Haiti

6 August

The lead-up to this trip has been rough. Haiti has been experiencing escalating conflict for many months, and the decision to proceed with our trip was constantly in question. Many members of our team decided to stay home out of legitimate concerns for safety. Flights were delayed. Bull was hacking up a lung…then Crystal, then […]

14 June

  The NAVMC team landed in Port-au-Prince 5 days ago, and it has been non-stop since. From day one, this trip has been different. In recent weeks, President Jovenal Moïse has been implicated in two government audits on the misuse of billions of dollars in Venezuelan aid meant to help the country’s poor.  Thousands of […]

29 December

Molhenne was supposed to die.  When our medical team left Haiti in December 2017, her blood count was insufficient to sustain life especially in someone who had just lost both of her legs.  She has been HIV positive since birth and medications had kept the virus at bay.  At 17 years old she presented to […]

25 December

NAVMC has just returned from its 3rd trip to Haiti this year.  Attached is a trip summary.  We wanted to share with you our successes from Haiti understanding that this is only one part of the work that we are doing locally and globally.   If you have already given to help support this work, […]

11 July

There are 10 of us crammed into the “ambulance” as we speed through Port-au-Prince this morning dodging the fires that still burn in the streets. We are one of the few vehicles on what are normally jam-packed roads in the city.  AMBULANCE is written on the side of the van which gets us through several […]

9 July

Today has been a day of rest and unrest.  We are safe in the compound around Adventiste Hospital resting after a long and stressful day yesterday.  The streets of Port-au-Prince are filled with burning tires and the air is black over the city.  In the distance we can hear occasional gunfire and protesters screaming.  A […]

9 July

At eight o’clock tonight, Rose was wheeled out of the operating room, tumor-less.  It took us 8 to 9 hours to complete the surgery.  As far as we can tell, we removed all the tumor and if so she has the chance to have a functional arm for the rest of her life.  She wants […]

6 July

The team has arrived at Adventiste Hospital in Port-au Prince. Rose is resting with her family in the hospital awaiting surgery tomorrow.  She is nervous and excited for the opportunity to be rid of the mass that has enveloped her arm for the last two years.  Dr Lee Zuckerman is prepared to tackle this tumor […]

5 July

The tumor on Rose’s right arm now is the size of a large cantelope.  Despite the size and the open wounds it has created, her hand function is near normal.  Tomorrow she will be admitted to Adventiste hospital in Port-au-Prince and on Friday we hope to remove the tumor and save her hand.  Sitting on […]

19 June

Large balloons with glow lights inside bounced over the heads of the 50 children at Renmen orphanage last night, suspended in the air by little hands reaching for the sky.  The courtyard was vibrant with the screams of delight as they ran around hand in hand with the volunteers.   Our trips always end with […]

19 June

Genese’s smile would light up the earth on a cloudy day.  She came running up to Dr Hippolyte and me and gave me an embrace that brought tears to my eyes.  She lost everything to Hurricane Matthew which ravaged Haiti in October 2016.  Hundreds maybe thousands died, including her husband and young child.  Her house […]

13 June

Natacha shattered her ankle 2 weeks ago.  She has been in a hospital in Port-au-Prince since then lying in bed with 8 other women in the woman’s ward, awaiting our arrival, no finances to afford the repair she needed to allow her to walk again.  Here at home, she would have had surgery and been […]

12 June

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 […]

11 June

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 […]

10 June

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 […]

1 December

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.

1 December

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.

1 December

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.

1 December

Woodjina lies alone in her bed in a small room surrounded by ten other patients with orthopedic injures, all with various splints and traction devices set up. She swats at a mosquito and pulls against the traction device attached to her left leg. A coke bottle filled with cloudy water and tied to a rope dangles off the foot of her bed. It is attached to cardboard that envelops her left lower leg. Her right leg is in a splint, her left hip is dislocated, both are hot with fever. She wiggles to relieve the pain in the pressure sores that are developing after 3 weeks of bedrest. She is 5 years old.

11 October

My wife and I are supporting the education of two Haitian young women, Bebe and Nerlande. They are attending NAU in Flagstaff. They have families in the southern peninsula of Haiti which was recently ravaged by Hurricane Matthew. Bebe’s family, from Jeremie, are all alive but have lost their home and all their possessions. Nerlande’s sister and children are from Les Cayes, and they remain unaccounted for.