last night -- you can even see them on Google Earth because the latest satellite images of Quisqueya were taken while they were here.
I apologize deeply to my military friends who have worked hard all over the world in crises such as this. It was unintended.
My problem is with the Red Cross and the $400 million donated American dollars, much of which hasn't found its way here on the ground.
- Megan
In my very upset state last night I accidentally inserted the word "military" in the sentence I was writing about the poor American response here. That was not intended and is indeed not true. The military are here, have been here. I've seen them everywhere. They were here in the beginning, building piers and offloading supplies and helping to rescue people and dig up bodies and help ensure that thousands didn't starve or die of thirst or a major epidemic of disease.
The American military were here setting up huge tents on the Quisqueya compound within days of the earthquake. I saw photos of them last night -- you can even see them on Google Earth because the latest satellite images of Quisqueya were taken while they were here.
I apologize deeply to my military friends who have worked hard all over the world in crises such as this. It was unintended.
My problem is with the Red Cross and the $400 million donated American dollars, much of which hasn't found its way here on the ground.
- Megan
Friday, April 16, 2010
Danielle's signing off from Haiti
Day 5 at University of Miami Hospital was really great. Basically this is 180 degrees from my last hospital. Again it all boils down to MONEY. I don't have every detail, but this is what I understand. After the earthquake the University of Miami set up a massive effort which included this hospital, which is modeled after the hospital in Miami. Several large circus tents all strung together represent an operating room, ICU, NICU, ER, Recovery for adults, Recovery for kids, lab, and supply area. On arrival we checked in and had a brief orientation from PT staff. Well the guy who had been there the longest (5 days). I marveled at the organization. Hillary Clinton's aide was there Tuesday as they are asking for 40 million to help continue this hospital long-term. Based on my 8 hour experience, making me the expert I'd be in favor.
Even with all these kudos I do want to mention that each patient is assigned a bed sheet on arrival. It belongs to them for the duration of their stay, be it 3 days or 3 months. Maybe they will be lucky enough to have a family member wash it by hand. From what I could tell they were not being washed. We are donating everything we have left to various groups on our departure. Kimberly even bought a pair of sandals on the street so she could give her shoes to a patient today. I am sending mine with my Arubian friends tomorrow.
I treated all my patients for about an hour. Luxury really. My favorite patient of the day was a 34 year old woman who has a T4 Spastic Hemiplegic. Basically she will never walk again functionally, will require assist for transfers into her wheelchair and she has legs that spasm into flexion. My interpreter said that she cries at night because her boyfriend said he did not want a crippled woman. She is all alone with the exception of a sister who lives far away and sounds like she has not yet visited since the earthquake. She had a bright smile 5 minutes into our treatment time together. We worked for about 45 minutes and she smiled and said she liked to work hard. Always makes a PTs day. I spoke to the MD about anti-spasmatic medication and she said there was not any. They have her on Flexeril which is a muscle relaxer which will only make her drowsy and not touch the neurological spasticity. The patient indicated she had an injection at her last hospital that relaxed her legs. The MD said they could give her some anti-anxiety drug, which could have a placebo effect. Unbelievable. On my second visit with her in the afternoon I gave her an hour massage. Why not, who cares that Medicare won't pay for a massage. I work for free. I am quite certain that she had not felt any such physical touch in all her life. She was so relaxed and peaceful. She smiled several times as to say thank you. No need for interpreters. Tomorrow my friends will deliver her my shiny white satin sleeping bag (Dreamy) that I have been sleeping with all week. I hope she feels pampered.
I also worked/played with 2 children that seemed to be in a PTSD daze. I took them outside and tried to play with my homemade balloons made from my gloves with them. It was really hard to get them to smile and they were both so floppy. One of them was recently hit by a car, as the cars drive fast/quickly/wildly with little regard for any other cars/people in the road. Even worse than me. I gave one of the girls a lollipop and was concerned there would be a riot. Apparently when you give a candy or blanket or any clothes to a child all the other Mom's mob you to get some for their child. Keeping up with the Jones in Haiti.
I spent an hour feeding/holding a premature baby which was such a highlight. She was a good little eater and the RNs are working to death and often don't have any time to just sit long enough to hold the babies. At night American soldiers can be found taking sweet turns holding these little ones.
My friend Ann wears a necklace that says Kindness Matters. I thought of this phrase often throughout our time in Haiti. That was my major contribution - treating others with respect, love, compassion and letting the Haitians I met know the are valued as human beings. I think about how crushed Megan felt from feeling defeated when trying to help the young mother get her daughter more medical attention. That mother had probably never had someone work so hard to help her. That is a gift that will last a lifetime. Rachel met a little boy who had terrible pain in his hip for 2 years. She organized a transfer so that the boy could get more medical attention today. The time she took to follow through on a promise she made to the mother is the act of kindness the mother and son will feel for a lifetime.
Will I return to Haiti? I am not sure if I will, but I will return to a third world country with my children when they are old enough to value the many lessons there. I want them to know that people all over the world live differently but all share the common need for love and compassion.
I feel very blessed to be an American. Megan spoke of the Haitian born American soldier we met in the airport. He is so proud to be an American. He seemed to glow with pride. His story brought me to tears followed by chills to see the honor he felt and the responsibility he felt to serve our country.
It was all inspiring to see our American soldiers at work in Haiti. Just their presence made me feel safe. As we run through our days in Colorado Springs we live amongst our military men and women and probably do not realize what their days are like. I can tell you the days are hot and long in Haiti. I can tell you they jump into action at a moments notice with great intensity and you feel honored to have them on your side representing your country.
So how did 5 very strong women with 5 very strong personalities do?? I estimate if we had been on a vacation to France in one small room and bathroom we would have killed each other. Five strong women in Haiti works. It is amazing what happens when you share a common goal to just give give give all day. The end result was 5 women who all had very different stories to tell but all feel our time in Haiti was of value.
We have all spoken at length about what to do to help Haiti. How to solve the problems that seem so vast and so endless. Education is the key. Haitian's have to pay for school for their children which translates to lots of uneducated people when the unemployment rate is staggering. The young men that served as our interpreters give me hope that change can come to Haiti. As I have mentioned in prior blogs they are very ambitious, smart, respectful and kind. Many American's during our week in Haiti have pledged to send a few to Medical school (15K over 5 years) and are working on foundations to build a nursing school in Haiti. These are the steps that can spark change.
Thanks to all who listened as we all journaled our thoughts as they unfolded during our Journey. I am the last one awake in our cozy hotel in Miami. The hotel with warm showers, safe water, soft beds and most importantly no ROOSTERS.
Danielle
Pictures may be added in days to come. First things first - sleep - fly - hug our families!!! Can't wait!!!!!
Even with all these kudos I do want to mention that each patient is assigned a bed sheet on arrival. It belongs to them for the duration of their stay, be it 3 days or 3 months. Maybe they will be lucky enough to have a family member wash it by hand. From what I could tell they were not being washed. We are donating everything we have left to various groups on our departure. Kimberly even bought a pair of sandals on the street so she could give her shoes to a patient today. I am sending mine with my Arubian friends tomorrow.
I treated all my patients for about an hour. Luxury really. My favorite patient of the day was a 34 year old woman who has a T4 Spastic Hemiplegic. Basically she will never walk again functionally, will require assist for transfers into her wheelchair and she has legs that spasm into flexion. My interpreter said that she cries at night because her boyfriend said he did not want a crippled woman. She is all alone with the exception of a sister who lives far away and sounds like she has not yet visited since the earthquake. She had a bright smile 5 minutes into our treatment time together. We worked for about 45 minutes and she smiled and said she liked to work hard. Always makes a PTs day. I spoke to the MD about anti-spasmatic medication and she said there was not any. They have her on Flexeril which is a muscle relaxer which will only make her drowsy and not touch the neurological spasticity. The patient indicated she had an injection at her last hospital that relaxed her legs. The MD said they could give her some anti-anxiety drug, which could have a placebo effect. Unbelievable. On my second visit with her in the afternoon I gave her an hour massage. Why not, who cares that Medicare won't pay for a massage. I work for free. I am quite certain that she had not felt any such physical touch in all her life. She was so relaxed and peaceful. She smiled several times as to say thank you. No need for interpreters. Tomorrow my friends will deliver her my shiny white satin sleeping bag (Dreamy) that I have been sleeping with all week. I hope she feels pampered.
