tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32692151763391504742024-03-05T02:29:14.012-08:00International Medical CorpsInternational Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-87505232087056675372010-08-31T13:46:00.000-07:002010-08-31T14:40:14.315-07:00Addressing Mental Health in Pakistan Along With Cultural Needs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOu8wQRrApn79TwZG-vUVzd3eOKB8VZnUAJo5ujY_MwZPS-MM2M49GlkTZ9ItsXIXPXSxl9E1b4rjCTOnpEjEDOMP63ghaxBW_xMUxguaE-HsbInGxH1v2nT9Gv1H8STePZrVKg0_dyY/s1600/320x480_psych.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOu8wQRrApn79TwZG-vUVzd3eOKB8VZnUAJo5ujY_MwZPS-MM2M49GlkTZ9ItsXIXPXSxl9E1b4rjCTOnpEjEDOMP63ghaxBW_xMUxguaE-HsbInGxH1v2nT9Gv1H8STePZrVKg0_dyY/s320/320x480_psych.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511691810038930290" border="0" /></a><br />By: Mahmood Iqbal<br />August 31, 2010<br /><br />Akora Khattak, Pakistan - As International Medical Corps makes mental health care a priority in our emergency relief efforts, we are providing psychosocial services to help Pakistanis cope with the enormous emotional toll of the floods. In addition to providing individual and group support sessions through our mobile clinics, we also deployed a female psychologist to deliver specialized care to women and children.<br /><br />“We have been witnessing behavioral changes, particularly in women,” said Dr. Sanam Rahim, a female psychologist working at our clinic in the civil hospital in Akora Khattak, about 9 miles east of Nowshera. “The majority have psychosomatic symptoms and increasingly complain of body aches and other illnesses.” Dr. Rahim is able to provide culturally-sensitive care to Pakistani women who feel more comfortable consulting with a female doctor.<br /><br />Having already had extensive experience working with the internally displaced people in violence-torn Buner District, Dr. Rahim notes that the worst natural calamity in recent history has caused severe mental stress and psychological reactions among flood-affected people. She spoke of 45-year-old Roshmeena who complained of having body aches, but after clinical examination and psychosocial counseling was found not to be physically ill. A resident of Akora Khattak village, Rashmeena has 10 children and an unemployed husband. Already struggling financially, the floods washed away the family’s home and all of their belongings, leaving them without even the most basic resources. “Mental stress and anxiety can convert to psychosomatic disorder,” Dr. Rahim explained. “We want to see Roshmeena for regular follow-up visits and advised her to do muscle relaxant exercises.”<br /><br />Like Roshmeena, others in Pakistan also complain of body aches and other illnesses, which are actually symptoms of psychological distress, according to specialists. Dr. Rahim recalled seeing a 10-year-old boy complaining of severe hiccups. His mother explained that he had feigned hiccups since the floods struck their village.<br /><br />“Such psychological illnesses are growing among the flood victims,” Dr. Rahim said, noting that counseling of the child revealed that children in the area had lost all recreational facilities to the floods. “The schools are closed and the lack of recreational activities often leads to mental complications among the children.”<br /><br />Comparing the displacement of people from Buner district to the devastation and displacement caused by the recent floods, Dr. Rahim notes that a natural disaster often leaves deeper after-effects on local populations because it is so unexpected and sudden that victims have no chance to prepare emotionally. “In Buner and Swat, people knew beforehand that a conflict was brewing in the area. In a sense, they were mentally prepared to leave their houses. But, with the floods, there was no warning. People were caught unaware and they could not even find time to rescue their most valuable items.”<br /><br />Through International Medical Corps’ mobile clinics in Pakistan, patients suffering from emotional stress are identified during clinical check-ups and referred for further psychosocial counseling.<br /><br />“When stress converts to depression, it becomes a long-term process to cure,” Dr. Rahim says. “Early psychosocial counseling helps lower the stress and prevent the conversion into acute post-traumatic stress disorders.”<br /><br />To date, International Medical Corps’ psychosocial support staff has conducted individual and group sessions for approximately 920 individuals, including young children.International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-50584445691763988012010-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:002010-07-28T12:12:25.239-07:00Nursing 101 in the Tropics<i>Perspective from a nurse volunteer in Haiti</i><br /><br /><i>Sheri Hathaway RN was a volunteer with in Haiti for International Medical Corps and is currently a Clinical Manager with Bayada Nurses.</i><br /><br />On May 16, I left Pittsburgh, PA for the experience of a lifetime to work as a volunteer nurse in support of relief efforts in Haiti. My trip was arranged through my employer, Bayada Nurses, a national home health care agency that is recruiting and sponsoring registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to work in Haiti for one month. Bayada is coordinating the trips for registered nurses through International Medical Corps, a non-profit organization that has been sending medical personnel to assist with relief efforts around the world for over 25 years. Bayada previously worked with International Medical Corps in Kosovo in 1999.<br /><br />I am an experienced nurse and supervisor, but nothing could have prepared me for how I would deliver skilled nursing services to my patients. Nursing curriculum in the US briefly details diseases endemic in the tropics such as malaria, typhoid, diphtheria, and tetanus. Most nurses in America will not care for people with these diseases in their lifetime, but in Haiti, it is an everyday occurrence.<br /><br /><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499034713092255938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ8cg_dwj7z5iAsmw4g8Mz6uF40bn7RTbM4yAWH3Psm9Zw9loSvuRSP_1ZRItrMd1uhxcRp997bmKS8VFLEYZnGo55MKkMa-B-8S_hdnut4U64lFX8C626DGtN_TUmhEgg4p14LO3Vu5g/s320/NurseSheri.JPG" />Metrics used to measure health in the West do not apply in developing countries. For example, people in Haiti function at much lower hemoglobin levels, largely due to chronic under-nutrition and malaria. Children are typically small for their age compared to growth charts used in the US as the result of chronic under-nutrition. Before the earthquake, access to medications and health care was infrequent or non-existent for most. It also appears that infections here are resistant to drugs that are effective in the US.<br /><br />My assignment was split between one of International Medical Corps’ 15 primary health clinics, located in the heart of the “tent city” that now fills the grounds of the former Petionville Country Club, and the emergency department of L’Hospital Universitat d’etat Haiti (HUEH), the largest hospital in Port-au-Prince. My work in the clinic and the hospital were two very distinct experiences, with each one having their own separate set of challenges.<br /><br />The clinic at Petionville Club is made up of two tents that sit on a wooden platform above a sea of red and blue tarps that are home to some 40,000 men, women, and children who were displaced by the earthquake. Many of the cases we see here are women and children with skin diseases, diarrhea, and malaria. While these ailments are both treatable and preventable, diarrhea, and preventable childhood <strong>disease account for 80 out of every 1,000 deaths in children younger than five</strong>, according to the World Health Organization. That is why having care available to these vulnerable populations is so critical to saving lives, particularly as the rainy season approaches.<br /><br />In contrast to the primary health setting of the clinic, my work at the hospital has focused on emergency and intensive care as part of International Medical Corps’ response to the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. At the height of the response, more than 900 people came through the hospital seeking medical services, most of which was provided in tents averaging 100-degree temperatures. At present, the patient load has lowered significantly and the Emergency Department was able to move back inside the hospital to its original location.<br /><br />No Westerner would be able to believe what the hospital system is like here. I am amazed at how the hospital has evolved in such a short time because of International Medical Corps’ and similar groups’ ongoing efforts. But the hospital still lacks advanced medical technology, forcing US-trained medical professionals to think on our feet and make do with what is available. On any given day, the way we administer treatment might change depending on what is available to us.<br /><br />We see many kinds of cases here, including anxiety and mental distress, violent trauma, gunshot wounds in adults and children, severe lacerations, and advanced malaria and tetanus. HIV/AIDS is also highly prevalent. We have also been treating many "hysterias" or PTSD. This experience has shown me how different cultures manifest traumatic stress differently. In Haiti, people will seem to experience paralysis and catatonia. It’s very strange, but if you give them a Tylenol they recover. Some people arrive DOA via ambulance, family members carrying them, via makeshift stretchers.<br /><br />One patient that that I will always remember is Christopher, a 27-week gestation male infant, who came into the Emergency Department with hypothermia and very near death. Without an incubator on-hand, we used a technique called “Kangaroo Mother Care,” where skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby is used to raise the infant’s core body temperature. Largely because of this technique, we were able regulate his body temperature, even in the absence of an incubator. Christopher fought for life for more than 72 hours under our care, but tragically did not make it. We all called Christopher our miracle baby while he was with us in the ER. and I think many of us will always remember him because he held on against all odds.<br /><br />What we do is so appreciated by the local people. While they are visiting the clinic or hospital, they want to be seen for everything because they may not have the chance to be seen again for a long time. I was changing the dressing of a patient with an amputation and the father of a young man in the next bed said, "You Americans are good people."<br /><br /><strong>I felt so proud to be an American.</strong><br /><br />But beyond the international assistance, it is the resilience of the Haitian people that will rebuild Haiti. Regardless of where I worked, the transition in Haiti from emergency response to long-term development is evident. The nursing school at HUEH that collapsed in the earthquake, killing more than 100 students, is now resuming class. HUEH residents and staff now have a more regular, consistent presence around the hospital. National doctors and nurses, rather than international volunteers, now run the primary health clinics.<br /><br />At the hospital, the patients’ families are just as important for patient care as we are, making sure their family member is bathed, clothed, fed, and nurtured. In the camps, people come to visit the clinic in perfectly ironed shirts and dresses, even though they are living in tents. Everywhere you look, people are carrying on and rebuilding their lives.<br /><br /><br />It is this resilience that I will bring home with me and it is why I am confident that I have learned more from the Haitian people than they have from me.<br /><br /><br />For information on International Medical Corps and their work in Haiti, visit <a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/">http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/</a>.<br /><br />To learn about Bayada Nurses for Haiti, Volunteer Relief Campaign, visit <a href="http://www.bayada.com/haiti">www.bayada.com/haiti</a>.<br /><br /><br /><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-38971367696208242882010-07-06T17:11:00.000-07:002010-07-06T17:46:32.886-07:00In Haiti’s Sea of Loss, A Life Gained<p><i>Crystal Wells is a Communications Officer for International Medical Corps and is currently in Haiti helping with the relief effort</i></p><p>The late night hours were filled with panic, dread, and death.