Last Wednesday morning the Snapps and I loaded up with another team to make the drive back to Jimaní. Andy and Lauren Upton are the newest addition to our Makarios family and they moved down here Tuesday afternoon. She’s a PA which means that she was perfect for our trip! Also Nurse Laura and Darren, from the October/November medical team, came down, ready to serve in whatever capacity they could. Here are some pictures from our trip (sorry that they focus more on me than on other, I’m writing from my perspective and using the pictures from my camera):
The group (back to front, left to right)
Chris, Darren, Andy
Erika, Robin, Nurse Laura, Lauren
Darren, Laura and Lauren had all brought supplies from the States and we bought $500 worth of medical supplies. We loaded up the guagua (van) and started the 9 hour drive.
We arrived at the public hospital that our team went to the first time. It took us a while to figure out with whom we needed coordinate but we talked to the right people and delivered some of our supplies. They weren’t sure if they needed us that day, so we decided to find a hotel and get some dinner.
After a not so great night of sleep and no plan of what we were going to be doing that day, we loaded all our stuff back in the guagua and drove, looking for an orphanage where we might be useful. We just kept praying that the Lord would direct us to where we were supposed to serve.
And just when we were considering turning around we found what we were meant to do in a make-shift hospital in the middle of nowhere. They said that they needed with medical stuff, translating and having runners. We all had a job and a specific need to fill. Thank you, Jesus, for directing us!
This was the building where the OR was. They were doing more amputations than they wanted too but in the area we were in, it was better than trying to battle the serious infections that were showing up.
The directed us (Darren, a PA; Nurse Laura, a nurse, obviously; Lauren, a PA; and myself, translator) to the hospital. We all quickly fell into our specific places. Nurse Laura was in the ER ward, helping our newly arrived patients and taking care of those in the most critical need. Darren was in ward D taking care of patients and sort of directing his ward. Lauren was a pharmacist, passing out medicine and organizing the medical supply room. I was sent to ward A to find a doctor in need of translation. I met up with Dr. Jeff Day (from Texas!) and his assistant Tim. They were doing pediatrics in wards A and B. Let’s get something straight here, I don’t really speak Creole and most of the patients didn’t speak Spanish. I would say things like, “He look you now. You hurt? Where? When cleaned you last?” And you know what? In spite of the laughter I got from many people, they got what I was saying! Or I would ask who in the room spoke Spanish and have them translate.
Here are 2 sweet boys I got to know. Luisano (on the left) has his right arm amputated at the shoulder; his brother, Mobobaly, had 3 profound wounds on his right leg. They were all smiles!
Through out the day ambulances would come from the main building to take and bring patients from the OR. There was a constant moving of people to get minor or major procedures done.
This is the view looking from ward B. Ward A is on top, ward C is on the bottom. In the background you can see the OR area. The yellow school bus was used to take patients who didn’t have as severe of injuries to a places across the border (Fonds Parisiens) where the UN was setting up a outside medical center.
I did something that I never thought I would do: cast a broken bone. The look on my face is: oh man, I hope the bone doesn’t move or make any noises. I helped Dr. Ed put on the first layer and then I got to put on the second layer. It was pretty awesome!
Here’s Chris being useful. Seriously, though, he had the VERY important job of protecting the crutches. Apparently when he was bringing them down from the OR area people were running after him, trying to take them out of his hands. And so he was told to leave them in the bus and guard the bus. It might not look much like work, but, trust me, it was!
Erika had the job of holding this precious kid for about half an hour while all the doctors consulted to see if he was ok to go back into Haiti. She just fell in love with him while he slept the day away.
Here they are loading up the bus to go to Fonds Parisiens. There were quite a few people who were ready to go back to Haiti but there were plenty who didn’t want to leave yet.
After almost an 11 hour day, we were all hungry and ready for a good night of sleep. We stopped at a restaurant and then found our hotel.
The next morning we were ready for the day! We felt like we knew what was going on and where we fit in.
As you can see, there were still vans and ambulances going back and forth between the 2 buildings and bringing new people in from Haiti. It was amazing how many injured there were and they just kept coming.
Again on this day a bus took people to Fonds Parisiens.
We all worked quite hard this day. I was feeling more confident in my Creole ability, though people still laughed at me. My thoughts are people laughing at my Creole are the following: if I can make a whole room of people suffering from pretty bad injuries and infections just because I have no Creole skills, I accept! At least they are laughing and getting relief, even if just for a moment, from laying in a bed in a room full of pain.
We were just about to leave around 7PM when the strangest thing happened. All of the sudden, there was yelling and mass chaos. Within 5 minutes the parking lot went from looking like this:
to looking like this:
There had been an aftershock of 4.4. Hardly any of us felt it but they sure did. And they were out of there. It was heartbreaking to see the fear they have. One guy jumped off the 2nd story balcony and broke his back. They were terrified. I would have been, too.
At one point, while we are trying to figure out how to bring some order to the mass of beds and people outside, a Haitian guy comes up and starts telling us, “You just don’t understand. You’re not Haitian. We feel these earthquakes, even if you don’t.” It took a few minutes for us to convince him that none of us were made, upset or anything like it. We understood their fear. We have no choice but to understand what they have been through and that this is a completely normal reaction. I finally, in my broken Creole said, “We are not made. We are not mad. We do not have a problem.”
We then tried to arrange beds somewhat into lines so that the night shift could go back and check all of the patients again to see if they suffered any from the mass exodus. We also tried to identify in which ward all of the patients had been. Most had brought their charts out and could tell us where they had been. We stayed there until 9 or so, until the night crew felt that they could handle the rest. We left sad to say goodbye, sad to see the fear they now live with, exhausted but overjoyed that the Lord had given us 2 days to help.
Home we go! After arriving at a hotel in Barahona at 2AM, we slept for until about 9AM and left for home. We were all exhausted. And yet wishing that we didn’t have to leave so soon. Hopefully we’ll be able to go back sometime in the near future to continue helping out there.
Thank you for all of the support you have sent in to Makarios. We could not have made this trip without it! Thank you for allowing us to go and allowing us to buy supplies to help in a time of need.
Nurse Laura’s blog