I also worked/played with 2 children that seemed to be in a PTSD daze. I took them outside and tried to play with my homemade balloons made from my gloves with them. It was really hard to get them to smile and they were both so floppy. One of them was recently hit by a car, as the cars drive fast/quickly/wildly with little regard for any other cars/people in the road. Even worse than me. I gave one of the girls a lollipop and was concerned there would be a riot. Apparently when you give a candy or blanket or any clothes to a child all the other Mom's mob you to get some for their child. Keeping up with the Jones in Haiti.
I spent an hour feeding/holding a premature baby which was such a highlight. She was a good little eater and the RNs are working to death and often don't have any time to just sit long enough to hold the babies. At night American soldiers can be found taking sweet turns holding these little ones.
My friend Ann wears a necklace that says Kindness Matters. I thought of this phrase often throughout our time in Haiti. That was my major contribution - treating others with respect, love, compassion and letting the Haitians I met know the are valued as human beings. I think about how crushed Megan felt from feeling defeated when trying to help the young mother get her daughter more medical attention. That mother had probably never had someone work so hard to help her. That is a gift that will last a lifetime. Rachel met a little boy who had terrible pain in his hip for 2 years. She organized a transfer so that the boy could get more medical attention today. The time she took to follow through on a promise she made to the mother is the act of kindness the mother and son will feel for a lifetime.
Will I return to Haiti? I am not sure if I will, but I will return to a third world country with my children when they are old enough to value the many lessons there. I want them to know that people all over the world live differently but all share the common need for love and compassion.
I feel very blessed to be an American. Megan spoke of the Haitian born American soldier we met in the airport. He is so proud to be an American. He seemed to glow with pride. His story brought me to tears followed by chills to see the honor he felt and the responsibility he felt to serve our country.
It was all inspiring to see our American soldiers at work in Haiti. Just their presence made me feel safe. As we run through our days in Colorado Springs we live amongst our military men and women and probably do not realize what their days are like. I can tell you the days are hot and long in Haiti. I can tell you they jump into action at a moments notice with great intensity and you feel honored to have them on your side representing your country.
So how did 5 very strong women with 5 very strong personalities do?? I estimate if we had been on a vacation to France in one small room and bathroom we would have killed each other. Five strong women in Haiti works. It is amazing what happens when you share a common goal to just give give give all day. The end result was 5 women who all had very different stories to tell but all feel our time in Haiti was of value.
We have all spoken at length about what to do to help Haiti. How to solve the problems that seem so vast and so endless. Education is the key. Haitian's have to pay for school for their children which translates to lots of uneducated people when the unemployment rate is staggering. The young men that served as our interpreters give me hope that change can come to Haiti. As I have mentioned in prior blogs they are very ambitious, smart, respectful and kind. Many American's during our week in Haiti have pledged to send a few to Medical school (15K over 5 years) and are working on foundations to build a nursing school in Haiti. These are the steps that can spark change.
Thanks to all who listened as we all journaled our thoughts as they unfolded during our Journey. I am the last one awake in our cozy hotel in Miami. The hotel with warm showers, safe water, soft beds and most importantly no ROOSTERS.
Danielle
Pictures may be added in days to come. First things first - sleep - fly - hug our families!!! Can't wait!!!!!
Where oh where is the American Red Cross?
Hi all!
I'm sitting here all sparking clean after my shower, and realizing it's the last time I will take an outdoor leukwarm moonlit shower in Haiti. Tomorrow we fly back to Miami after having a nice breakfast, renting a "taptap" (Haitian taxi) and getting a tour of Port au Prince.
Rachel and I got split up today. We had a team of 9 people and wound up being too many to go to Delmas 31, so Rachel and her team went to Petionville (a different camp from Sean Penn's) and I went to Delmas 31 with my team. On my team we had Cortney, a fourth year medical student; Ed, an EMT from Portland; Mike, an EMT from Portland, and a translator/Haitian medical student studying in England named Whites. We had a busy day, saw 146 patients in about 5 hours. I saw 33 myself, which was just about average with what everyone else did. I may be slow at home, but I'm average here. :)
Today's cases were much like the last several days', but I saw almost no pregnant women or babies. Lots of young men and women with stomachaches and headaches.
The last patient of the day was Cortney's -- a 9 year old girl with R lower quadrant abdominal pain. She was exquisitely tender and pushing on the L side made her R side hurt (a bad sign.) She didn't have a fever but we were certain we needed to at least rule out appendicitis. I called Miquette at Quisqueya, and she told us to take the girl to Grace hospital. A guy at the door of Grace hospital waved us away, saying they were full. We then drove to L'Hopital du Paix (Peace Hospital). I walked in with the mom and girl, and asked the security guard where the emergency room was. He pointed.
As I followed his finger with my eyes I couldn't believe what I saw. An open-air waiting area with dusty chairs everywhere, no lights on, nobody at any desks, nobody in any rooms. A dark, abandoned room with chairs. We then walked around the hospital until we found a room where there was some activity -- a nursery. A nurse there told me that there were no doctors in the hospital (!!!!!) and that one would be around tomorrow.
As we prepared to take our patient elsewhere we saw a man with surgical garb on. We stopped him and I spoke to him in English. He was a Cuban anesthesiologist, who said that there would be a doctor along at 7pm (it was 4pm) and said she could wait in the "emergency room." I took her temperature one last time. She was still normal. With a sigh, I walked her back to the dark dusty area and told her and her mother to wait until 7pm to see a doctor. Then I left.
I am still furious with myself over that. I should have put that kid back in the truck and driven around until I found a hospital with a physician. But here, late in the afternoon, the chances were slim that I would find such a place, and if I did, it would likely be so far away from her home that she would have a very hard time getting back. I just can't believe I left her. It's against everything I've ever been taught. I don't know how I can forgive myself.
I just hope she was seen tonight, or better yet, that we were wrong and she started feeling better and walked home. Francesca, wherever you are, I hope you're okay.
*********************
So where is the Red Cross, anyway? We're being driven all over town and we can't find them anywhere. A Haitian will work for $10 a day. Why aren't our American donated funds ($400 million of them!) going to hire Haitians to rebuild their city? Why aren't they staffing the hospitals? The feeling around here among those who work on the ground is that the Red Cross isn't doing much. How can that be? Americans believe that when a crisis hits, the first thing to do is to give money to the Red Cross. Well, they weren't here after the earthquake when it was a matter of life and death. The Germans and the Israelis were here within 2 days, rescuing people. A lot of wealthy American doctors came here on their own, quickly, and performed amputations and C-sections on injured Haitians. But the American NGOs such as the Red Cross did a lot of meeting, thinking, planning on what to do with the money and didn't do a lot of jumping in to provide immediate help. Even now, the extent to which the American Red Cross has helped at all is barely visible.
I encourage you, the next time there's a crisis, donate to a small organization on the ground. They are the ones who are pulling the bodies from the rubble. They are the ones who are housing the medical volunteers and finding places for us to work. They are the ones who aren't turning a profit -- the amount of money they bring in helps more people per capita than any large organization can possibly do.
Tomorrow we're flying back to the US. The next time my child is sick, I will say, "I get to take my kid to the doctor." "I get to give her antibiotics." I won't take these things for granted again anytime soon.
Peace.
- Megan
I'm sitting here all sparking clean after my shower, and realizing it's the last time I will take an outdoor leukwarm moonlit shower in Haiti. Tomorrow we fly back to Miami after having a nice breakfast, renting a "taptap" (Haitian taxi) and getting a tour of Port au Prince.