<br /><p></p><p>It was midnight on January 13 in Port-au-Prince. Just seven hours earlier, a 7.0-earthquake shredded the capital, leveling whole city blocks and burying thousands in concrete tombs. But in the tragedy and destruction, one woman was fighting to bring new life into the world. </p><p>On January 12, Turlanje, 32, was nine months pregnant with her third child. Just before lunch, she started to feel the first pangs of labor. They continued throughout the day and then, just before 6 pm, her house started to shake violently. “I did not know what was going on,” she said. “It was not until later did I find out it was an earthquake.” </p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMWb8jk73vdfCDmJVV4ztrfIFnjW8ulGZQ1iyXK_ie9JYMZxmLlNnzkRacEf6SI1_PICjrTvyF_jzx6Cco3khYxRA2xV3DY2TvZDbCtnNUU0fLJOOR4Cj60295cKvU9fiexUZty9_w9HU/s1600/Gael2.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490958155194776418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMWb8jk73vdfCDmJVV4ztrfIFnjW8ulGZQ1iyXK_ie9JYMZxmLlNnzkRacEf6SI1_PICjrTvyF_jzx6Cco3khYxRA2xV3DY2TvZDbCtnNUU0fLJOOR4Cj60295cKvU9fiexUZty9_w9HU/s320/Gael2.jpg" /></a> <p>As a result of the quake, her neighbor’s house toppled over her two-room home, causing the roof to crash down. Miraculously unscathed, she and her husband emerged to find their neighborhood reduced to slabs of concrete and webs of rebar. Dazed, they joined the steady stream of people heading to the grounds of St. Bernadette’s Church in Bolosse.</p><p>The baby was still coming and soon after they arrived at St. Bernadette’s Church, Turlanje and her husband were forced to get their midwife. “Everybody was crazy,” Turlanje says. “Even the midwife lost one of her children. But even in her loss, she took care of me.”</p><p>Around 10 pm, Turlanje realized she was going to have to deliver the baby in the yard of St. Bernadette’s Church, amidst the panicking crowds, clouds of dust, and piles of rubble. “I was worried,” Turlanje explained. “I was not expecting to deliver my child during a tragedy.”</p><p>Despite her fears and the chaos that ensued around her, Turlanje pushed. And pushed some more. “I was suffering a lot,” she says. “But I was helped by God.” </p><p>She pushed and pushed until 1 am, when she finally gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl. They named her Gael, after the baby’s father, Gaeton. “She was beautiful,” Turlanje says, beaming.</p><p>Now nearly six months old, baby Gael hardly ever cries. No matter where they are, she rests contently in her mother’s arms and watches the world pass by with wide eyes. Turlanje goes to church almost daily and wishes she could leave Port-au-Prince to live with her mother in the country.</p><p>After living in a camp at St. Bernadette Church for a few months, the family is now back in their two-room, block-like home in Bolosse. Half of their roof is still missing. “Life is difficult. My husband is not working,” Turlanje explains. “We are just trying to survive.”</p><p>Problems sadly not uncommon in Haiti, particularly as families try to pick up what was shattered in seconds on January 12. </p><p>But despite their troubles, Turlanje does not worry about medical care. Whenever she or her children need to see a doctor, Turlanje travels up the road to International Medical Corps’ clinic at Bolosse, where they can receive care regardless of their financial circumstances.</p><p>“This clinic means a lot to [us],” says Turlanje, resting Gael on her knee. “Sometimes when our children are sick, we might not have the money to send them to a doctor. Now we can bring them here. Thank you.” </p><p>It isn’t only the health care that keeps Turlanje coming back. She also has a special connection to the place. Hugging the side of St. Bernadette’s Church, the International Medical Corps clinic also marks the site where baby Gael was born six months earlier. </p><p>“I came here to this spot on January 12,” she says. “Other people were crazy...[a]nd I gave birth to this child.”</p><p></p><br /><br /><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-58342143017172349552010-06-07T14:24:00.000-07:002010-07-05T11:08:19.187-07:00Tabar-Issa Clinic<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDduBk-DgLB2LTQP4SDC6x_dHV2dPCORhLMEaP9ZCOhOIxwVusoM-95Mni4dHF9atOSQmf-OEZfi8AXrO5I0Rdnfz0HYTfqSoog_Ayo_YAWtfcbL_L2epJIfTDU39QllORUJQHBTCEMvs/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.1.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px auto 10px; width: 367px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483878886358482130" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDduBk-DgLB2LTQP4SDC6x_dHV2dPCORhLMEaP9ZCOhOIxwVusoM-95Mni4dHF9atOSQmf-OEZfi8AXrO5I0Rdnfz0HYTfqSoog_Ayo_YAWtfcbL_L2epJIfTDU39QllORUJQHBTCEMvs/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.1.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><p align="center">An International Medical Corps doctor gives a check up to a little boy upon his arrival to Tabarre-Issa, one of the new relocation camps in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.<br /><br /></p><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZCnbNbfxJbiNNvAJqxi20t9a4wtsmrGO_zqZdQXfTsVh0fXXQzNhmgVABi2zc18fZZrsOnoelCZyOWAjLMk9x9VANNZPG2p9Ns6XHM0vEtvzc8FuwnBEHZQ61F7PwQ4FiyzlScurFjg/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.3.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px 10px 10px 0px; width: 420px; height: 340px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483870669144118370" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZCnbNbfxJbiNNvAJqxi20t9a4wtsmrGO_zqZdQXfTsVh0fXXQzNhmgVABi2zc18fZZrsOnoelCZyOWAjLMk9x9VANNZPG2p9Ns6XHM0vEtvzc8FuwnBEHZQ61F7PwQ4FiyzlScurFjg/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.3.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><p align="left"></p><p align="center">A sea of tarps at Petionville Camp, where some 50,000 relocated following the earthquake.<br /></p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPner9Rf2YGDfaLCVHS6fsCQbm64BKLTdUULjDUyaQqTukqMLX1SCk9IWh-ta0FuHhwpr_IJfl8jOh70Q3h3PUqA2M3BGJXGoTbtOUyfZExERjU8o0A5-OKQODsK88u7jrZw8hN4toAZ4/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.4.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px auto 10px; width: 367px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483873634970856434" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPner9Rf2YGDfaLCVHS6fsCQbm64BKLTdUULjDUyaQqTukqMLX1SCk9IWh-ta0FuHhwpr_IJfl8jOh70Q3h3PUqA2M3BGJXGoTbtOUyfZExERjU8o0A5-OKQODsK88u7jrZw8hN4toAZ4/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.4.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><p align="center">Above, children in one of International Medical Corps' medical tent at Tabarre-Issa<br /><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyK1qQUylDM9qtBXNkDwIbHoK90HJ6evqJvsITCq4m_or5oEbdIkrwkU8-PZE2CH_fllxAb7kor-CZYu-VO_0UFuqP3P7th-IUsvcMUqJDoLH-QOOIv-UO2Ov1orrANGqekIxxo6OsUKI/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.6.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px auto 10px; width: 367px; display: block; height: 300px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483875316806224242" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyK1qQUylDM9qtBXNkDwIbHoK90HJ6evqJvsITCq4m_or5oEbdIkrwkU8-PZE2CH_fllxAb7kor-CZYu-VO_0UFuqP3P7th-IUsvcMUqJDoLH-QOOIv-UO2Ov1orrANGqekIxxo6OsUKI/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.6.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><p align="center">A baby is weighed in one of the International Medical Corps clinics at Tabarre-Issa as part of the health screening for new arrivals to Tabarre-Issa.<br /><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1GXXbwn2OwG9av0nXKPEuiwJQ4Tm3txLM0x-yF039B2WBt2eaKvEIgqvR-JN9_MVUjmigz0h4LeeNpUBx6nZPwX25cDS2vCqW9bCjAtc2mWbXBPbC-chzRGWlqlCdhuzlq1zNClQEgWU/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.7.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px auto 10px; width: 420px; display: block; height: 340px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483878198741892434" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1GXXbwn2OwG9av0nXKPEuiwJQ4Tm3txLM0x-yF039B2WBt2eaKvEIgqvR-JN9_MVUjmigz0h4LeeNpUBx6nZPwX25cDS2vCqW9bCjAtc2mWbXBPbC-chzRGWlqlCdhuzlq1zNClQEgWU/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.7.JPG" border="0" /></a> <p align="center">International Medical Corps volunteer doctor and a new arrival to Tabarre-Issa.</p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoGBLDVhTd27RdjdHAWYvAnW8zSEfwtBsaQnWOOjTERSP2G6hovox-F0edUIzWy1MFouwEnrYH9VilT8BaTlemGhPMm9x58atT8z5RZXoUWF03OiYUPS3kfjR3feHepj3LTUQUFNAX9Mc/s1600/CH+Photos.Haiti.8.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 5px auto 10px; width: 420px; display: block; height: 340px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483880510265899570" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoGBLDVhTd27RdjdHAWYvAnW8zSEfwtBsaQnWOOjTERSP2G6hovox-F0edUIzWy1MFouwEnrYH9VilT8BaTlemGhPMm9x58atT8z5RZXoUWF03OiYUPS3kfjR3feHepj3LTUQUFNAX9Mc/s320/CH+Photos.Haiti.8.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><p align="center">A Haitian girl sits on a suitcase after moving to Tabarre-Issa from the Valle Baudoin, an area prone to landslides and flooding.</p><p><i>Big thanks to our Former Field Site Coordinator for Port-au-Prince, Carrie Hasselback, for sharing these wonderful photos with us!</i></p><p></p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td align="left" width="56"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-62061240936612411892010-05-13T14:00:00.000-07:002010-06-17T09:46:58.087-07:00"Lost Track of Days"<p><i>Dr. Mark Courtney is from Northwestern University and is representing the Chicago Medical response team with International Medical Corps in Haiti. </i></p><p>I've kind of lost track of days. It's Sunday. A large group of new doctors and nurses have arrived. That means a whole lot of the old people have left as of last night. We got a room for the 3 of us who deployed together. It's got a single gigantic king bed and smells like an ashtray but it's got a shower -- hallelujah! The shower I took this am was the second since I've been here.</p>Another improvement is the presence of Haitian staff. Hard to know who will be there at any given time and for how long but at least we are moving in the right direction for now. This is the major challenge during this transition time. We've introduced a very high level of care (by Haitian standards) and transitioning some (not all) of this will be the main work of the future. <p></p><p>There are great examples of excellent care being done exclusively by Haitian personnel. The pediatric feeding tent is a great example -- there are regular measured feedings of formula and measured daily weights and as a result, the kids getting better. One orphan was dropped off at our ED weeks and weeks ago by an aunt has since gained a kilogram. Came in at around 7 months and weighed 3.2 kg. That's about 7 lb. He's been in the feeding tent since then and doing well. </p><p>Another example is the TB program. Pretty much everyone gets oral observed medication (given and watched by an nurse). It’s supervised by Haitian nurses but single handedly lead by an Dr. Megan, who's down here on her own for who knows how long. She's essentially put her fellowship on hold to care for these patients. </p><p>I'm pretty tired now and eager to get some sleep. Worked the 10-7 swing shift. Am on at 7am tomorrow. </p><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-73892065836121873772010-05-12T15:59:00.000-07:002010-06-17T09:47:33.632-07:00Halfway Through Deployment<p><i>Dr. Mark Courtney is from Northwestern University and is representing the Chicago Medical response team with International Medical Corps in Haiti. We'll be posting his updates from the field over the next week. </i></p><p>At this point I am halfway through our deployment.<p></p> I have seen a rapid transformation of the emergency department in a short period of time. Right before we arrived they had recently just moved all ED operations out of the tents and inside. That being said, in many ways it is not at all like an ED that you could imagine. To reiterate, we have no X-ray, no CT scan, no air conditioning, no flushing toilet, no running water even. We are using gel hand wash between patients. At one point while working in the ICU, I successfully discharged a patient with congestive heart failure (a major achievement) and the family started unplugging all these fans that were around her. I was a bit upset and not sure what to do about them stealing what to us was a precious commodity until I relized that all the fans in there were belonging of the patients and their families that they brought in.