January 29, 2010
Bonswa zanmi m yo/ Good evening my friends!
The last two days have seen a flurry of activity in Borgne and here in the US. The most exciting one is that our truck/ambulance is finally on the horizon; thanks to CO Campaign and a private donor! It should be in Borgne around the 10th of February J What a difference this will make! Instead of putting patients on overcrowded public transportation for an excruciating journey to a hospital in Cap Haitian, we will be able to transport them in a more humane and safe way.
Refugees continue to arrive… Ambulatory ones join relatives and friends but are still part of our patient load. Today, 60 refugees came for treatment of a variety of wounds, infections, diarrhea… and all them with symptoms of stress or emotional distress. This was in addition to our usual out-patients load and Mike described the waiting room as a mad house! People everywhere… We are bursting out of our seams! Our in-patient population also increases daily, some stories are sad like that of a woman whose leg was amputated… she wails and cries for her leg and has no idea where her family members are. There are small miracles fortunately to balance the sadness. A pregnant woman arrived from Port-au-Prince in full blown eclampsia (a condition that is no longer seen in the US and industrialized nations), convulsing and unconscious… the stress of the past two weeks exacerbating her condition says Dr. Thony. The delivery room staff successfully delivered the baby who is doing well. The mom will have a long recovery but will survive. What a gift!
This evening I gladly replied to an inquiry from a hospital in Port-au-Prince asking if we could take a 16 year old boy who has lost all eleven members of his family and is suffering from acute emotional distress. There is no doubt in my mind that he will receive good care but more importantly that he will be quickly surrounded by caring people… I am sure that Miss Suze will embrace him… with even more warmth than she gives to anyone she thinks needs a hug. Refugees arrive with gripping stories … They mourn losses even as they deal with physical and emotional turmoil hard to imagine from our vantage point here. They come alone or with family members, some want to go back home as soon as they recover while others will have no one to return to. Those are the ones we have to think most about and plan for. For now we can accommodate them at the high school but after a while we will need to provide better shelter, food, education… It will be a long journey…
The madness was not only at the health center in Borgne but also at today’s mobile clinic where 300 patients crowded in a school yard to be seen by the team. I love going out with a mobile clinic! Put away any idea of a well equipped van which sets up shop in a parking lot! No! A mobile clinic is a team of health care practitioners who set out on foot for one of the remote villages; supplies are carried by mule or motorcycles (if there is a good path). When the team arrives on location they set up shop quickly in a peasant’s home, a school, or church—a makeshift pharmacy and lab (we perform HIV, Syphilis tests right there and even insert Norplant capsules…), a few consultation areas for the doctor and Nurse Practitioners, tables for social workers to provide pre and post test counseling for those who volunteer for HIV testing! It is quite exciting to arrive in a yard full of people waiting to see a doctor or nurse, many for the first time in their lives!! The team does not leave until everyone has been seen… So 300 patients is huge!!
Well… on the home front in Rochester, our army of volunteers is hard at work. THANK YOU ROCHESTER! THANK YOU DC! THANK YOU LA AND SAN FRAN!!!! The first of what will be regular cargo shipments arrived in Santiago, DR yesterday! Thanks to those who made this possible J Meanwhile a plane loaded with cots and generator is “stuck” at the airport in Front Royal, VA because of an ice storm!! What a contrast, sun and heat in Borgne, ice in Front Royal, and below 0 temps in Rochester this morning!!! Just got a call from the field, one of many, many each day… besides cots, we need air mattresses for patients with fractures and back injuries! A “bed” for them is an air mattress on top of a cot! Now to gather air mattresses in time to make that flight which is fortunately delayed… a lucky break!!! An email from my nephew who works in Shanghai just popped up … he is off to a “Drink for Haïti” fund raiser at a bar!!! So even all the way in China people stand in solidarity with Haiti… we are not alone!
I close by trying, once more, to express the depth of our gratitude for your prayers, gifts of time and money, your concern and your warmth! Please stay with us on the journey… a journey is as good as the people you travel with! I will be back later… Na we pita!!
Rose-Marie
Buy:Lumigan.Accutane.Mega Hoodia.Petcam (Metacam) Oral Suspension.Prevacid.100% Pure Okinawan Coral Calcium.Arimidex.Retin-A.Valtrex.Prednisolone.Human Growth Hormone.Synthroid.Zovirax.Actos.Nexium.Zyban….