Rachel and I got split up today. We had a team of 9 people and wound up being too many to go to Delmas 31, so Rachel and her team went to Petionville (a different camp from Sean Penn's) and I went to Delmas 31 with my team. On my team we had Cortney, a fourth year medical student; Ed, an EMT from Portland; Mike, an EMT from Portland, and a translator/Haitian medical student studying in England named Whites. We had a busy day, saw 146 patients in about 5 hours. I saw 33 myself, which was just about average with what everyone else did. I may be slow at home, but I'm average here. :)
Today's cases were much like the last several days', but I saw almost no pregnant women or babies. Lots of young men and women with stomachaches and headaches.
The last patient of the day was Cortney's -- a 9 year old girl with R lower quadrant abdominal pain. She was exquisitely tender and pushing on the L side made her R side hurt (a bad sign.) She didn't have a fever but we were certain we needed to at least rule out appendicitis. I called Miquette at Quisqueya, and she told us to take the girl to Grace hospital. A guy at the door of Grace hospital waved us away, saying they were full. We then drove to L'Hopital du Paix (Peace Hospital). I walked in with the mom and girl, and asked the security guard where the emergency room was. He pointed.
As I followed his finger with my eyes I couldn't believe what I saw. An open-air waiting area with dusty chairs everywhere, no lights on, nobody at any desks, nobody in any rooms. A dark, abandoned room with chairs. We then walked around the hospital until we found a room where there was some activity -- a nursery. A nurse there told me that there were no doctors in the hospital (!!!!!) and that one would be around tomorrow.
As we prepared to take our patient elsewhere we saw a man with surgical garb on. We stopped him and I spoke to him in English. He was a Cuban anesthesiologist, who said that there would be a doctor along at 7pm (it was 4pm) and said she could wait in the "emergency room." I took her temperature one last time. She was still normal. With a sigh, I walked her back to the dark dusty area and told her and her mother to wait until 7pm to see a doctor. Then I left.
I am still furious with myself over that. I should have put that kid back in the truck and driven around until I found a hospital with a physician. But here, late in the afternoon, the chances were slim that I would find such a place, and if I did, it would likely be so far away from her home that she would have a very hard time getting back. I just can't believe I left her. It's against everything I've ever been taught. I don't know how I can forgive myself.
I just hope she was seen tonight, or better yet, that we were wrong and she started feeling better and walked home. Francesca, wherever you are, I hope you're okay.
*********************
So where is the Red Cross, anyway? We're being driven all over town and we can't find them anywhere. A Haitian will work for $10 a day. Why aren't our American donated funds ($400 million of them!) going to hire Haitians to rebuild their city? Why aren't they staffing the hospitals? The feeling around here among those who work on the ground is that the Red Cross isn't doing much. How can that be? Americans believe that when a crisis hits, the first thing to do is to give money to the Red Cross. Well, they weren't here after the earthquake when it was a matter of life and death. The Germans and the Israelis were here within 2 days, rescuing people. A lot of wealthy American doctors came here on their own, quickly, and performed amputations and C-sections on injured Haitians. But the American NGOs such as the Red Cross did a lot of meeting, thinking, planning on what to do with the money and didn't do a lot of jumping in to provide immediate help. Even now, the extent to which the American Red Cross has helped at all is barely visible.
I encourage you, the next time there's a crisis, donate to a small organization on the ground. They are the ones who are pulling the bodies from the rubble. They are the ones who are housing the medical volunteers and finding places for us to work. They are the ones who aren't turning a profit -- the amount of money they bring in helps more people per capita than any large organization can possibly do.
Tomorrow we're flying back to the US. The next time my child is sick, I will say, "I get to take my kid to the doctor." "I get to give her antibiotics." I won't take these things for granted again anytime soon.
Peace.
- Megan
Camp Quisqueya
Hello all,
For the past few days I've been wanting to write about Quisqueya. We are living in a school complex with several 2 story structures that survived the earthquake MUCH better than most. The medical volunteers are housed in tents on the grounds or in classrooms. We totally lucked out and got the Broadmoor of rooms - it used to be the staff lounge and actually has an air conditioner and its own bathroom. This is a serious luxury. Within the room, we have all the supplies we brought plus our mattresses. It gets a little crowded but we have done a pretty good job of sharing and luckily nobody snores!
For food, Quisqueya provides 2 meals per day. Breakfast is bread pastries and some fruit. Dinner is rice with beans and some type of chicken with sauce. It doesn't vary much but it's filling and no-one has gotten sick. They have plenty of fresh water in water coolers. We can also walk up to the grocery store (Megan wrote about our adventure there) and get a surprising amount of comfort food there (after you go past the armed guards at the door).
The Quisqueya staff does the logistics, decides where to send each individual (the PT's go to the hospitals where many of the amputees and post-surgical patients are, and Megan, Lisa and I usually go to tent cities for primary care), and arrange transport. The staff is amazingly responsive about meeting our requests and answering a never-ending sequence of stupid questions.
Here are some profiles of the staff we have been working with:
Art was the PE and Health teacher at Quisqueya school before the earthquake. Since then, he's been king of arranging transport and helping folks with all sorts of minutae. He is a corn-fed midwestern guy in his late 20's with a lot of positive energy. He is also a great soccer player, and arranges games daily with school staff, Haitian workers, US army guys and volunteers all playing.
Miquette is a phenomenally beautiful and poised Haitian who was the school nurse and biology teacher before the quake. She does all the detail work for staffing and supplying outlying clinics and hospital - she also arranges small daily miracles - like getting tetanus toxoid to a village 4 hours out of Port-au-Prince for a child who would have died without it. If we see someone in a camp who needs emergent transport to a hospital, we call Miquette. She also raises money by having her students make jewelry to sell at the school. She and Art are a very cute couple.
Jamie Cartwright is an American citizen of Haitian descent, speaks English, French and Creole with complete fluency, and is actually a classically trained Mezzo Soprano opera singer. She was in the US starting her Master's degree in music when the earthquake happened. She was on a plane the next day and worked with Miquette on the streets, doing first aid, transporting people to hospitals, aiding in emergency surgeries. Since then she has been the contact for groups coming and going from the U.S. She provided us with fantastic information before the trip and has been doing all the statistics for Quisqueya organization and for the health ministry as we come in. She is incredibly intelligent and well spoken, and has given us a lot of insight about the depths of the problems in Haiti - political, educational, ecological, judicial... Since the earthquake, Jamie has found a mission to study medicine and is hoping to become enrolled in an intensive Wilderness First Provider / Paramedic program in the United States. After completing the program, she will come back and be able to be a provider in the camps. She is really an amazing person. If anyone reading this wants to help Haiti, PLEASE consider donating to our blog site so we can help Jamie with her education - this will be a ripple effect. By helping her, she will help hundreds and hundreds of people who have more needs than you can even imagine.
There are more folks that I'll describe later. All of them act as camp counsellors for the crazy crews that come and go, a week or a month at a time, with different staffs every day. It is a lot like camp here, fun, social, with lots of camaraderie. Except the food is always the same... and the showers are outside... and you can't drink the water... and there is a big wall around the compound with razor wire... and you can get scabies or malaria... and there are big rats (luckily we haven't actually seen any)....and all the campers are wearing scrubs and trying to score anti-fungal creams... and camp activities are a little unorthodox...
More later, and thanks for all your comments and support. Love, Rachel
For the past few days I've been wanting to write about Quisqueya. We are living in a school complex with several 2 story structures that survived the earthquake MUCH better than most. The medical volunteers are housed in tents on the grounds or in classrooms. We totally lucked out and got the Broadmoor of rooms - it used to be the staff lounge and actually has an air conditioner and its own bathroom. This is a serious luxury. Within the room, we have all the supplies we brought plus our mattresses. It gets a little crowded but we have done a pretty good job of sharing and luckily nobody snores!
For food, Quisqueya provides 2 meals per day. Breakfast is bread pastries and some fruit. Dinner is rice with beans and some type of chicken with sauce. It doesn't vary much but it's filling and no-one has gotten sick. They have plenty of fresh water in water coolers. We can also walk up to the grocery store (Megan wrote about our adventure there) and get a surprising amount of comfort food there (after you go past the armed guards at the door).