</p><p> All our oxygen comes from standing huge oxygen tanks that have to be rolled slowly and carefully around from patient to patient. During one ICU shift, we had to scramble to jerry rig some splicing and tubing to get 5 patients oxygen that normally would be allocated to one. There are no monitors to continuously monitor patients (well that is not true -- there is one but only one and saved for the sickest patient). We transfer patients to "the medicine ward" which is a frightening place with billions of sick patients packed in with near darkness and often no nurses or doctors to see them for days at a time. Honestly it is better to send people back to their home or tent even with severe illness than to the medicine wards which are at times affectionately termed “the catacombs”. </p><p>Still in many ways our ED has rapidly evolved to look exactly like an ED back home. This is amazing since there is no history of emergency medicine or even an "ER" in Port-au-Prince. True, they had a pre-existing "urgent" department but this was not in any way staffed 24 hours a day with an emergency specialist. Just 3-4 weeks ago they still were seeing ED patients in adjacent tents. So it is surprising to now see people coming to our ED with things like chronic pain, anxiety, sickle cell disease, hoping to get surgery for a long standing problems or at least a second opinion. These problems in the US are common ED presentations but are best dealt with in other departments.</p><p> It is also not uncommon to get "transfers" from other hospitals or clinics without much regard for our capacity or environment. Some other medical NGO's will not send us patients in an ambulance with a note in French stating need to be admitted for surgery or oncology care without any understanding that at the time our surgeons happened to be on strike (well not sure you can say they are on strike since they have not been paid for months many not since the earthquake. Is that called being on strike or is it just not having a job?). Anyway this movement of patients from hospital to hospital is a totally a common occurrence in the US and it is amazing to me that our ED and the overall health care delivery system has some of the same problems we see in the US. The good things are that we can transfer patients to higher level of care for some things, for example women who need a C-section. I recently got a patient of mine with burns over 50% of her body transferred to a hospital that specializes in burns.</p><p>Anyway, things here are progressing -- most would agree that the state of emergency health care here has never been better (at least for the poor in urban Port-au-Prince). The challenge is how to maintain it in a sustainable, local manner.</p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-48763717501921421272010-05-10T12:10:00.000-07:002010-06-17T09:47:59.193-07:00"Survived the first night shift."<p><i>Dr. Mark Courtney is from Northwestern University and is representing the Chicago Medical response team with International Medical Corps in Haiti. We'll be posting his updates from the field over the next week. </i></p><p>OK. Survived the first night shift.</p><p> It's now day 6 in Haiti. Kirk and I were the night doctors and overall had an outstanding experience. We resuscitated a CHF patient who otherwise would have died -- as of this morning they were giving us the thumbs up sign. The usual machete wounds to the scalp were a bit more common at night. There was a case of diphtheria, which is minimal risk to us but maximal risk to Haitians with almost no vaccinations. </p><p>Yesterday we saw a kid with a leg fracture happy to be splinted and another standard shoulder dislocation. Unfortunately there was a very sick septic baby who may or may not make it but there is an unbelievable team of pediatricians here from Partners in Health -- many are from Boston Children’s Hospital. Bottom line is there is incredible talent here. </p><p>There are plenty more crazy medical stories but I've now really connected with the people here, which is perhaps equally rewarding. For example, our translators are young Haitians hired by International Medical Corps. Many of them live in tents. They speak Creole, French, Spanish and English and most are self taught. One guy is looking for an English slang dictionary to hone his skills. One is working 12 hours nights with us and then is in school during the day and is only 18. They are smart as can be and the hardest working people in hospital. We rely on them massively.</p><p> In medicine, without CT scans and blood tests, the history a patient tells you becomes all the more critical. <strong>I'm really looking at the positives.</strong> There are plenty of kids in school uniforms going to school every morning who are healthy. They hold hands and smile at each other like other kids. Things are clearly better than in the past and better than they could be. I'm just trying to add a bit to that. Sometimes just talking and listening to people is as helpful as medicine and high levels of US style care.</p><p>It's raining cats and dogs right now but cooling things off.....</p><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-57629793607596632642010-05-07T16:46:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:37:33.472-07:00Figuring it Out<p><i>Dr. Mark Courtney is from Northwestern University and is representing the Chicago Medical response team with International Medical Corps in Haiti. We'll be posting his updates from the field over the next week. </i></p><p>Starting day three. Yesterday I worked triage. This was challenging; due to the very limited resources you really have to figure out if you should bring people back. <p>There is no CT scan -- the chest X-ray is reserved only for the most sick patients. We’ve been seeing lots of cerebral malaria but they get better pretty quickly after an IV of quinine. Bottom line is patients with symptoms that at home that would mean a hospital stay, like mild chest pain that could be early heart attack, sky high blood pressure, or moderate pneumonia, in Haiti are treated with some pills and returned to their home-tent. They almost have to be in some respiratory distress, altered mental status, or high fever. Almost everyone else gets sent out or treated in a triage chair. </p><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-3718617541439720182010-04-19T15:44:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:37:46.148-07:00The Winning Goal<p><i>Crystal Wells is a Communications Officer for International Medical Corps and is currently in Haiti helping with the relief effort</i></p><p>Wilson has always loved to play soccer, especially the feeling of kicking the winning goal. This was a sensation that at only 20 years old Wilson very nearly lost forever, but thanks to the quick and thorough care of International Medical Corps volunteer doctors and nurses, he is now returning home to play the game he loves.</p><p>I met Wilson on his eighth day at the University Hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince, where he was making small laps around the ICU tent braced by a walker and his family beside him. </p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQO4fdOuvzTrZuXKM83V7pBLGJS8RSOO9zl18bzl30vS6e-M2SxnSe5w7V5jpNc07zcQqjarxVYHG0X6wPjpBuaSBET0aOrhC58q43jnotj6Fd9HhRet5Xe5hEMUb34B_IhVwQuPpVvzw/s1600/Wilson+with+Family.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQO4fdOuvzTrZuXKM83V7pBLGJS8RSOO9zl18bzl30vS6e-M2SxnSe5w7V5jpNc07zcQqjarxVYHG0X6wPjpBuaSBET0aOrhC58q43jnotj6Fd9HhRet5Xe5hEMUb34B_IhVwQuPpVvzw/s320/Wilson+with+Family.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462001406489349522" /></a><p>Aside from the walker, everything about Wilson looked healthy and strong, from his slender, athletic frame to his easy, fluid smile. I wondered what could have made this young athlete so cripplingly sick to land him in the ICU for a week unable to walk.</p><p>The answer is <a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/page.aspx?pid=498">malaria</a>.</p><p>Transmitted by mosquitoes, malaria infected an estimated 243 million people and led to nearly 900,000 deaths in 2008, according to the WHO. It is endemic in Haiti and affects tens of thousands each year. The predominant strain in the country P.falcipurum or cerebral malaria is the most deadly and can lead to impaired consciousness, convulsions, and coma.</p><p>Wilson's story is probably not too uncommon for post-earthquake Haiti. Displaced by the earthquake, Wilson now lives with 16 of his family members in a camp in Carrefour, just outside Port-au-Prince. One day, he started to feel nauseous. The flu-like symptoms continued for an entire week and then, on the eighth day, Wilson's legs gave out. "I could not even stand," he said.</p><p>Wilson panicked and sought medical attention immediately. His cousin carried him all the way from their camp, taking buses or tap taps wherever they could until they reached the University Hospital. He was rushed into the emergency room where International Medical Corps volunteers received him, completely unable to use his legs, and quickly tested him for malaria. When it came back positive, they transferred him to the ICU for round-the-clock monitoring and treatment.</p><p>Over the course of a week, Wilson's movement and condition improved bit-by-bit. He began physical therapy to strengthen and stretch his legs. Eventually, he could stand, and then walk, on his own. "The care, everything, was perfect,"he said with a grin. </p><p>And now Wilson, having defeated malaria and regaining his strength by the day, is well enough to head home. "I am so proud of you,"said Mary Perry, a volunteer nurse with International Medical Corps who worked in the ICU for two weeks. "When he got here, he couldn't even stand and now look at him."</p><p>Watching Wilson smile and laugh with his family, so excited to get home and play football with his friends, I felt so proud and inspired by what he and volunteers like Mary Perry overcame in this swelteringly hot ICU tent following one of the most catastrophic disasters in centuries. </p><p>It's the ultimate winning goal.</p><p><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></p>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-17918858581481274742010-04-16T15:40:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:37:59.524-07:00Michelle Obama's Promise to Haiti<i>Crystal Wells is a Communications Officer for International Medical Corps and is currently in Haiti helping with the relief effort.</i><br /><p>First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Haiti brought with it a familiar frenzy of flashing cameras, microphones, fresh legal pads – and a lot of chaos. But the best part was how welcome it seemed to have the world’s eyes back on Haiti.</p><p>Because there is a lot that needs to be done here.</p><p>My colleague Dina Prior, head of International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team, attended the meeting during which the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden thanked relief workers for our efforts here. To Dina and me, and probably many other international assistance workers in Haiti, the most rewarding message out of this meeting was not her words of appreciation, but her promise of continuing to support for this battered country at a time when the emergency phase is officially winding down and public attention is waning.</p><div>We all saw the heart-wrenching images that poured out of Haiti in the weeks immediately following the January 12 earthquake, the bodies scattered across the streets and search-and-rescue teams frantically moving iron rebar and heavy rubble from destroyed buildings to rescue those who were trapped. </div><br /><div>The world shook with Haiti. And all levels of the international community - the United Nations, NGOs, governments, corporations, and individuals all around the world chipped in what they could or got on a plane to help. The result was unprecedented. Millions of dollars were raised. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved. And a country did not lose hope even in its darkest hour.