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