The Quisqueya staff does the logistics, decides where to send each individual (the PT's go to the hospitals where many of the amputees and post-surgical patients are, and Megan, Lisa and I usually go to tent cities for primary care), and arrange transport. The staff is amazingly responsive about meeting our requests and answering a never-ending sequence of stupid questions.
Here are some profiles of the staff we have been working with:
Art was the PE and Health teacher at Quisqueya school before the earthquake. Since then, he's been king of arranging transport and helping folks with all sorts of minutae. He is a corn-fed midwestern guy in his late 20's with a lot of positive energy. He is also a great soccer player, and arranges games daily with school staff, Haitian workers, US army guys and volunteers all playing.
Miquette is a phenomenally beautiful and poised Haitian who was the school nurse and biology teacher before the quake. She does all the detail work for staffing and supplying outlying clinics and hospital - she also arranges small daily miracles - like getting tetanus toxoid to a village 4 hours out of Port-au-Prince for a child who would have died without it. If we see someone in a camp who needs emergent transport to a hospital, we call Miquette. She also raises money by having her students make jewelry to sell at the school. She and Art are a very cute couple.
Jamie Cartwright is an American citizen of Haitian descent, speaks English, French and Creole with complete fluency, and is actually a classically trained Mezzo Soprano opera singer. She was in the US starting her Master's degree in music when the earthquake happened. She was on a plane the next day and worked with Miquette on the streets, doing first aid, transporting people to hospitals, aiding in emergency surgeries. Since then she has been the contact for groups coming and going from the U.S. She provided us with fantastic information before the trip and has been doing all the statistics for Quisqueya organization and for the health ministry as we come in. She is incredibly intelligent and well spoken, and has given us a lot of insight about the depths of the problems in Haiti - political, educational, ecological, judicial... Since the earthquake, Jamie has found a mission to study medicine and is hoping to become enrolled in an intensive Wilderness First Provider / Paramedic program in the United States. After completing the program, she will come back and be able to be a provider in the camps. She is really an amazing person. If anyone reading this wants to help Haiti, PLEASE consider donating to our blog site so we can help Jamie with her education - this will be a ripple effect. By helping her, she will help hundreds and hundreds of people who have more needs than you can even imagine.
There are more folks that I'll describe later. All of them act as camp counsellors for the crazy crews that come and go, a week or a month at a time, with different staffs every day. It is a lot like camp here, fun, social, with lots of camaraderie. Except the food is always the same... and the showers are outside... and you can't drink the water... and there is a big wall around the compound with razor wire... and you can get scabies or malaria... and there are big rats (luckily we haven't actually seen any)....and all the campers are wearing scrubs and trying to score anti-fungal creams... and camp activities are a little unorthodox...
More later, and thanks for all your comments and support. Love, Rachel
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Good Karma brings good things.
It is 11:07 P.m. and I am blogging just after Danielle and the rooster is crowing! We are LOL! Oh oh...now there are two of them, make that three....hold on.....(seriously we are listening to this and laughing with tears coming out of our eyes) rooster crowing at 11 at night...they must have the night shift.
Okay I am a day behind but I was on heaven yesterday with Karma highs and lows. It started with a low...I went into the intensive care unit (also know as a filthy tent with dirty sheets and electricity...sometimes) and was working with a patient when another patient coded as the therapist was walking with him....and just like E.R. they did all the drills on this 25 year old with multiple people doing CPR, I.V., bag, you name it...but they lost him. The grieving process is different in Haiti, the family will chant and raise their hands to ward off bad spirits and if they die the family wails for hours very loudly and it was distressing to see the death of a young man right before your eyes. We left shaken and somber....as I walked away I came upon one of the many people I had literally begged for a wheelchair for the last few days...I did my usual...Hi Hamill...do you have a wheelchair for me? As I was speaking I looked at what he was doing..he was unwrapping a box....like Christmas in April...he said it was the only wheelchair that had come in and he was saving it for me....I am crying again as I remember how I just started crying when he gave it to me...I think he was taken back a bit by my response. I RAN over to the family to tell them that I had gotten a wheelchair for her...and as if it could not get better...I came upon my new friend a Physical Therapist who had been able to get her accepted to go to inpatient rehab in a facility in SPAIN...imagine that..she will live there for the time it takes to get functional enough to come home. (Note today she walked 60 feet!!! that is like just learning to play basketball on Monday and being Michael Jordan by Thursday) I was exuberant. So back to work and went to the skilled nursing facility (also know as a broken down catecomb building without electricity that just looked like a broken prison without staff) Leaving there our friend Lisa from our team told me she had just been a film star with a documentary from Denmark I believe. They were following up on a story about a little girl that in the news following the earthquake that had survived only because her dead mother laid on top of her...During her film career she discovered a tent of children that for all intent and purposes had been left alone without medical staff or therapy. We went there on Wednesday and I returned today and spent the whole morning doing therapy with each and every one of them and handed each of them coloring books and crayons which are the ONLY possession they have besides their one change of clothes. The one boy Woodson who has more metal coming out of his 10 year old arm then a transformer told me very politely that both his mom and his two brothers died in the earthquake...I couldn't stop from crying and he was comforting me...unbelievable. He took the coloring book and very, very slowly turned each page as if to savor the experience for a longer period of time....unbelievable. So my day continues...
I then went to see the woman with the stroke and by good karma ran into the gentleman from Hanger Orthopedics and Prosthetic....this is the group that I shadowed in Columbus and who had dedicated enough resources to set up a permanent clinic and lodging for people that need prosthetic limbs. Their facility is consider the premier prosthetic clinic in Haiti and the U.S. nationwide...so by chance I came upon him...as he explained it was the first time he had been to this hospital and was only staying for half an hour. I brought him to the directors and the doctors and told them that all the children and people that had been lying in the tent for the last 2 months could get free prothestics and lodging for both them and a family member and even 2 meals a day....what a blessing...and the directors and the doctors had no idea they could send all of these people somewhere to get help and independence.
So I felt like I couldn't have had anymore karma come my way....yet as I came home tired, excited, energized and filthy...I slowly walked up the stairs and came to my suite to find a wheelchair at my door...with a note...Hugs and Kisses from Sean Penn (aka Rachel and Megan to the rescue) I began to cry again happily
kimberly
Okay I am a day behind but I was on heaven yesterday with Karma highs and lows. It started with a low...I went into the intensive care unit (also know as a filthy tent with dirty sheets and electricity...sometimes) and was working with a patient when another patient coded as the therapist was walking with him....and just like E.R. they did all the drills on this 25 year old with multiple people doing CPR, I.V., bag, you name it...but they lost him. The grieving process is different in Haiti, the family will chant and raise their hands to ward off bad spirits and if they die the family wails for hours very loudly and it was distressing to see the death of a young man right before your eyes. We left shaken and somber....as I walked away I came upon one of the many people I had literally begged for a wheelchair for the last few days...I did my usual...Hi Hamill...do you have a wheelchair for me? As I was speaking I looked at what he was doing..he was unwrapping a box....like Christmas in April...he said it was the only wheelchair that had come in and he was saving it for me....I am crying again as I remember how I just started crying when he gave it to me...I think he was taken back a bit by my response. I RAN over to the family to tell them that I had gotten a wheelchair for her...and as if it could not get better...I came upon my new friend a Physical Therapist who had been able to get her accepted to go to inpatient rehab in a facility in SPAIN...imagine that..she will live there for the time it takes to get functional enough to come home. (Note today she walked 60 feet!!! that is like just learning to play basketball on Monday and being Michael Jordan by Thursday) I was exuberant. So back to work and went to the skilled nursing facility (also know as a broken down catecomb building without electricity that just looked like a broken prison without staff) Leaving there our friend Lisa from our team told me she had just been a film star with a documentary from Denmark I believe. They were following up on a story about a little girl that in the news following the earthquake that had survived only because her dead mother laid on top of her...During her film career she discovered a tent of children that for all intent and purposes had been left alone without medical staff or therapy. We went there on Wednesday and I returned today and spent the whole morning doing therapy with each and every one of them and handed each of them coloring books and crayons which are the ONLY possession they have besides their one change of clothes. The one boy Woodson who has more metal coming out of his 10 year old arm then a transformer told me very politely that both his mom and his two brothers died in the earthquake...I couldn't stop from crying and he was comforting me...unbelievable. He took the coloring book and very, very slowly turned each page as if to savor the experience for a longer period of time....unbelievable. So my day continues...