</div><div>Despite the scale of the relief effort, the truth is that Haiti is about to face two more emergencies, and much of the world is unaware of it. I’m afraid the world is now numb to Haiti’s troubles, and I’m hoping the First Lady’s visit will remind people that our commitment to Haiti should not end with the official emergency phase. </div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIVBUlRQcj5xJXTMmiKk3F80pZ7tt1ai4PX8wX9qvNLyTyVLZSBOqEd6OhsWSECc54eeuITI0SGuGeKhDhYLrFNj3292a75WAaFfVaYg2Nv2zPcP7pTAOUPAQJWSm1-feciE41KO75Wk/s1600/Care2+Image+-+Petionville+Clinic+3.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoIVBUlRQcj5xJXTMmiKk3F80pZ7tt1ai4PX8wX9qvNLyTyVLZSBOqEd6OhsWSECc54eeuITI0SGuGeKhDhYLrFNj3292a75WAaFfVaYg2Nv2zPcP7pTAOUPAQJWSm1-feciE41KO75Wk/s320/Care2+Image+-+Petionville+Clinic+3.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460873972737253250" /></a><div>The heavy rains are starting to fall nightly, and the United Nations and NGOs, including International Medical Corps, are working together to start the long process of relocating camps that either are perched on a hill or buried in the crevice of a riverbed - so that thousands of lives are not lost in landslides and flash floods. </div><div><br /></div><div>International Medical Corps is already facing increased operational challenges trying to prepare for these rains. We are fortifying our clinics with sandbags, plastic sheeting, even platforms so they do not close when the rains fall hard. We also need to heavily stock our field sites outside of Port-au-Prince so that they can continue their programs even if roads and bridges are washed away. Our clinics, many of which are located in camps, could be even more critical during rainy season, as diseases like malaria and typhoid fever and ongoing issues like malnutrition are likely to increase. </div><br /><div>And all of this will be followed by the second emergency, hurricanes, which could begin as early as July.</div><br /><div>These are challenges that now face a country that is still reeling from a 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people and left another million homeless. And Mrs. Obama’s pledge that the United States will not forget Haiti, that it is committed to helping it recover and rebuild, was one that I hope inspired others to not forget Haiti, even when the camera lenses are pointed elsewhere.</div><br /><div><a href="https://www.imcworldwide.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=878">Because, as I say, there is a lot that needs to be done here.</a></div><div><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-68205006796190422132010-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:38:13.603-07:00Haiti's Future is Now<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBe16-t1O_j8zTeLNEJ8DXl8KnIeh3gJhuD_EJ1CObiQm9flQJ8JNVLg_1gvDb4wQsi531D-qhu577HBcIAiRvOAZtRpftyI_A2TGX02fkzROq7147Po1WFnv_fAv44V1_-lKdnua38z4/s1600/NancyAPetionville.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 310px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBe16-t1O_j8zTeLNEJ8DXl8KnIeh3gJhuD_EJ1CObiQm9flQJ8JNVLg_1gvDb4wQsi531D-qhu577HBcIAiRvOAZtRpftyI_A2TGX02fkzROq7147Po1WFnv_fAv44V1_-lKdnua38z4/s320/NancyAPetionville.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460486993782442322" /></a><p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;"><i>President and CEO Nancy Aossey has led International Medical Corps for more than 24 years and has overseen its expansion to include over 50 countries. </i></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">The mothers sit in a circle, babies on their laps, sharing stories of lost homes, husbands, and livelihoods. They ponder basic needs like clean water, sanitation, and getting out of makeshift tents as the rainy season begins.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But most of all, they express an overwhelming fear of what the future will bring.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">Recently I traveled to Haiti, </span><span style="font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/HaitiLatestInfo">where International Medical Corps has been operating since 22 hours after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.</a></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">This disaster zone is among the worst I have seen in my two dozen years of international relief work. Building after building flattened, tent cities numbering in the hundreds. I truly don't have words strong enough to describe what has happened to Haiti - or the look on the faces of the women I meet at the Petionville Country Club camp, so named because it sits on the grounds of what once was a country club for the nation's elite.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">Here, our volunteer doctors and nurses from around the world are providing primary health care, psychosocial support, nutrition services, water and sanitation – while training Haitians to provide these services in their own communities over the long-term.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">My dozen new acquaintances display an admirable resiliency. However, they and all 60,000 or so of their fellow tent-dwellers in Petionville camp, are in danger. Built on a precarious slope, Petionville is highly susceptible to mudslides and flash flooding as the tropical rain season begins.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">They and the nearly one million others displaced by the quake face the ever-mounting risk of a “second humanitarian crisis”, not only from being washed out of their homes but from the infectious and water-borne diseases that could result in many additional deaths. For these women, the crushing weight of their day-to-day struggles is being compounded by the fear of what very well could lie ahead.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">The issues and uncertainties they face echo in the far-away policy world, where the international community has made a nearly $10 billion commitment to rebuilding Haiti. But the $10 billion question is how do we address Haiti’s long-term and short-term needs, both of which are immense? We feel it can and must be done.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">Even in the middle of an emergency, </span><span style="font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.imcworldwide.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=878">International Medical Corps works to establish a stronger, more accessible health care infrastructure over the long-term. </a></span><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">The two must happen simultaneously. Haiti’s health workers badly need training and updated standards for integrated primary health care delivery. So from the day our doctors and nurses arrived in Haiti and began treating patients, they also trained our Haitian counterparts to do the same.</span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">As we have learned over the past quarter century from our operations in other crisis areas around the world – places like Afghanistan, Somalia, and Indonesia - one of Haiti’s greatest needs is a broad-based training program in integrated primary health care practice for all health workers. That desire for a more comprehensive and resilient Haitian health care system came through clearly and consistently in my meetings with the Minister of Health, the director of Port-au-Prince's University hospital, our Haitian doctor-colleagues, and the community health workers who are the engine of Haiti’s health system.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;"><o:p>That training of front-line health workers at all levels is essential and already underway. They help to treat tuberculosis, dengue, malaria, HIV, and other diseases; support safe motherhood and child survival; provide nutrition education; and deliver psychosocial support. They promote improved hygiene and sanitation to protect against an outbreak of diarrhea and ensure that all mothers - such as these with whom I sat - have access to clean water and readily available oral rehydration salts for their children, and understand how to protect them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="Calibri","sans-serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;">I’ll never forget the women sitting in a circle with me at Petionville camp. For them, I’d like to envision a future in which their families have access to a level of care that did not exist before the earthquake – and a health care infrastructure that can withstand the uncertainties that lie ahead. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-27947139196723131672010-04-02T14:45:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:38:40.391-07:00Haiti: Thankfulness and Compassion Amid the Destruction<i>British nurse Nancy Connolly volunteered with International Medical Corps for two weeks in Haiti at the Petit Goave mobile clinic.</i><br /><br /><p>I left for Haiti on Jan 25th, two weeks after the earthquake and spent the next 2 weeks primarily in Petit Goave setting up remote clinics, following a couple of days at the hospital in Port-au-Prince.</p><p>When you leave the airport, you drive past incredible destruction. At first you take a few pictures but as the reality settles, you simply stop. It is difficult to comprehend the amount of devastation. Spray painting on the outside walls of buildings looks at first to be graffiti and then you realize it is a message: the building has been searched for dead bodies.</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsajzrUbQ8F6jBv1uztP2RO2TIWhpHv6AOH3CK-o20lFkDaTX-NEdgj1AMaKxzcoRhRPDLCOCAkdy3FHpF4sPbciZZ6auTfy4twfQ3nWq5V7fta9dq9mJuv0sht0gZXVg6DZfdrohnyXU/s1600/NancyConnnolly.Haiti.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455665085743007762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsajzrUbQ8F6jBv1uztP2RO2TIWhpHv6AOH3CK-o20lFkDaTX-NEdgj1AMaKxzcoRhRPDLCOCAkdy3FHpF4sPbciZZ6auTfy4twfQ3nWq5V7fta9dq9mJuv0sht0gZXVg6DZfdrohnyXU/s320/NancyConnnolly.Haiti.jpg" /></a>The road out to Petit Goave is cracked and rockslides continue with the daily after-shocks. <a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1123">International Medical Corps set up clinics in 4 locations </a>and we saw over 1,000 patients in little over a week. I want to stress that entire population is living outside in tents or under tarps, offering little protection from the coming rains. Portable water has to be transported from a clean well and medical supplies are being brought in but overall resources are limited.<br /><br />I will hold many people close to my heart from my time in Haiti. One little boy, probably 11-years-old. sat before me with such dignity while he told me his symptoms and as I asked questions I discovered that all of his family were dead. He was now alone. I saw one woman sweeping off her brick makeshift steps in case a guest visited. She now lived under a 4x4 sheet, in a camp on the side of the road, but she took pride in keeping it clean. The 80-year-old woman who volunteered to translate all day and thanked us for helping her country. The many priests and ministers who preached to the Haitian parishioners a message of cooperation and asked them to thank the people who had come, and to work with them as they were all trying to help. All this amid a constant stream of funerals each weekend. <p></p><p>During the week the Haitian people are digging themselves out using shovels, pick axes and sledge hammers.<br /></p><p>The last impression I will share is one of hope. Relief efforts continue and will be needed for a long time to come. Haiti was in trouble prior to the quake, that is true, but no country can function when so devastated. I saw the Haitian people working to bring order and although there are troubles, there is a rising intolerance toward trouble-makers. The majority are speaking out and letting it be known <a href="https://www.imcworldwide.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=878">they want and respect the assistance they are receiving</a>.</p><p><em>If you would like to see more images of Nancy's experience with International Medical Corps in Haiti, click </em><a href="http://www.swinfencharitabletrust.org/index.php?option=com_content&view="><em>here</em></a>.