Can We Make A Difference?

The day started with our daily walk to the hospital. We could hear the kids singing from their classrooms. They are impeccably dressed in their uniforms. Each school has a different color uniform. The little girls are adorable. Some of the old local architecture remains, but in very poor condition.

Marietta and March spent the morning in the wound clinic. They saw and treated 25 patients in a half day. Linda and Joanne spent time in the surgical ward changing dressings. It took some negotiating to be allowed to help today. We are only assuming that they are tired of our presence. Our interpreter Eddy had to negotiate our way on to the floor by bringing the director and charge nurse together to discuss the plan. We were not present for the conversation, but we trusted Eddie to make it work. They are in desperate need of our supplies and extra pair of hands, but they are proud people. Every step needs to be taken carefully and thoughtfully to avoid insulting what they do.

Most of the wounds we are dealing with are deep and down to the bone. Again, all of these dressings are changed without any pain medication on board. A 19 month old was being taken care of by her cousin; not sure his age, but he was super attentive. The little girl fell asleep during her dressing change. An 8 year old boy, who we have seen already, needed another dressing change. This time, his cries for Mama were heard as lo and behold she was in the next patient bed beside him. She was not there 2 days ago. Marietta and Joanne were in the wound clinic for a short time in the afternoon when a young man walked in with his arm wrapped in a shirt. He was clearly bleeding. After removing his shirt we discovered several wide and fairly deep lacerations. We promptly began cleaning them out and in conversation through our interpreter we learned that he had been cut by his brother with a machete. This is Haiti…

Joanne and Linda failed to mention that they spent time today around some nasty critters. It started in the AM when they saw their first cockroach. By midday, they had changed dressings with worms and found lice infestations in various crevices. Now they can't stop itching. Linda felt the need to check Joanne for contamination.

Matt spent most of the day with Dr. Pierre-Louis building a relationship as they scoured numerous instruments to prepare for a case tomorrow. They had to use a bolt cutter to get into the orthopedic cabinet that Dr. Pierre-Louis had not used in some time. Surprisingly enough there is a universal language when it comes to orthopedic instrumentation. Matt drew pictures and showed his pictures via laptop of previous cases. All of this without an interpreter. They spent many hours sitting on the floor in the hallway discussing cases.

The team continued their quest for organizing the OR supply rooms and we are pleased to report that we are finally able to walk in the room and fit more than one person at a time. Dr. Marie Laconte seems quite pleased with our efforts. Time will tell if this will last.

Dr. Sam Broaddus spent 3 hours in the operating room removing a kidney from a young boy. (8 or 9) Staff from the OR brought the kidney to the family to show them what had been removed. Sam tells us that this is a practice of showing that the bad spirits have been removed.

As we were leaving the hospital for the day, Joanne gave a young boy a pair of groucho marx glasses. He was accompanied by 2 other young children and several adults. All were waiting for a family member in the OR. The kids burst out laughing and happily shared the glasses. We took great pictures. Nice way to end our day.

Tomorrow we have plans to visit the neighbor hospital in Milo- we hear it is an amazing site. Matt is scheduled to be in the OR around 11am. More wound care and the last bit of sorting through the supplies before we go out to dinner for our last night in Cap Haitian. If we don’t get a chance to check in on Thursday night it is because we are out on the town! Since we have a long day on our return home we will be sure to check in and document our last day.

Love to all

OA Haiti Team