I then went to see the woman with the stroke and by good karma ran into the gentleman from Hanger Orthopedics and Prosthetic....this is the group that I shadowed in Columbus and who had dedicated enough resources to set up a permanent clinic and lodging for people that need prosthetic limbs. Their facility is consider the premier prosthetic clinic in Haiti and the U.S. nationwide...so by chance I came upon him...as he explained it was the first time he had been to this hospital and was only staying for half an hour. I brought him to the directors and the doctors and told them that all the children and people that had been lying in the tent for the last 2 months could get free prothestics and lodging for both them and a family member and even 2 meals a day....what a blessing...and the directors and the doctors had no idea they could send all of these people somewhere to get help and independence.
So I felt like I couldn't have had anymore karma come my way....yet as I came home tired, excited, energized and filthy...I slowly walked up the stairs and came to my suite to find a wheelchair at my door...with a note...Hugs and Kisses from Sean Penn (aka Rachel and Megan to the rescue) I began to cry again happily
kimberly
Mission Rescue
I spent my first two working days in Haiti at Mission Rescue. This is a semi-functioning police station converted into a medical clinic and a food distribution site. Each day the clinic sees about 500 patients. It is run by wonderful staff who believe strongly that God is at work here.
My first day was a bit of a blur. I was not feeling well, and I had taken a medication that all but knocked me out. I was hoping just to make it through the day. My interpreter passed out just after lunch, and I thought I was going to join him. However, I made it through, treating the masses as best I could at 2 to 3 minutes per person. Most had headaches, belly aches, palpitations, high blood pressure, coughing, fevers, female issues, anemia, and scabies. There were not any diagnostic tests to determine the exact diagnosis. Many had symptoms of stress, grief, dehydration, and starvation. Our small pharmacy had enough medicine to ease symptoms for a few days or weeks. Most of the infections will recur and most of the issues are chronic. It was all too overwhelming. I was not able to practice anywhere near the standard of care to which I am accustomed.
Day two at Mission was completely different. We came prepared with our "pharmacy". I had all the main medications at my station prepackaged in sandwich baggies. My interpreter Albert was back and refreshed. Team Aruba doctor Ralph had be doing some procedures. I anesthetized a wound with lidocaine just before I left for lunch, which turned out to be perfect timing. I was saved from finding the worms that laid within the wound. Instead, I went up to the roof with my teammates to have lunch where we found U.S. Special Forces soldiers in sniper position over the earthquake-damaged Presidential Palace. Michele Obama along with her security were flying out in helicopters. Michele either didn't have time to stop over at our clinic or it didn't fit into her childhood obesity campaign (quite the opposite). Alternatively she could have contracted scabies in which case the whole White House would have to be disinfected.
I felt that much more was accomplished by our team on day 2. We may not have cured the 500 people that came through the doors, but we were able to give what we could and provide some temporary relief. They know that people do care.
Lisa Wimberly
Lisa Wimberly
Megan and Rachel, Day Four
Hey everyone.
Rachel almost volunteered us for two night shifts over at the hospital, and thankfully she came to her senses before it was too late. Instead, we built a team to go provide health care to people in tent cities. Our team today was comprised of Rachel, myself, Jessica (an MD finishing her OB/GYN residency this summer), Cortney (a 4th year medical student), Sue (an ICU nurse), and Carson (not medical, but one heckuvan amazing organizer and pharmacy creator.)
First we went to Delmas 75, where we ran a clinic from a woman's house. The tent city's occupants were waiting in the shade, and we were 2 hours late because our ride, who said he was going to show up at 8, didn't come until almost 10am. We were only supposed to stay there for an hour, but after awhile we realized that with five people seeing patients, we could crack it out fast. We stayed until 2pm and saw all the people. Then we had lunch, came back to Quisqueya to restock our supplies, and left again at 3:30 to go to Delmas 31.
Delmas 31 is a small tent city with no clinic. We showed up with our stuff, set it up under a shelter, and saw 50 patients in an hour and a half. We were hot and there were flies everywhere. People were so solemn at Delmas 31. Even the children seem unable to be happy. We'll go back tomorrow and finish what we started today.
Everyone today had the same thing. Headache, stomachache, dizziness, vaginal infections. They are all dehydrated. They are suffering from post traumatic stress, and they largely have nothing major wrong with them that some nutrition and water wouldn't fix. The women douche with water, soap, bleach -- they cause a lot of the vaginal problems they have.
Today I saw two children with pica -- eating things that are non-food (dirt, paint, etc.) That is a sign of anemia. Every patient received vitamins, and extra iron sometimes. Jessica saw a toddler boy with genital warts. I saw many kids with scabies and worms.
It would be so easy to get lost in the vastness of the problem that is Haiti. It takes a special kind of person to do this day after day, week after week, and focus on the sliver of hope that they are helping one person at a time, one day at a time. I'm not sure that I am that kind of person, or that Rachel or Danielle is either. Kimberly is awfully perky, though! (She got that lady a wheelchair and is truly saving the world.) :)
Tomorrow is our last day of work. I'm really looking forward to going home. I miss my family. But I am sure that relief work is something I'd like to do again. There is a lot of joy and a sense of accomplishment mixed in with the pain and hopelessness.
Megan
Rachel almost volunteered us for two night shifts over at the hospital, and thankfully she came to her senses before it was too late. Instead, we built a team to go provide health care to people in tent cities. Our team today was comprised of Rachel, myself, Jessica (an MD finishing her OB/GYN residency this summer), Cortney (a 4th year medical student), Sue (an ICU nurse), and Carson (not medical, but one heckuvan amazing organizer and pharmacy creator.)
First we went to Delmas 75, where we ran a clinic from a woman's house. The tent city's occupants were waiting in the shade, and we were 2 hours late because our ride, who said he was going to show up at 8, didn't come until almost 10am. We were only supposed to stay there for an hour, but after awhile we realized that with five people seeing patients, we could crack it out fast. We stayed until 2pm and saw all the people. Then we had lunch, came back to Quisqueya to restock our supplies, and left again at 3:30 to go to Delmas 31.
Delmas 31 is a small tent city with no clinic. We showed up with our stuff, set it up under a shelter, and saw 50 patients in an hour and a half. We were hot and there were flies everywhere. People were so solemn at Delmas 31. Even the children seem unable to be happy. We'll go back tomorrow and finish what we started today.
Everyone today had the same thing. Headache, stomachache, dizziness, vaginal infections. They are all dehydrated. They are suffering from post traumatic stress, and they largely have nothing major wrong with them that some nutrition and water wouldn't fix. The women douche with water, soap, bleach -- they cause a lot of the vaginal problems they have.
Today I saw two children with pica -- eating things that are non-food (dirt, paint, etc.) That is a sign of anemia. Every patient received vitamins, and extra iron sometimes. Jessica saw a toddler boy with genital warts. I saw many kids with scabies and worms.
It would be so easy to get lost in the vastness of the problem that is Haiti. It takes a special kind of person to do this day after day, week after week, and focus on the sliver of hope that they are helping one person at a time, one day at a time. I'm not sure that I am that kind of person, or that Rachel or Danielle is either. Kimberly is awfully perky, though! (She got that lady a wheelchair and is truly saving the world.) :)
Tomorrow is our last day of work. I'm really looking forward to going home. I miss my family. But I am sure that relief work is something I'd like to do again. There is a lot of joy and a sense of accomplishment mixed in with the pain and hopelessness.