<br /><br /></p><p></p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><tbody> </tbody><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><br /><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow International Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-61580000069750320292010-03-24T08:56:00.000-07:002010-03-24T14:17:27.387-07:00A Plea for HaitiBy Sienna Miller<div>Global Ambassador, International Medical Corps</div><div><br /></div><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">I came to Haiti as an ambassador for the International Medical Corps, an organization that I have been working with for over a year.<span style=""> </span>Their teams arrived 22 hours after the devastating earthquake of 12<sup>th</sup> January and have been a powerful and leading medical presence ever since.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFrTifu1ecG0rkPPPPZDcyotH_vHJwlfHvngDJ_PSKP5_av32LHOMWZOB5_Pgxg03057LVVM2tbgWEESDZMSIOeByEYMYDj4LaOGlyGr6HnOTzFNhHQYTms1ztPG06YWdPQ_K1GDaJagI/s320/RESIZE_Sienna-Haiti+Day+3+102.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452230521880965474" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" /></span><span style="">I arrived in the Dominican Republic from London on the night of March 18<sup>th</sup>, and met up with my friends Margaret Aguirre from International Medical Corps, and David Serota, a talented filmmaker who has come to document the long-term health care needs that lie ahead for Haiti.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p>We flew the following morning to Port-au-Prince and were met in the chaos by Andy Gleadle, our operations director, (the kind of 'man mountain' that you hope to be around in disaster zones like this one) and were briefed on the security issues we potentially faced.<span style=""> </span>For starters, the local jail was destroyed in the quake, and as a result, 5,000 prisoners are free and roaming the streets.<span style=""> </span>There were serious security problems in Haiti before the earthquake, but of course everything has now intensified.<span style=""> </span>Three NGO workers were kidnapped the previous week, so Andy told us what to expect and how we would be protected (a two-car convoy at all times, watchmen by the tents etc).<span style=""> </span>Afterward we drove to the guesthouse to meet the team, drop our bags and then head out to start the day.</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9HMiHczsfVV8Qv80zPqlRLdwoW_bKKKi74OmSkELY47cappCGxc5B1aoPau_PrnlyZ3yux2LkQKRd6HKIjInM_KSSAy5K2Xr3AIuSzgb1lC5NZ3MCsZaaXUBvHZ9C8xR69SzRtEbD18/s1600/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+177-cr-DrJocelyne.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9HMiHczsfVV8Qv80zPqlRLdwoW_bKKKi74OmSkELY47cappCGxc5B1aoPau_PrnlyZ3yux2LkQKRd6HKIjInM_KSSAy5K2Xr3AIuSzgb1lC5NZ3MCsZaaXUBvHZ9C8xR69SzRtEbD18/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+177-cr-DrJocelyne.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452309393745928546" border="0" /></a><span style="">Our first stop was St Louis, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, to visit Dr. Joseline Marhone.<span style=""> </span>I sat with her in the shade of a tree, her patients surrounding us on beds in tents nearby, and asked her to share her experiences with us.<span style=""> </span>Her house was destroyed in the quake, but thankfully she and her son were in the basement at the time and survived.<span style=""> </span>Her two cousins upstairs did not survive.<span style=""> </span>I found it so difficult to ask the questions that I suspected would be hard for her to answer.<span style=""> </span>Journalism of this sort does not come naturally to me, but she explained that it helped her to talk about it. So she speaks, with a resilience and strength far superior to mine upon hearing her.<span style=""> </span>She was the director of nutrition for the Ministry of Health in Haiti.<span style=""> </span>The nursing school where she taught collapsed, killing every one of her students.<span style=""> </span>She told us that she had found that the best thing for her to deal with her enormous pain was to keep busy and carry on doing what she does so well. To date, on the grounds of the ruined church where she once worshipped, she has treated over 4,000 people.<span style=""> </span>International Medical Corps has provided her with the medical supplies and volunteers that she needs in order to do this.<span style=""> </span>She is so beautiful and open, walking around with a smile that melts, wearing the same long blue cotton skirt that she was wearing on January 12<sup>th</sup> when the earthquake struck. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcGQr0Vni1awLOQ7n77EvT4dQe8J40nWWqclm_xwc6e5sBEcd_kOaX4f6YuyK2cAb2gu8DGIUFKcSmxrriV0AmWK5qVo1tuNjDtGTu_jnhCuj_E-2AgyhNGzdSJ69I5lf81fbzg9Sujc/s1600/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+090-PatientFrancois.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcGQr0Vni1awLOQ7n77EvT4dQe8J40nWWqclm_xwc6e5sBEcd_kOaX4f6YuyK2cAb2gu8DGIUFKcSmxrriV0AmWK5qVo1tuNjDtGTu_jnhCuj_E-2AgyhNGzdSJ69I5lf81fbzg9Sujc/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+090-PatientFrancois.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452309401566522290" border="0" /></a><span style="">My role here as ambassador is simple: we need to raise awareness of the road ahead for Haiti – and raise a significant amount of new funding through appeals to the public. Most people just don’t realize that the problems Haiti faces are really only beginning.<span style=""> </span>This country was in desperate need before the earthquake hit. The problems they are now facing are tenfold. The onset of the rainy season, which is imminent, means that the temporary camps that are housing hundreds of thousands of people will be washed away.<span style=""> </span>Water-borne diseases will be rife, nutritional needs will become even more prevalent and there is inevitably a massive increase in sexual and gender-based violence within the camps. Donors have been incredibly generous, but as always, much, much more is needed.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">After a fitful night’s sleep in a tent with Marge, (gunshots, roosters, crying babies, the works) we have a cup of coffee and set off at the crack of dawn to visit some of the mobile clinics and projects set up in those early days after the earthquake by the stunningly beautiful and clever Dina Prior, who heads International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team. We drove to Petit Goave, three hours outside of Port-au-Prince.<span style=""> </span>The coastal regions are far more difficult to access, and it takes an hour by boat to reach the small beach community of Platon. It looks like heaven to me.<span style=""> </span>The kind of untouched postcard paradise we westerners are constantly searching for.<span style=""> </span>White sand so fine it feels like flour, azure blue sea and old handmade fishing nets thrown haphazardly over the ancient palm trees. We are greeted with smiles and cheers by a beautiful group of men, women and children, so grateful for the work that is being done.<span style=""> </span>However, they are hungry, incredibly poor, and virtually cut off from the essentials they need.<span style=""> </span>Until International Medical Corps arrived here, they faced a two-hour journey just to receive any medical attention at all. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <ul><li><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=678">WATCH a Video of Sienna's Visit to International Medical Corps' Programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009</a><br /></li></ul><span style="">The following day, we went to the General Hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince, and spent the morning being shown around by Dr Gabriel Novelo, who is overseeing operations for International Medical Corps, and Megan Coffee, an infectious diseases specialist who is handling the TB ward and patients with everything from HIV to typhoid.<span style=""> </span>They were warm and generous, taking the time to explain to my untrained ears the many facets of their work. I was amazed to see that despite the sheer number of patients – sometimes 800 a day - they are on first-name terms with almost all of them.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLNKSvpItwCSgmOAFv6aHtY6AX-pUWbO8qWJZ9TK56PEjUuBall-irKd9NESFEl_o5dnwQMStrmxVBzlvZy_qiwDqIBrv0EqnoRWGWwxBd8ije4jE5OYFS3O5tLIFvxlemgCWciehoJ_g/s320/RESIZE_Sienna-Haiti+Day+3+172.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452230670148759938" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p>Our last stop was at the intensive care unit tent.<span style=""> </span>Everywhere I looked, there were doctors and nurses from around the globe. They all work incredibly long hours, as volunteers, helping the relief effort out of the goodness of their own hearts. I saw a woman die two meters from where I was standing.<span style=""> </span>A team of doctors then spent ten minutes doing intense revival work, giving her CPR, adrenaline shots to the heart and defibrillation, basically demonstrating the relentless commitment that goes toward saving a life.<span style=""> </span>I stood and watched, hoping and praying for a miracle, as her pulse was checked again and again without a murmur.<span style=""> </span>Every ER doctor has experienced this hundreds of times, but I am a woman, in a tent in Haiti, watching something I never thought I would witness.<span style=""> </span>They fought and fought, and miraculously, revived her. I saw a life lost and saved by the medical teams International Medical Corps has working here. I watched this woman fight for her life. I saw her husband crying, not only for himself, but for their two children, and marveled at the simple fact that these volunteer doctors have the ability to bring mothers like her back into the world.</o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqUIJkwPqHFA-nXb6gqNXJh01noSVjvnrvGyHUMAy320PzKWNIuc-PK0LhTCJp-zY85ETx4S5-KxY7jDOvNRb-83rhO4jhFqXZQSIfTJl5NPJbnWs2k50jGper0iZUaHtjq9_Of6lYt8k/s320/RESIZE_Sienna-Haiti+Day+3+235.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452230933708970482" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" border="0" /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Later that day we headed to Petionville, an enormous displacement camp, to visit a new facility we have within the compounds.<span style=""> </span>These people, like most, are living in tents, except that this camp (or rather city) is in a giant basin-like valley.<span style=""> </span>When the rains come, and they already have started, this and its 60,000 inhabitants could be washed away.<span style=""> </span>Logistically moving that many people, with the imminent monsoon and hurricane season lingering like a time bomb, is a terrifying reality that they are all facing.<span style=""> </span>We met up with my friend Sean Penn, who is doing incredible work here through his organization, the Jenkins-Penn Foundation.<span style=""> </span>They are providing medical care and devoting their energies toward the protection of these vulnerable people. We discussed ways of collaborating and were taken on a tour of the camp by Sean and Pastor St. Cyr (who is holding daily services for those living here, a vital task for a devoutly religious population). There is an area where tents balance precariously on the edge of a ditch that drops 10 feet into what is now a dry riverbed.<span style=""> </span>When the rains fell a week ago, that ditch became a raging river and two children very nearly lost their lives. International Medical Corps is bringing in floodlights to try and prevent disasters like these from becoming a reality.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The following morning, we headed back to the General Hospital, where I spent a few hours with two fabulous psychiatrists, Dr. Lynne Jones and Dr. Peter Hughes.<span style=""> </span>Obviously there are massive psychological repercussions to a traumatic event like this, and previous mental illnesses have been exacerbated in many cases.<span style=""> </span>They are treating patients in the general hospital suffering from a range of illnesses from psychosis to epilepsy.<span style=""> </span>The care being given here is a vast contrast to what is happening at the old mental hospital next door we visited later.<span style=""> </span>It is beyond anything I could imagine.<span style=""> </span>This being the poorest country in the western hemisphere, education is not at the standard that we are fortunate to have in the developed world.