Haiti Part 1

We headed out of San Fran towards Miami. Once we were there, we met the 2nd half of our team that we had never met. All in all, we had 14 people on our team. There were 4 nurses, 6 EMTs, 1 First Responder, 1 Physical Trainer, and 2 from the Red Cross. We were more diverse in age than most teams I had been on. At first I thought it would be tough coming into a team where more than not, people didn't know each other. But it really wasn't at all! I can honestly say that there wasn't one case of drama or anything else that usually permeated mission teams. So we became close quite fast considering how our surroundings forced it.

The Team

We eventually arrived into Port Au Prince airport. It was more like a metal crate rather than an airport. The heat and humidity hit us instantly, permeating our shirts with sweat. We had brought about 10-12 crates and suitcases of medicine with us. Weirdly, customs in Haiti were about to block us from bringing it in. The only reason we got it through was the fast tongue of our leader Lori exclaiming, "For cholera, for cholera!" That did the trick even though we didn't have anything exactly for it since the cholera outbreak hit Haiti a few days before we left. We all packed into our team bus and headed to the city of Leogane which is 20 miles south of Port Au Prince. There has definitely been some clean up efforts, yet it almost seems like a hopeless situation with all the crumbling houses that still remain.

We arrived at our house which a lady named Sister Ruth rented out to medical teams to use. It was like a compound with 12 foot walls laden with barb wire. Most of the girls got to sleep inside the house. Us 3 guys got the tent. This was fine by me. When in Haiti. There was no electricity save a generator. We also had a cistern for the water and showers. All in all though, it was nicer than I thought it'd be. We unpacked and laid out how the week would look. We were all spent. So it was a short day and we headed to bed. Word of advice. If you ever come to Haiti, bring ear plugs!!! I woke up over 8 times that night due to the roosters crowing every hour, the 5+ dogs barking and fighting outside the walls, the cows having mooing contests, the neighbor's island music, the demonic pigs from hell squealing, and voodoo ceremonies that filled the night air. The unfortunate thing about the house was the not being allowed to go outside the walls unless as a team. Thus we were left to scrounge up whatever fun we could with our imaginations since no one brought any sports balls or anything of the sort.

Our home/prison

This is what our schedule would look like. We had 2 major things on the agenda. Our leader brought a man from the Salvation Army named Major David who was going to teach "Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)" classes for six days. The rest of the days would be filled up with clinics that we would put on. Unfortunately, I've already taken CISM classes at my college. So this was tough for me to sit in on them since I wanted to be out in the city helping. So the classes would be about 6 hours a day inside the house where we had a generator power the computer, projector, and fan. Sitting for that long in the humidity and heat inside was the biggest challenge! I missed 2 of the days when I got struck with the flu. 

The Classroom/Our House

Our first day of clinics finally came about! I was excited to get out and help. We split our team into 3 different groups for clinics. One group would be doing vitals on the patient (Blood pressure, temperature, pulse, respirations, etc). From there, they would send the patient to the blood station where the patient's hemoglobin would be checked to look for iron deficiency which is rampant in these areas because of dietary reasons. From there they would be sent to the diagnosing station. There were usually at least 3 groups of 2 people with a translator. The patient would come and we would ask them questions on why they're here and what they're feeling. It could be long or short depending on the symptoms. Once we diagnosed them, we would administer the correct drugs and dose and give it to the patient. 

So we arrived at the first clinic which wasn't too far from our house. This was the only one that wasn't under shelter which would come back to bite us in the end. This was the trial run. And we performed it all under a big tree.

Our First Clinic Sight!

I volunteered to do the blood station. If you don't know this about me, I love blood! But don't even think I like all the vampire garbage that's going on. But I get so excited when I see blood!! So being able to poke people seemed like a fun way to start out. This clinic and every other clinic afterwards went anywhere from 6-8 hours! So for this first one, we found a few interesting medical cases. Normal blood pressure is 120/80. Blood pressure is the force that is exerted on the blood vessels as the blood passes through them. Anyways, high blood pressure here in the states is like 150-160. We found a lady with a BP of 252/150!!! That's a walking time bomb. I don't understand how her vessels just don't pop! With that high of blood pressure, there's a big chance of a brain aneurysm which would cause death. So we gave her blood pressure medication and got people to take her to the hospital. There was also an infant of 15 days who wasn't doing too well. He was lethargic and had cyanosis in the lips. This coupled with some other signs caused us to suspect cardiac issues. We made the mom take the infant to the hospital. I can honestly say, that in a few more days, the child would have died. Around 4:00 the storms came in and chased us off back home.