Megan
I resigned from Diquini Hospital today
Day 3 at Diquini Hospital I realized I could not fix all the faulty processes at Diquini Hospital. Yes, I felt that I needed to try. It is kinda like a very poor Enron run by 10 different organizations that don't speak the same language. Yesterday I spoke to the Cuban team about how they had been measured for prosthetics to be delivered today and tomorrow. Well today they were all sent on a bus to pick up the prosthetics that had been made by a different organization. Yes this means wasted resources on two prosthetics. Unbelievable. The money wasted on a second prosthetic could have fed their family for a year. More disorganization and stupidity really -the medication room is around the corner from the patients who are in cots in the hallway stacked with boxes to the ceiling and ripe for the picking. Dollars out the window. I could probably buy it on the street just outside.
I am trying to find the words to describe the filth at the hospital. Kimberly was telling me tonight that one of the patients are her hospital was intentionally peeing through the mesh cot. Don't think they will sterilize before the next patient arrives. ICK! There are not enough sheets for the beds and no one to do laundry. After I changed a bandage of an 11-year-old girl I had to just put a pad down over the blood. Her mother asked for a new sheet and I had to tell her there were none. People are lying everywhere in the hallway. One man today came out of surgery agitated and there was no room in the "recovery" room. I grabbed a few of our interpreters and we picked up the little girls cot and moved it to the hallway so the agitated man could maybe have some supervision. Unbelievable.
I did have fun working with some of the folks from our compound today - they were from TEAM ARUBA. Craig - start booking our trip - I have to get to Aruba!! Did you all know that in Aruba all children learn 4-6 languages. These guys are very fun and very dedicated to helping Haiti.
In the end I helped a great group of PT volunteers outline plans for the future of this hospital's PT program. All in a days work :)
Tomorrow I am heading to a new hospital set up by the University of Miami, apparently funded by Alonzo Mourning. It sounds like after the earthquake they set up 2 large circus tents and created a hospital from the ground up. This should be the model for rebuilding Haiti's hospitals - start from scratch one hospital at a time and fund them with Money, Money, Food, Money, water and again more Money.
Kimberly's team was replaced by a different organization at General Hospital. She is not taking this lying down. She is going anyway. She has unfinished business - people to save, protocols to post and orphans who need coloring books. Well if she gets fired it really doesn't matter since we are coming home Saturday.
Kimberly and I are sitting out on the porch 11pm blogging and trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. Kimberly may have scabies, but not to worry the treatment is some lotion that we have in abundance in our suite. Another positive note of the day. Kimberly warded off being bitten by a patient today and got away with just a deep sorta scratch. Oh and the good news is the lady's test for Malaria was negative.
I've been thinking about all the organic food that we pay for. Basically I have counteracted a lifetime of healthy habits and eating and breathing in just 5 short days of inhaling pollution that I just again don't have the vocabulary to describe.
I'm getting punchy and will sign off. I hope the rooster waits until 5:30 as he seems to be on Pacific time.
Danielle
I am trying to find the words to describe the filth at the hospital. Kimberly was telling me tonight that one of the patients are her hospital was intentionally peeing through the mesh cot. Don't think they will sterilize before the next patient arrives. ICK! There are not enough sheets for the beds and no one to do laundry. After I changed a bandage of an 11-year-old girl I had to just put a pad down over the blood. Her mother asked for a new sheet and I had to tell her there were none. People are lying everywhere in the hallway. One man today came out of surgery agitated and there was no room in the "recovery" room. I grabbed a few of our interpreters and we picked up the little girls cot and moved it to the hallway so the agitated man could maybe have some supervision. Unbelievable.
I did have fun working with some of the folks from our compound today - they were from TEAM ARUBA. Craig - start booking our trip - I have to get to Aruba!! Did you all know that in Aruba all children learn 4-6 languages. These guys are very fun and very dedicated to helping Haiti.
In the end I helped a great group of PT volunteers outline plans for the future of this hospital's PT program. All in a days work :)
Tomorrow I am heading to a new hospital set up by the University of Miami, apparently funded by Alonzo Mourning. It sounds like after the earthquake they set up 2 large circus tents and created a hospital from the ground up. This should be the model for rebuilding Haiti's hospitals - start from scratch one hospital at a time and fund them with Money, Money, Food, Money, water and again more Money.
Kimberly's team was replaced by a different organization at General Hospital. She is not taking this lying down. She is going anyway. She has unfinished business - people to save, protocols to post and orphans who need coloring books. Well if she gets fired it really doesn't matter since we are coming home Saturday.
Kimberly and I are sitting out on the porch 11pm blogging and trying not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. Kimberly may have scabies, but not to worry the treatment is some lotion that we have in abundance in our suite. Another positive note of the day. Kimberly warded off being bitten by a patient today and got away with just a deep sorta scratch. Oh and the good news is the lady's test for Malaria was negative.
I've been thinking about all the organic food that we pay for. Basically I have counteracted a lifetime of healthy habits and eating and breathing in just 5 short days of inhaling pollution that I just again don't have the vocabulary to describe.
I'm getting punchy and will sign off. I hope the rooster waits until 5:30 as he seems to be on Pacific time.
Danielle
Deep Thoughts at Club Med(ical)
Yesterday, Megan and I had another day running triage at Petionville club. The system there is, all patients stand in one line at a gate, then are let in about 50 at a time. Once into the medical area, they stand in another line to see the triage team. At triage, we found out their main problem (or several problems). If it was a problem we could deal with pretty easily, like a minor infection, we would take care of it at triage and sent the patient home. If it was more major, we sent the patient up to the hospital.
During the day, Megan and I saw 80-100 people between us. Problems ranged from back pain to congenital tumors. Everyone had symptoms of stress - headache, difficulty sleeping, heartburn and poor appetite. All the kids needed vitamins. Half the women were pregnant or breastfeeding. It became standard to ask everyone about parasites, malaria or worms in their stool.
We had some heartbreak cases - a 4 month old baby, so skinny with legs like match sticks because her mother was feeding her only watered-down cows milk - a mother with her 5 malnourished kids who all had signs of vitamin deficiency, scabies, and worms. The oldest child in the family, a 14 year old boy named Sohel had broken his leg before the earthquake, and rebroke it while running away during the earthquake. His knee was terribly swollen and his lower leg was angled away from his body. He walked with a long stick and was obviously in a lot of pain. Strangely, he might end up saving the family with his injury. He will be transferred to the Children's Hospital for orthopedic surgery, and hopefully someone will notice the family there and get them hooked up with some care.
When Megan and I were about to leave, a group of transporters ran up, carrying a teenage girl who appeared unconscious. She was covered in dust, her body was limp and her eyes kept fluttering. Her mother had beaten her up. We looked but could not find any blood or obvious injury, and her vitals were stable. We did the painful stimulus routine, but she didn't move or flinch at all. After a few minutes, her eyes popped open and she started keening and crying. We realized then that with the trauma she had gone catatonic. And she'll probably just have to go back to her mother's tent unless she somehow has friends who can take her in.Megan and I got a lot of great feedback from the team at Petionville. They were grateful that we had been able to control the flow into the hospital so truly sick people did not need to wait. They were impressed at how independent we were, and how well the lines flowed. We're a little sorry not to go back, and I'm really going to miss my translator, Hubert. He was fantastic - he worked hard, refused to take breaks and had a wonderful calm voice when he spoke to people. He picked up my rhythm really quickly, and could explain treatment regimens and medications. He learned English from the internet and programs on his MP3 player. He said that he was thinking of going into medicine, so I gave him a stethescope when I left. We exchanged e-mails. I hope we keep in touch.