<span style=""> </span>The treatment here is archaic, the conditions inhumane. The people I saw were obviously seriously unwell.<span style=""> </span>Some were screaming, some blissfully happy, very few are clothed and during my visit, most stood in tiny rooms, naked and covered in excrement.<span style=""> </span>They push their heads through sharp and rusting holes in the iron doors to have a look at us, screaming for help.<span style=""> </span>A mental institution is an intimidating thing to see for someone with no experience in this area like myself, but this made “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” look like The Ritz.<span style=""> </span>It was shocking and like everywhere in Haiti, desperately in need of funding.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">The amazing thing is that this country has a spirit that very quickly gets under your skin.<span style=""> </span>The people are friendly and welcoming, and everywhere I look, I witness examples of human courage beyond imagination.<span style=""> </span>They are sticking together through what has been the most devastating earthquake in a hundred years and it is vital for the various NGO groups to do the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyHztXeGoWAwV2TKzC56X226tf6D8HKSzJRchxa2sVxeEQUv0D2hy0mepj1-38giWnwKehyphenhyphenzMcDvrJ36k3S-sJTQ4wIKqNjbrM8yRYFtlH-DG3UsllXyByWdhPCH-s81QosmPt6blhwQ/s1600/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+097-VolunteerMay.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyHztXeGoWAwV2TKzC56X226tf6D8HKSzJRchxa2sVxeEQUv0D2hy0mepj1-38giWnwKehyphenhyphenzMcDvrJ36k3S-sJTQ4wIKqNjbrM8yRYFtlH-DG3UsllXyByWdhPCH-s81QosmPt6blhwQ/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+097-VolunteerMay.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452309414308663714" border="0" /></a><span style="">I suppose what I am attempting to do is use whatever means I have to generate some sort of attention for a country I feel utterly passionate about.<span style=""> </span>I am not a writer, but one thing I have always somehow managed to do is garner press attention.<span style=""> </span>I am now hoping to exploit that for a very good cause.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">Please, if you can, donate now to International Medical Corps - an organization that is doing this incredible work, saving the lives and building a future for these beautiful people.<span style=""> </span>To learn more about them and about how you can help their efforts in Haiti please visit <a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/haiti">www.imcworldwide.org</a>.</span></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=307">READ Sienna's Blog Posts about Her Visit to International Medical Corps' Programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009</a></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-23177431464203547762010-03-23T12:22:00.001-07:002010-03-23T12:30:18.048-07:00My Mind-Changing Response to Visiting Haiti<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TtbB4EtpFFrBSDUC0JdBuveV6WqrSrCLwR3MVPti3-BlOAKU6aaoxTHnVebmFirf-1pvH0YhdNBZ46SKehoqIincZhjW9ZsaXhBTBDyAUc2c1qSy1QDsVe2f4kZhiC7To3IGB-7DZCk/s1600-h/InternationalMedicalCorps01.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TtbB4EtpFFrBSDUC0JdBuveV6WqrSrCLwR3MVPti3-BlOAKU6aaoxTHnVebmFirf-1pvH0YhdNBZ46SKehoqIincZhjW9ZsaXhBTBDyAUc2c1qSy1QDsVe2f4kZhiC7To3IGB-7DZCk/s320/InternationalMedicalCorps01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451913722781987362" border="0" /></a>By David Serota, Filmmaker with International Medical Corps<br /><br />That is what this is. That is what Haiti is. On every level. In every way. From the Haitian people. To the people who were compelled to come here. All the way down the rabbit hole -- to me.<br /><br />Standing in the rubble that was once Port-au-Prince and Leogane (the actual epicenter of the original earthquake) you are instantly struck by what those in the media could not capture and our Western sensibilities cannot address. I tend to enter a 'situation' with a "you know what they should do" mindset. The places I have been fortunate enough to travel to have reduced this knee jerk response to a certain extent but Haiti might have changed it for good. Changed me -- for GOOD.<br /><br />Landing in Dominican Republic at night was like waking up in a dream. No sense of time or place. Driving through city streets, not sure what is on either side of you. It could be the ocean. It might very well be a cliff. A late dinner with most of the team I traveled with in DR Congo last Spring (Margaret Aguirre, International Medical Corps’ Director of Global Communications, and film actress Sienna Miller) and we headed back to the hotel. An early morning taxi pick up and then off to the airport once again for our flight to a place that was once the only thing on television and is now barely a mention on CNN or in the NY Times.<br /><br />Woke up late and rushed down to meet everyone in the lobby. Our taxi wasn't there. So we grabbed another one and headed for the airport...the wrong airport. This not being realized until we got there. Through morning rush hour and then along a Caribbean coastline we motored to the right one. Luckily the plane we were on was delayed so we made it with plenty of time to spare. A reminder. When traveling, what can go wrong, will. Journey on.<br /><br />Upon landing in Port-au-Prince you are thrown into the melee to come. Plane cargo trucks backing up to open bay doors where they throw your bags with impunity and then out into a traffic jam of people trying to exit gates that are dressed with people in need. Begging for something to make life...livable. Fortunately, the chaos was made easier as we were met by Andy and Crystal from International Medical Corps. International Medical Corps arrived less than 24 hours after the quake to deliver emergency assistance and I am here to document their long term response to Haiti's recovery. Crystal is the communications officer for the operation and Andy is our security advisor. International Medical Corps always travels in convoys. It is important to ensure safety, strength in numbers, and because people can always pile into one vehicle if the other breaks down. It is not for show and it is not for insurance reasons. It is standard operating procedure and another one of their lifesaving methods. Aid workers are often targets of violence. Three have been kidnapped in the past week here in Haiti.<br /><br />The destruction is everywhere but it is hard to absorb. It felt like it could have happened 5 minutes or 5 years ago. But then it digs in a little. There are people in there. Hundreds of thousands of them.<br /><br />One of my favorite parts about traveling with International Medical Corps is that they employ the local people and none more important than the drivers. This time we have Steeve. He is 27 years old. Learned all his English from television and music. Always in an oxford and slacks. Always rocking out to hip hop. They take you everywhere. They navigate the traffic and streets like they went to school for it. Avoiding pot holes that would have swallowed you up. We learned about his friend. Trapped in the quake. Steeve was at school for thematics. When the quake happened he jumped from the balcony. He and a few others went looking for a friend. Found him. Trapped. Only identified by his sneakers. They could not reach him. So for 10 days they passed him food and water with a rope. Eventually. Nobody took the food.<br /><br />International Medical Corps has set up a guesthouse in one of the remaining structures still standing. They have 39 full time staff and around 59 rotating volunteers. It is compound like. High walls, metal gate, armed guards. But inside it feels a bit more like a college fraternity house. People live out of duffle bags, even those on 6 month rotations. Everyone is from a different country but they all have one thing in common. They have traveled extensively. Mostly doing aid work. They LOVE what they do.<br /><br />The courtyard is a tent city. Not only because there are not enough rooms to house everyone but aftershocks are still prevalent. There was one last night. We threw our stuff down and were out the door to our first location.<br /><br />The morning after the quake, a Port-au-Prince local, Joseline Marhone, opened an emergency clinic under a grove of trees adjacent to the wreckage of the Church of St. Pierre in the St. Louis area of Port au Prince, just a few miles from downtown and began treating the injured. Several of her medical students quickly joined her. A tent was erected, canvas sheets were put up and mattresses were hauled in to create a 13-bed in-patient section to the clinic. She sleeps in the pharmacy, which is outside. Her dinner table is an Igloo cooler and her bed is a worn out piece of foam. She tells me this with the most beaming smile you have ever seen.<br /><br />At night we gather on the terrace, download our days and unwind with drinks and dinner. Everyone getting to know one another. Exhausted, I climb into my tent and go to bed. The sound of chickens who do not know what time it is, gunshots and screaming babies serenade me.<br /><br />Early the next morning we take a long drive out through Leogane, a town by the sea. That is where we board a small motor boat to visit one of seven mobile clinics International Medical Corps is operating on that part of this island nation. Before the quake this area had never received any kind of medical attention due to the steep hillside making it only accessible by water. Once we arrive we immediately saw International Medical Corps’ presence. A field clinic steps from the beach outfitted with basic medical supplies. They even provide mental health specialists for those with psychiatric needs. It is a sight to see. We felt welcome. I thanked them then and I thank them here.<br /><br />Dina Prior is the head of the Emergency Response Team in Haiti. Her job is to setup International Medical Corps after a disaster. Imagine that. Trying to coordinate, triage and implement a scalable RESPONSE in the midst of a communication blackout, in a city still shaking and still on fire. That night at the guesthouse she details for me the the first days. A rock star in every way.<br /><br />There is an amazing lighthearted nature to the staff. Perhaps a primal response to the intensity of their days. The fight and then their flight. Save a life and pal around. All in a days work here.<br /><br />Today we went to the general hospital downtown. The buildings were all left uninhabitable so International Medical Corps has set up tent clinics for every issue imaginable. TB and AIDS patients, an intensive care unit and a pediatrics ward just to name a few. While in the ICU a young girl went into cardiac arrest. The alarm on the monitoring machine sounded with the audible scream of a flatline. A doctor raced to her bedside and immediately began chest compressions. Nothing. More doctors. More compressions. Still nothing. They move on to the defibrillator and finally to adrenaline injections. Nothing. The tall doctor pressed with all his might. It was his first day on the job. The heat inside the tent was almost unbearable. The RESPONSE of International Medical Corps to save this girls life left me in awe. 20 minutes later, when many thought he should have given up, she responds on her own. Her future is unknown. Although her blood flow was maintained by the chest compressions brain damage might still be a result. The irony of tomorrow's health care vote is not lost on me. Every life deserves a fighting chance.<br /><br />After that we went to an internal displacement camp of approximately 40,000 people in an area called Petionville. We went to visit Sean Penn and his personal efforts to address the disaster in Haiti by focusing his attention on these people alone. A gigantic task and an admirable one. He used his own financial resources to deliver a RESPONSE that is effecting change for thousands of individuals. Unfortunately the camp is set on a hill so when the rains come it will not be sustainable. We walked up that hill to the top where we found Sean and his camp. Both modest and dialed the compound is very cool to see. We chat for a short while and once again take a walk through the camp with our guide Pastor Sincere. Yes, really. The people stop you. The people thank you. I am overwhelmed by the RESPONSE.<br /><br />Sean passes by in a small 4×4 vehicle and gives us a lift back up to the top of the hill. He stops and interacts with many of the camps residents. They know him. They like him. There are no cameras here. This is not a photo op. This is who he is.<br /><br />Back at camp we talk about the upcoming rainy season and he details his next steps and we all trade observations and opinions. Unfiltered. Same team here. Sean says something that stuck with me. "The Haitian people are punished for their strength." It is true. In every Haitian you meet you see it. You feel it. They are STRONG.<br /><br />Thing is, nobody is protected from the upcoming hurricane season. Housing for both International Medical Corps and the Haitian people is temporary. When the storms come...<br /><br />Tomorrow is our last full day and I am sad. Not by what I have seen but that I am leaving. That is my RESPONSE. Haiti is in me now. And I will come back.<br /><br />Soon.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJU7afSOgfohLGz3H707X6qERjre6vhIkIbpln3xL5Z80bakr-CgPsFSSXUmsHfLSY6ZO5Wa02lnFqkqn1erm1z6lxmJO3Xw8c0imsWYzr2lEosLSvBOEy1rUGJhM9aeti_-QnIj8IOVc/s1600-h/InternationalMedicalCorps02.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJU7afSOgfohLGz3H707X6qERjre6vhIkIbpln3xL5Z80bakr-CgPsFSSXUmsHfLSY6ZO5Wa02lnFqkqn1erm1z6lxmJO3Xw8c0imsWYzr2lEosLSvBOEy1rUGJhM9aeti_-QnIj8IOVc/s320/InternationalMedicalCorps02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451913825864368930" border="0" /></a>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-37555571945366470322010-03-22T14:35:00.000-07:002010-03-22T15:04:45.993-07:00Global Ambassador Sienna Miller visits Haiti<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0M43rC9-fWhIhx_anJ-yuwrc7yV2G_8HfF2LH5s3KZ7zc5TGWhkar534SyQgoUVfaBZRt_6YR7mfiI1ZBpJJbwGrbRpEjikCBoG4fEuO0JBaH7TfngQsFVlnM7IFC0EChGNtnhRN7CM/s1600-h/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+090(2).jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451576924835678994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0M43rC9-fWhIhx_anJ-yuwrc7yV2G_8HfF2LH5s3KZ7zc5TGWhkar534SyQgoUVfaBZRt_6YR7mfiI1ZBpJJbwGrbRpEjikCBoG4fEuO0JBaH7TfngQsFVlnM7IFC0EChGNtnhRN7CM/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+090(2).jpg" /></a><br />Sienna talking with Francois, who broke both legs during the earthquake. His home was destroyed and he's been living at International Medical Corps' clinic ever since.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWmmC3VVlsbwGp0onAPoni2XGsmp6F_VvN_rhWUE7b_v8YBqJplAM4FGYIICgjfkxdie7oTnXZsWQBTABiQHZUQuTpN3VbwNuT-rV2WSM0Fa5ARX9oDdra3znx-iJtoGEtT6WAY1QcX0/s1600-h/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+097.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451577655954612434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWmmC3VVlsbwGp0onAPoni2XGsmp6F_VvN_rhWUE7b_v8YBqJplAM4FGYIICgjfkxdie7oTnXZsWQBTABiQHZUQuTpN3VbwNuT-rV2WSM0Fa5ARX9oDdra3znx-iJtoGEtT6WAY1QcX0/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+097.jpg" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div>Sienna speaking with May, one of our volunteers from Columbia.<br /></div><br /><div><br /><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="65"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Z1-wwf41FWkuO4NVCLWTMzE19N2toyyEHQe6HuA-gXk-9cYYVTpIuTe_ez9FAkFb6ACiec5t6kkoKgJifMSvQqklw9aQ91PpqjApXD8NdFsmJsWK0mqkOWaWWBQZCNktQdgozOyjMeA/s1600-h/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+177-cr.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 232px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451575561995678466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Z1-wwf41FWkuO4NVCLWTMzE19N2toyyEHQe6HuA-gXk-9cYYVTpIuTe_ez9FAkFb6ACiec5t6kkoKgJifMSvQqklw9aQ91PpqjApXD8NdFsmJsWK0mqkOWaWWBQZCNktQdgozOyjMeA/s320/Sienna-Haiti+Day+1+177-cr.jpg" /></a><br />Sienna and <a href="http://http//imcworldwide.blogspot.com/2010/02/joseline-marhone-is-face-of-haitian.html">Dr. Joseline Marhone</a>.<br /><tbody><tr><td width="56" align="left"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" /></a></td><td align="left"><br /><br /><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" border="0" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" /></a></td><br /></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><br /><br /><div></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-19767605800897588602010-03-22T11:00:00.001-07:002010-03-22T14:11:05.021-07:00Far From the Last<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZd2fNPkaL7CIutdqi0xw8e3wFuqXQjwmsQS50GaEWF-hB_O4WAfwDy5TpYyeW4bINzrtrmgSwRqAe1SlHvHLvtaw7ICzRCE85prnda5LcfibD4-6bvbWyC_nhFJA_wuUweUetdgN9xjo/s1600-h/320x480_WWD01.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZd2fNPkaL7CIutdqi0xw8e3wFuqXQjwmsQS50GaEWF-hB_O4WAfwDy5TpYyeW4bINzrtrmgSwRqAe1SlHvHLvtaw7ICzRCE85prnda5LcfibD4-6bvbWyC_nhFJA_wuUweUetdgN9xjo/s320/320x480_WWD01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451520059932359346" border="0" /></a>By Crystal Wells - March 22, 2010<br /><br /><div class="wrapCopyInner"><em><strong>March 22nd marks the 18th World Water Day, a date set aside each spring by United Nations proclamation to celebrate the importance of fresh water. For those living in the Developed World, it’s a chance to remember that an estimated 900 million people globally still lack access to the minimum daily required amount of safe fresh water. This is the story of what befell one of those 900 million.</strong></em><br /><br />Max is a petite 17-year-old Haitian girl, who lay in the ICU tent at Port-au-Prince’s University Hospital, her belly swollen and bandaged. In the next bed was another woman in the same condition.<br /><br />Max, like the woman next to her, came to University Hospital with sharp stomach pain and a swollen abdomen. In the United States these symptoms would likely be appendicitis. Not in Haiti. Following the Jan. 12th earthquake that destroyed so much of the capital, hundreds of thousands now live in overcrowded, hastily thrown-together tent cities, at risk to something practically nonexistent in most of the developed world – typhoid.<br /><br />I was introduced to Max and her attentive father, Jacksone, at the University Hospital, where International Medical Corps has been working since January 14. Her battle with the disease has been going now for two months.<br /><br />When I learned why this beautiful, young, and otherwise healthy woman laid in a hospital bed for nearly two months, I had to share it. I share it for her and because I know the monsoon-like spring rains now bearing down on Haiti will certainly claim more victims amid post-earthquake Haiti’s large displaced population.<br /><br />When the 7.0-earthquake hit the country more than two months ago, clean water and sanitation, already issues for Haiti, became that much worse. Heavy rains will only add to that misery and to the threat of disease, including typhoid.<br /><br />The tragedy is that typhoid is easily preventable. Vaccination is routine for infants born in the Developed World. As a bacterial disease spread by eating or drinking contaminated food or fluid, typhoid is also prevented through clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoojp4ogWGHaiGqVNvTpcM50-Xf-Jo9CrTnatnCy7w_RDrWgdzDqnT-vT6KCTiSI8bHS8jI___65KpdUpUf94nMNfF18hB6v612ZfH0eIQNnrqbhxjn93qLVUboXaH_cAjhG9tofwC8jc/s1600-h/480x320_WWD02.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoojp4ogWGHaiGqVNvTpcM50-Xf-Jo9CrTnatnCy7w_RDrWgdzDqnT-vT6KCTiSI8bHS8jI___65KpdUpUf94nMNfF18hB6v612ZfH0eIQNnrqbhxjn93qLVUboXaH_cAjhG9tofwC8jc/s320/480x320_WWD02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451520132161900242" border="0" /></a><br />Max’s story is similar to that of thousands of Haitians. Their home was completely destroyed in the earthquake and they were forced to live on the street, without even a tent for shelter. Clean water was also impossible to find.<br /><br />“In the first few days, many of the water pipes were broken, so I would collect our water from them and boil it for my family,” said Jacksone.<br /><br />Despite the boiled water, Max started to complain of stomach pain. The pain persisted for days and her belly began to swell. When Jacksone took her to the University Hospital, she was rushed into surgery to remove part of her bowel.<br /><br />“In severe cases of typhoid, the bowel can swell and, like a balloon filling with water, it eventually bursts, leaking human waste into the rest of the system,” said Megan Coffee, an infectious disease specialist at University Hospital. “The only option at that point is to do surgery to repair the bowel and then clean the human waste away.”<br /><br />And that is exactly what Max went through - and the woman beside her. “If she did not have surgery, she would have been in real trouble,” said International Medical Corps volunteer, Dr. Susan Levine from Connecticut.<br /><br />I am told that Max will recover and, with the diligent care of International Medical Corps volunteer doctors and nurses, I do not doubt it. But as the spring rains prepare to roll in, I can’t help but wonder how many others here will suffer from typhoid in the coming months.<br /><br />As I was leaving the ICU tent, Levine pointed out a man tossing and turning restlessly on his cot. “He is another one who came in with severe typhoid and required surgery,” she said.<br /><br />And definitely not the last.<br /><br /><em>As we mark World Water Day, please help us spread the word about waterborne illnesses like typhoid by sharing this story with your family and friends. </em> </div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-13658035973583115122010-03-10T13:53:00.000-08:002010-03-10T18:52:17.932-08:00Quiet Hero<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7rfFHcf_a__Y6fEqZg8rpX6RTaWSH4rbDA2JN8boZk18XYojf8X_iIxXhi7qvvcyCQZ_8UdqTJA2hpYkT-LOqLkYcJWny7k8PBGGwpuVFfJ7ieZAKX4RfC4xx-fVA2yg9c-EsHiSYPY/s1600-h/Samuel+Abelard.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7rfFHcf_a__Y6fEqZg8rpX6RTaWSH4rbDA2JN8boZk18XYojf8X_iIxXhi7qvvcyCQZ_8UdqTJA2hpYkT-LOqLkYcJWny7k8PBGGwpuVFfJ7ieZAKX4RfC4xx-fVA2yg9c-EsHiSYPY/s320/Samuel+Abelard.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447127560609750834" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By Tyler Marshall</span><br /></span><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Samuel Abelard is an unlikely hero, quietly lending a hand as Haitians rebuild the pieces of their broken lives.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The graying 54 year-old father of four simply showed up and began working at a mobile medical clinic after it was set up in two classrooms of a small Port-au-Prince teacher’s college following the Jan. 12</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> earthquake.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">From the start, Mr. Abelard—as he is respectfully known to all—has effectively kept the clinic running. He is the pharmacist and the storekeeper, steadily keeping track of new medications and other donated supplies that come in, noting what gets used and alerting the medical staff when replacements are required.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">International Medical Corps volunteer physicians and nurses who work at the clinic say the order he maintains increases efficiency and thus helps them see more of the hundreds of local residents from the working class Bolosse neighborhood who crowd outside each morning to get treatment. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But that’s just part of Mr. Abelhard’s contribution. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He’s a leader,” summed up Diana Rickard, a physician from UCLA who recently completed a two-week stint at Bolosse. “The local nurses and other staff all look up to him and come to him for advice.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mr. Abelard notes that keeping the clinic’s small pharmacy organized isn’t all that different than storekeeping. He learned the basics of medicine as a boy from his father, who was a pharmacist for nearly 20 years. Rickard says he’s eager to build on that base. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Before the earthquake, he had a steady job as the storekeeper for a restaurant in the United Nations compound, but that all ended in a few terrifying minutes on the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">afternoon of Jan. 12</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. The UN building collapsed and the restaurant went with it. Several miles way, the family home was badly damaged, too. Still, he considers himself lucky: His immediate family survived.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">His wife suffered a fractured pelvis and now uses a walker to get around. The family now lives in one of the hundreds of tent settlements that have sprung up in Port-au-Prince during the weeks since the quake struck. Mr. Abelhard’s eldest daughter, the family’s only other wage earner, lost her job too when the school where she worked as a teacher collapsed. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Like so many Haitians, he lives today mainly on meager savings and emergency food distributions. Although he says his family depends on him for income and that he hopes one day to return to his job at the United Nations restaurant, he stressed that he plans to stay at the clinic as long as he can make a difference. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“People need me here,” he said, quietly. “This is where I belong now.”</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-14697910834189983242010-03-08T17:20:00.000-08:002010-03-08T17:25:35.829-08:00Dr. Rahul Khare's Photos from Haiti<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0lU48NaeZcCEy1DQAvsyW5IIRgAaPvB1tE1BvooL3UMIoKVtFb1Dk_weOYLs5s5lQZYrQ6lKqumA3DFsV_VOnzfE08ns0K6lQa_pFlev_94UzzoVz2b2CdG43hBK_jIbGzPcABscvWM/s1600-h/IMG_0129.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0lU48NaeZcCEy1DQAvsyW5IIRgAaPvB1tE1BvooL3UMIoKVtFb1Dk_weOYLs5s5lQZYrQ6lKqumA3DFsV_VOnzfE08ns0K6lQa_pFlev_94UzzoVz2b2CdG43hBK_jIbGzPcABscvWM/s320/IMG_0129.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446438674707382610" /></a>The following photographs document some of Dr. Rahul Khare's experiences as an International Medical Corps Emergency Response Volunteer in Haiti.<br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Above is a picture I took of the remains of a Port-au-Prince restaurant.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBau7vF8UDOO5zEZDmFj2rxKyr_EaCpD-LN33bd9yeXy4zmCwIEzHZ_LiBYK1lwHjzJBHdCexJxjgm4hL40SNrJK031oERGMYUruCizW8IpVsC7mGkDDG7YE4rtYQDuj4p4PrbA2ZHWKU/s1600-h/IMG_0061.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBau7vF8UDOO5zEZDmFj2rxKyr_EaCpD-LN33bd9yeXy4zmCwIEzHZ_LiBYK1lwHjzJBHdCexJxjgm4hL40SNrJK031oERGMYUruCizW8IpVsC7mGkDDG7YE4rtYQDuj4p4PrbA2ZHWKU/s320/IMG_0061.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446438667730182546" /></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Here I am supervising a paracentisis on a patient who had liver disease and was short of breath due to the ascites in her abdomen.</p> <!--EndFragment--> </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9p6EAR6h4UBotFuqrCWUE923eW7ve6OiAZ6xn7bIN_LGUongD-cjBV4R2do4kXaXDqs3JO2HfLlOOi72yX_G_EmJDjYZ0E1uzxHjx3Drbm9r3dQZ0b82jueb5B4syZh6agjXzp8Z0I0g/s1600-h/HAITI+2-2010+094.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9p6EAR6h4UBotFuqrCWUE923eW7ve6OiAZ6xn7bIN_LGUongD-cjBV4R2do4kXaXDqs3JO2HfLlOOi72yX_G_EmJDjYZ0E1uzxHjx3Drbm9r3dQZ0b82jueb5B4syZh6agjXzp8Z0I0g/s320/HAITI+2-2010+094.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446438662461700770" /></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">We are resuscitating a 3-month-old baby who came in lethargic with vomiting and diarrhea, probably due to contaminated water found in tent cities.</span><!--EndFragment--></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPiYaSM1Fho_UFenLzoXtwUNIDtFH15lh528RTfgrf5aidj6TAKJ60fp7t6TRW_O7N6Ac6r8EAJBFxowB1Rnk4tobLyy_BkUWFfnE5Xmc46nGxyoAlwj5jk9MSbHTqZbSF1-82Gmy6mU/s1600-h/Haiti+2-4+through+2-18-2010+424.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPiYaSM1Fho_UFenLzoXtwUNIDtFH15lh528RTfgrf5aidj6TAKJ60fp7t6TRW_O7N6Ac6r8EAJBFxowB1Rnk4tobLyy_BkUWFfnE5Xmc46nGxyoAlwj5jk9MSbHTqZbSF1-82Gmy6mU/s320/Haiti+2-4+through+2-18-2010+424.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446438660334325794" /></a><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbRR30ja3vjMRyH3nefH9Ji1wDXKOiGzI59TjSbtwE-NpMu3WTHw-nkUJi7Ibm2ajm-QsMVy4JLyJ65BsIXOlP1H0U1kcLlJCXaMjl3O4ci6g_88KMHZs8y-RYCiwoXwX58ntp9NvhonQ/s1600-h/Haiti+2-4+through+2-18-2010+424.JPG"><br /></a><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote></blockquote><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote></blockquote><!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I’m looking over the ER schedule after dinner.</span></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-43049170363612369902010-03-04T12:21:00.000-08:002010-03-06T06:42:31.773-08:00A few thoughts as I reflect on my two weeks in Haiti<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1EwecVInfhZE8g7ikFvuHYyqOl7YzRjkJoPxFdg7XXYi9QTjiB-V1Di0fCkgrsjVOC6rlVQ5UbOipSlaStheWRr6jBd-G6ETPeKH7OMu9CqcRyNxC9bMzpuAOn_CY0nisRrGeDmDVjQ/s1600-h/IMG_1183.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444880195700083090" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1EwecVInfhZE8g7ikFvuHYyqOl7YzRjkJoPxFdg7XXYi9QTjiB-V1Di0fCkgrsjVOC6rlVQ5UbOipSlaStheWRr6jBd-G6ETPeKH7OMu9CqcRyNxC9bMzpuAOn_CY0nisRrGeDmDVjQ/s320/IMG_1183.JPG" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">By Mark Haseman, RN</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As I sit before my computer, a mere 4 days since returning to Chicago following my 2 weeks at University Hospital in Port-Au-Prince, I can't help but feel pangs of guilt and perhaps a bit of jealousy. I know there is someone else in "my tent", working as hard, or harder than they ever have, likely way behind on fluids and nutrition, without adequate space or resources, and loving every minute of it. As I grow older, time passes faster, with the calendar now behaving much more like a clock; still it amazes me how quickly my time in Haiti flew by.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Even more amazing is how much can be accomplished, under what can only be described as deplorable conditions, by a group of dedicated, committed, passionate, and ever so hard working professionals with singularity of purpose. I won't even attempt to name names, as I do not want to risk missing anyone. Those of you who served know who you are and what you did and I salute all of you. I know I will think of you often when I return to "work", and will not feel that sense of global camaraderie that was so prevalent in those 2 ER tents.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bBvvbpEtaF60mfmPj3snXlGPiqOzE1DR2tfhUKWP5z_cui9Snvu1rCl4CLOq7-w_Wq3e04dDoF9A-IKm7z9fVpi7bfzPCN4G_FhoNrJIjz162G1HcuBCqoFBA_g-W-FRMqSyECAqd_k/s1600-h/IMG_1178.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444881932472178578" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bBvvbpEtaF60mfmPj3snXlGPiqOzE1DR2tfhUKWP5z_cui9Snvu1rCl4CLOq7-w_Wq3e04dDoF9A-IKm7z9fVpi7bfzPCN4G_FhoNrJIjz162G1HcuBCqoFBA_g-W-FRMqSyECAqd_k/s320/IMG_1178.JPG" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Our team arrived a month after the earthquake, during the commemorative 3 days of national mourning. </span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Of course, people didn't stop getting sick, they just stopped going to the ER so they could mourn and pray.</span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The number of patients had been comparatively low as a result, but the respite ended abruptly on Monday.</span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At one point on Monday the hospital administration, toting a bullhorn, announced to all that only the sickest people would be treated and all others should come back another day. Guess they don't have to worry about Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act here!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For the most part, by the time we arrived, direct quake related injuries were few and far between. However, there was still the occasional fractured ankle here or arm there, and even a woman who had suffered 2 pelvic fractures and a fractured ankle. She arrived with her family, who had carried her on a wooden door as a stretcher. Traveling an unknown distance "from the hills" and in no doubt considerable pain, they finally arrived at the University Hospital a month after her local hospital was unable to provide anything more than an x-ray. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Of course there were plenty of quake related illnesses, in particular Diabetic Keto Acidosis (DKA), a result of diabetics not being able to get any insulin to treat their disease. Even the ER ran out of regular insulin on more than one occasion and was constantly low on normal saline.</span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Laboratory services were very limited, often taking up to 8 hours to get a result, further compounded by chronically short supplies of finger stick blood sugar monitoring equipment.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There were so many cases of malaria (which reminds me, I haven't taken my doxycycline yet today), typhoid, much of which was suspected, as the lab was always out of reagent to run the test, rabies, tetanus, TB, HIV, pneumonia, cellulits/wound infections and a smattering of CHF and asthma. With only 1 oxygen tank per tent and only one regulator to share between the 2, it was very difficult to treat shortness of breath, regardless the etiology. We could give asthma breathing treatments but only to one person at a time via an archaic nebulizer machine. We did have to resort to the occasional SubQ epinephrine, though we eventually scored a supply of prednisone. CHF was a bit more difficult, as we had a limited supply of IV lasix, no EKG machine, and no way to follow cardiac lab markers. Sublingual nitroglycerine, perhaps a nitrodur patch and oral lasix, and hydralazine, or calcium channel or beta-blocker, if we had any in stock. Morphine was usually in adequate supply, however the concentrations available would make any JCAHO investigator apoplectic. For much of the time we were forced to use intrathecal concentrations of 50 mg per 1cc, with a standard dose being 2-4 mg. They told me there wasn't going to be any math!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I haven't even mentioned the volume of pediatric patients, most of whom were treated outside the "waiting area”—a tarp stretched out from the front of the first tent. I really have no idea how many patients were out there during the course of a day, as only the really sick ones made it into a tent.</span><span style="font-size:+0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That said, I am eternally grateful to our Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, as well as the doctors and nurses who threw themselves on that grenade day after day. It was a noticeably better environment when they were around.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That leaves us with trauma, of which there was no shortage. Daily, we treated gunshot wounds, vehicular trauma, and the occasional loser of a machete fight. We were fortunate to have 2 portable ultrasound machines, a functioning operating room and usually enough surgeons around to treat those that needed surgery. Ultrasound came in handy a few times gaining IV access in patients and it was the only "pregnancy test" available for part of the time here.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Vehicular trauma was plentiful, and it only took a short bus ride to see why. Narrow streets lined with tents and vendors, thousands of people walking in and out of traffic, and cars, buses, motorbikes darting all over in seemingly random fashion. Cars and bikes passing on the right or left, sometimes 3 across. There was such a constant honking of horns that I began to think Haitians believed horns somehow provided protection while driving. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Patients would occasionally arrive via police vehicle, but as there seemed to be no 911 system or any other way to summon emergency services, most of them arrived via private vehicle. One evening I heard some commotion out front and went out to see what was up: a young woman in the back of a pickup truck had been struck by a car. She arrived with a horrible tibia and fibula fracture. The ED was full, so we popped an IV in her, gave her Etomidate and reduced the fracture under conscious sedation right there in the back of the truck. Fortunately, earlier in the day I had discovered a large, heavy cardboard box full of crap, which I emptied just to clear some floor space. