12 Jun
Day #3 in Haiti
Charles’ thigh was crushed in a motorcycle accident 6 months ago. He was able to find the funds to have it fixed then. Six months later he is still in a hospital lying in the men’s ward with 8 others. He has been bedridden since then swatting flies and struggling with the heat and humidity that permeate the room. When family are around, they bring him food. Infection pours out of his leg and the antibiotics he takes when he can afford them do little to turn the tide. He has needed surgery for months but does not have the money to cover the costs of wound debridement and dressings. When we remove the soiled 5 day old dressings, he asks us to save them as he cannot afford new ones. We will bring him to our hospital on Thursday and try to save his leg. We will provide the funds and the supplies that will hopefully bring him back to a productive life for him and his family. Joseph from our own hospital was not so fortunate and he lost his leg today from injuries that could not be treated adequately. We saved his life but he has no real concept of this. Today started with a visit to La Paix hospital in Port-au-Prince, the second facility of two in the country that care for patients without insurance (about 90% of Haitians). During our hospital rounds with the Haitian Orthopedic residents we identified 10 who need immediate surgery, we will be able to help perhaps 4 of them. The rest, the “unchosen” will not get the care they need. Most of them will be crippled, some will lose limbs. We were able today to repair 3 limbs in patients who would not have otherwise received care without our assistance. They will return to normal lives here in Haiti. Toussaint’s thigh fracture was repaired today. He waited 6 weeks for us to come. He now has the opportunity to get out of bed, to walk and to provide for his family. Frantz is 23 years old and has an upper arm fracture that was not healing. We repaired this today and hopefully he will return to work soon. He thanks us for this opportunity… Emotions in our volunteers fluctuate in highs and lows that we rarely experience in our protected lives at home. The contrast of sadness to exhilaration is confusing but at the end of the day I think we find peace in that we are part of something larger; able to help some, to teach others to help many, and to improve the quality of medical care in the midst of an austere environment. With each trip here, I see improvement in quality indicating the progress to which we have contributing. NAVMC is such an important part of the lifeblood of the hospital and the people of Port-au-Prince. We continue to make our mark here thanks to your support. Thank-you Bull Durham
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11 Jun
Day #2 from Bull
When I met Anne in December 2017, she had been in a sling with a functionless and painful arm for four months, her fractured humerus unhealed. She had been in a sling since she had been hit by a car in the streets of Port-au-Prince. She could not afford to see a doctor. She was unable to perform self care due to nerve damage and pain. She awaited our arrival just before Christmas last year. With our financial support, the local Haitian Orthopedic Residents repaired her arm while our team assisted and supplied the equipment required. I saw her today with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she showed me her function with her fracture and nerve injury healed. She now has returned to her “normal” life her. Her gratitude brings me to tears. Two hours later I was in rounds with the Orthopedic Residents at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince where there was no electricity and no air conditioning, temperatures and humidity above 90. One of the wards was home to 8 men with 10 femur fractures lying side by side in cots where they had been for 4-8 weeks, some in traction and others in a variety of splints, all with severe deformities that would leave them crippled. Their families occupy the small space between cots and some have created make-shift shelves for the new family “home” as their loved ones lie in bed hopefully healing. They have no access to resources that would allow the surgical procedures that could make them whole, no hope for return to their life and work unless we the visiting docs can provide it in our short time here. We hope to help 2 or 3 of them. The others we will not have enough time to help. Frantz is one of the lucky ones. The last patient we see has a tumor on his right leg the size of a large pillow. Large enough that he cannot lift his leg. He is in his early twenties and without resources did not seek care until it was too late. He will not survive long. After 9 years of work here in 29 trips to Haiti, I continue to be reminded of the enormity of the issues with the lack of available treatment. Eight young men crippled who may never be able to support their families. Some will be chosen others will not, they are all My Brothers. Without your support, we would not be able to help any, with it we can help a few and train others to help many more. Haiti’s hope is in her children and she has many talented ones that are hungry for knowledge and anxious to make a difference. With love from Haiti Dr Bull
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10 Jun
Day #1 in Haiti
RF is a 23 year old woman with a tumor on her right arm the size of a cantaloupe. She is one of the patients waiting to see us in Haiti this week. I hope we can save her arm. We are now in Haiti with a team of 11 volunteers to treat those who do not have access to medical care and to teach the local physician residents. We carry with us a lot of energy, hope, love and 1100 pounds of supplies. For many this is the first trip and the afternoon was a time for orientation and preparation for the injuries we will see this week. Tomorrows patients sleep tonight on the pavement around the hospital grounds on flattened cardboard boxes and are wrapped up in torn fragments of clothing they have brought with them to ward off the nights cold. For some, tomorrow may be a game changer, a day for which they may have waited months. Thanks for all your support without which we could not accomplish all that we do. I will try to keep updates coming through a Blog on our website as well as through FaceBook.
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GENESE and WOODJINA
Day 2 Haiti: The team is settling in to care for injured patients who have travelled to Port-au-Prince from as far away as Cap Haitian, a 6-hour drive. Some we have seen before, and they have returned for follow up. Doctors Without Borders is scaling back here, thus the volume of injured patients at our doors is rapidly rising.
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Lightning Speed
Things are happening at lightning speed down here, and the amount of work we have done already is astounding. Stories are coming in from the results of our previous efforts as we prepare to begin new stories. A young man is going into surgery, as I write, for repairs on his fractured leg and upper arm. Another male who was in a motorcycle accident awaits surgery to repair his femur and wrist fractures early tomorrow morning.
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MOHLENE
Mohlene, 18 years old, was born HIV positive. She contracted the infection from her mother, and this is called “vertical transmission.” Her mom died many years ago from AIDS, and today Mohlene held my hand and smiled as we talked about her home and her family. Tomorrow she will lose both of her legs, but she doesn’t know this yet.
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