Megan and I were a little sad to leave but are now excited about our upcoming adventure. We're going to Delmas 31 today, a different tent city with NO existing clinic. We're bringing everything on our backs - and finally the supplies we brought are going to come in useful. Last night, we had a packing party with our team - otoscopes, thermometers, wound care, OB supplies, lots and lots of medications and vitamins. We're going with 4 other women - an OB/GYN, a 4th year med student, an ICU nurse and a non-medical support person. We have no idea what to expect, will write again later.Late last night, Megan, Danielle and I had a serious talk. Danielle was so saddened about the desperate needs of most Haitians. The patients she had seen had just had high-tech surgery, but then no one thought to provide food for them in the wards. Nursing care, sanitation and wound checks were inadequate. How can these people heal? Danielle wondered if we were really doing any good at all in the big picture. It definitely sticks with you - yes, we're doing something now, but what about tomorrow? How many infections will come right back? What happens after the vitamins run out again? Megan and I were more hopeful - at LEAST we're doing something now. At LEAST we're showing our patients that the world cares about them. At LEAST mothers and children are getting a little education in sanitation and nutrition. And maybe tomorrow something else positive will happen, and Haiti will slowly, SLOWLY start to build into a functional nation. It's going to take years of work - and that work will have to be so carefully planned to foster sustainability and independence instead of just giving handouts. I know that smart people are working on it - I just hope so desperately that they get a few things right.
I keep meaning to write about our living conditions at Quisqueya - it's a much lighter subject! I'll try to get to that tonight. Happy Tax Day! xxoo Rachel
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Danielle's Day at Diquini Hospital - Wednesday
It was kinda nice to head back to work today, knowing what I was going to do, who I was going to help and even who my co-workers were.
I sat with one of the interpreters on my 90 minute bus ride this morning. His English was nearly perfect and he shared his recount of the earthquake with me. He described his home moving back and forth not knowing what was happening. He grabbed his 8 month old baby and wife and held them tight until it stopped. He could not get a hold of his mother on cell phone and was terrified she had died. He spent the next few hours trying to reach his mother's home. He could not find a taxi, nor a friend to help him. He said the streets were partially covered with rubble and he just walked/ran trying to get to her. He did get to his church where he found his father who had word his mother and siblings were alive. I could still hear the terror in his heart as he recounted the story. He said over the next few days the government did nothing as people piled up bodies of dead Haitians in front of there homes and storefronts. He said there were literally thousands of bodies lining the narrow, crumbled and already dirty streets. He said the smell was unbearable as they waited for the corrupt government to figure out what they were going to do. Ultimately they dug a big hole and the bodies were placed in a mass grave.
I asked him about Haiti before the Earthquake and he said it was already bad. He said lack of education is the problem. He said girls have babies they cannot raise, if you are born very poor it is nearly possible to turn it around and if you do start to compile any obvious resources you will be murdered or kidnapped. It is hard to imagine such an insightful young man living in such a world of despair.
He said only a handful of children can attend school due to cost. Kindergarten can cause $3000 initial fee plus $1000 a month - US dollars.
Basically Haiti is very much the same as before the Earthquake - a complete disaster area. Talk about having the most normal conversation with another insightful, well mannered, educated young Haitian.
I'm still in shock about the dirty and disgusting hospital. The patients are in the same hospital gowns, same sheets, same blood stains - just totally unbelievable. AND on arrival many of them tell me they have not had a meal since lunch the day prior. I gave her a bag of dry roasted edamame so I could give her a vicodin. Can you imagine a hospital without food for the patients? My cute little lady with a hip fracture was excited to do her exercises with me, however she was fixated at getting this leg lifter that her neighbor had been given the day prior. It took all day, but David a PT from Aruba did make her one. He kissed her. After I finished seeing my patients inside I headed outside to see patients in the tents. These are the ones that are doing too well to be in the hospital (or just needed the room), so they are in tents for PT only and to wait for hopeful prosthetics.
I met a lady there who broke my heart. She had an external fixator on her lower leg and had an already healed fractured pelvis (displaced). She started to cry as she told me her husband had been killed in the earthquake and she was not sure how she would care for her two small children. Her bright-eyed smiling boy could have been one of Josh's buddies on the playground. She said she had to put him to bed hungry last night. I gave her my last $7 and later brought her my trail mix. What do you say except for I'm so so sorry over and over again.
A MD from Cuba approached with with broken English at the end of the day. She was there with her team to start fitting the prosthetics over the next few days. I must have lost my mind when I was flagging a French interpreter as she started to speak Spanish. THANK GOD - SPANISH. I could handle that! So it looks like tomorrow and Friday will be filled with prosthetics/gait training!!
Please check my posts for updated pictures up to 48 hours later.
Danielle
Day Two - Megan and Rachel
Yesterday Rachel and I were sent back to Sean Penn's Petionville Club camp. Our ride leaves at 8:30 while everyone else's seems to leave at 7, so we get to sit around and blog in the mornings. Or, I do, while Rachel unpacks, repacks, and double repacks everything she's bringing. Not that I'm complaining -- it's her insanity that has made much of our progress possible over the last few days.There are two tents at Petionville Camp. One is a triage tent, the other is a hospital tent. Until yesterday there were EMTs at the triage tent, writing down complaints of patients, maybe taking a vital sign or two, and sending them up to the hospital tent. The hospital staff, then, had to see basically every patient that showed up (and that's a lot, a LOT -- over 100 a day.)
Rachel had decided to spend part of the day on Monday down there, and she did so well keeping patients out of the hospital that they decided to assign us both down there yesterday. We came prepared -- medicines in pre-divided baggies, otoscopes, thermometers, everything we needed right there. We treated anyone who wasn't actually sick, and everyone else went to the hospital tent. I think I sent 4 or 5 patients up there the whole day. We think we saw 60 people between the two of us. It was such a fulfilling day -- I felt like a fish in water rather than floundering. I had everything I needed right at my fingertips and I wasn't wandering around a strange place trying to find medicines. It was really great.
We did such a good job that they begged us to come back today, and so we are headed there. We even got T-shirts that designate us as J/P HRO volunteers (Jenkins/Penn Haiti Relief Organization). Rachel has her sleeves cut off and I left my T shirt under a table in the hospital. Sigh.
There is some frustration, for sure. Sean Penn is having to relocate all of these people in the next few weeks to a location about 1 1/2 hours away. The owner of the golf club where the people all live wants his golf course back (!) and so these people are all having to move out of town where they will be even more isolated than they already are. They're moving 7,000 people this week alone. So there was a bus full of people ready to go, and Sean Penn was having a fit because there were supposed to be two doctors on the bus, and they weren't, and so some Haitian guy showed up at the tent where I was sitting and asked me to follow him quickly. Of course I thought there was some emergency at the hospital but he took me through the hospital and face to face with Sean Penn (I guess the guy thought any doctor would do.) Sean Penn looked at me, scowled, and said, "You don't even have a kit, you're not ready to go on the bus." I said, "I don't know anything about that, I'm just a volunteer down in the triage tent." He shooed me away with a "Thank you."
So yeah. Sean Penn yelled at me. I love it.
Cases we saw today -- babies with scabies (that rhymes!), back pain, headaches, indigestion, itchy eyes, vaginal infections, skin infections, sleeplessness, hypertension, wound care, fever, dehydration, asthma. Everyone is suffering from PTSD and they have somatic signs of acute stress. Vitamins and ibuprofen and benadryl make everything better, really.
A lot of these people seem to have no idea what normal body function is, and so they come to see me, waiting five hours in the heat to have me tell them that actually, pelvic floor pressure when you are 8 months pregnant is perfectly normal, here's some Tylenol, thank you goodbye.
Last night when we returned from Petionville (did I mention we work from 8:30-3:30?) our friend Justine met us here to invite us to dinner. We were asked to bring some vinegar so we actually took a walk to the grocery store first. There is a guy with a very large shotgun guarding the entrance to the store, and we realized upon entering that Haitians must LOVE to eat goat because we saw every kind of goat meat (including heads) for sale there.
We had a fabulous meal cooked by a German named Oliver -- tomato soup with basil, salad with Rachel's raspberry balsamic vinaigrette, and pasta with red sauce, bacon, and basil. Yum. It was served three hours later than the original invite, so we were dead on our feet when we got back to Quisqueya last night. Therefore, no blog until this morning.
More posting tonight or tomorrow!
Megan
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Waiting on a wheelchair.....
As I waited mere minutes to write this blog I grew impatient ....and then stopped and laughed at myself...I have spent the last few days watching people wait all day to hope to be seen and then told to come back tommorrow....people hoping to catch your eye after waiting all day to have their loved one seen and hope they are the lucky ones after hours and hours of waiting...and I was impatient after minutes...how laughable
so the wheelchair saga....it started on Monday with a stroke patient I saw who had a massive stroke that has left her left side completely flaccid and unuseable...to the point of being unable to sit up at all unless you hold her up...she is in a country in which there are no wheelchair vans or medical transport or good transportation....in our country she would be taken to rehab for 6 weeks to up to 3 months (depending on how great her insurance was!) and afterwards she would still have a 1 to 2 year journey in outpatient....but we are in Haiti and we have to figure out something for this woman because they want to send her home in 1 to 2 days. Speaking through our translator is an experience in itself, but I found her family to be willing to do what they could for her. Danielle and I agreed she must have a wheelchair, otherwise she would fall out of anything else and be unsafe.
Now to get a wheelchair to take home is not an easy task....believe me. I spoke to the people in our tents...no wheelchair....I went to supply....no wheelchairs...I went and begged at a handicap international company.....no wheelchair.....I then went to our facility in which we were staying....no wheelchair.....I started again the next morning with buying ground coffee to try to bribe the people at the facility and while they wanted the coffee-they truly had no wheelchairs....so I tehn took Samuel a wonderful translator with me into the street and we tried to buy a wheelchair from the street vendors....Did you know the going price for the only wheelchair we could find in Haiti that would have been too small was over 100 dollars for a old broken down wheelchair-but I had only brought 40 dollars with me that day...so no wheelchair....so I went back to every place, any place and believe me everyone at General Hospital know me as that crazy woman that wants a wheelchair yet ...no wheelchair. Back to camp I asked other happy campers if they had resources...one camp 1 1/2 hours away has one and they will ask if they can have it and transport and maybe get it to me this week. I then tried to find the name of the woman who was a contact for the wonderful private hospital CDTI that was shut down in hopes that I could get a wheelchair....no wheelchair. I then spoke to the German medical team stationed here with a bunch snobby doctors who were willing to take my request in front of a panel and after my interrogation from Hans was found to be suitable to be considered for a wheelchair...maybe this week...but yet no wheelchair
...and to think in America all I would have to do is make one phone call and the wheelchair could be guaranteed to be delivered anywhere within 2 hours....so I will wait patiently, but I will get the wheelchair
Kimberly
so the wheelchair saga....it started on Monday with a stroke patient I saw who had a massive stroke that has left her left side completely flaccid and unuseable...to the point of being unable to sit up at all unless you hold her up...she is in a country in which there are no wheelchair vans or medical transport or good transportation....in our country she would be taken to rehab for 6 weeks to up to 3 months (depending on how great her insurance was!) and afterwards she would still have a 1 to 2 year journey in outpatient....but we are in Haiti and we have to figure out something for this woman because they want to send her home in 1 to 2 days. Speaking through our translator is an experience in itself, but I found her family to be willing to do what they could for her. Danielle and I agreed she must have a wheelchair, otherwise she would fall out of anything else and be unsafe.
Now to get a wheelchair to take home is not an easy task....believe me. I spoke to the people in our tents...no wheelchair....I went to supply....no wheelchairs...I went and begged at a handicap international company.....no wheelchair.....I then went to our facility in which we were staying....no wheelchair.....I started again the next morning with buying ground coffee to try to bribe the people at the facility and while they wanted the coffee-they truly had no wheelchairs....so I tehn took Samuel a wonderful translator with me into the street and we tried to buy a wheelchair from the street vendors....Did you know the going price for the only wheelchair we could find in Haiti that would have been too small was over 100 dollars for a old broken down wheelchair-but I had only brought 40 dollars with me that day...so no wheelchair....so I went back to every place, any place and believe me everyone at General Hospital know me as that crazy woman that wants a wheelchair yet ...no wheelchair. Back to camp I asked other happy campers if they had resources...one camp 1 1/2 hours away has one and they will ask if they can have it and transport and maybe get it to me this week. I then tried to find the name of the woman who was a contact for the wonderful private hospital CDTI that was shut down in hopes that I could get a wheelchair....no wheelchair. I then spoke to the German medical team stationed here with a bunch snobby doctors who were willing to take my request in front of a panel and after my interrogation from Hans was found to be suitable to be considered for a wheelchair...maybe this week...but yet no wheelchair
...and to think in America all I would have to do is make one phone call and the wheelchair could be guaranteed to be delivered anywhere within 2 hours....so I will wait patiently, but I will get the wheelchair
Kimberly
Monday, April 12, 2010
Danielle's Day at Diquini Hospital - Tuesday
As I drove to Diquini for a 90 minute drive on a school bus today, I thought about writing this blog tonight. I thought about how I felt like a very small Band-Aide on a disaster so vast that I didn't even have the vocabulary to describe it. I felt like my contribution here is so minuscule that it may make no difference to this country as a whole. There were piles of rubble all over the streets next to make-shift tent cities next to piles of garbage next to marketplaces filed with chaos and the poorest people I have ever seen in my life. I grew up in El Paso next and visited our housekeepers in Juarez Mexico, I had seen poor. This is a truly a new level.On the bus ride I marveled how happy and fun-loving our Haitian interpreters were. They are 20 year-olds with great manners, good English and amazing work ethics. They were passing their cell phones back and forth and laughing like teenagers in America. How could they be so happy in this crumbling country?
When we arrived at Diquini Hospital there were people lined up for at least a mile waiting for care. This hospital is an actual hospital structure. I actually met with several PT's to divide up the caseload - now this is feeling quite American-like. My first patient was a 23 year old who was born with club feet who had been discovered by a group of post-earthquake MDs. She had been walking her entire life on her knees. She had no family and one friend. This is what happens in 3rd world countries to babies born with disabilities. (fighting tears #1). The surgeons here straightened out her knees which is beyond painful and I fear not at all functional. When I came to see her for my second or third visit of the day she said she was itching. I gently scratched her legs the way I do with Jessica and Josh. I told her that my children love when I do this to them and she smiled.I asked the RN or maybe she was a C.N.A or just a gal for pain meds for my 23 year old. She digs around in a empty glove box and pulls out a ziplock sandwich bag labeled Vicodin. She hands me a pill to give to the patient. Medicare violation #100 for the day.
I was assigned a 6 year old who has been here for months with burns from before the earthquake. I could barely hold back the tears to even look at her. Way to close to Jessica's age. I asked a younger (Non-Mom) to see her and then as the day progressed we all worked with her. I wear empathy on my sleeve, well really my face.
My 23 year old somehow missed the meal of the day. I went down to the kitchen to ask for food. The kitchen was disgusting. I mean worse then any Chinese restaurant on the back roads of Texas. I had to beg for some bread for her. I was about to pay 5 dollars for it and she finally gave me some cheese and bread.When patients are discharged from the hospital they transfer to tents on the grounds. Some tents are like the ones we camp in and others house 20 people. I met an educated man who had lost his leg in the Earthquake. He had computers, video equipment and was a software engineer. He was heading to Oklahoma next week for a new leg. What money buys.
I assessed patients with amputations who were hopeful they would receive prosthetics. Many of the women were very devoted to their exercise programs, while others were developing contractures, meaning they will not be getting new legs.
I spent the last hour organizing the hospital supply closet with some other PTs. This closet represents the situation in Haiti - Large, disorganized, millions of dollars of supplies that are expired by 10 years, and very dirty. I honestly feel this is what Haiti needs to do - organize. I would not know where to start either.
As I drove home I started to notice the buildings that were being rebuilt. I had not noticed them on the drive to Diquini. Maybe I am only one little band-aide, but I do feel that I helped a few people feel loved and cared for today.
Danielle
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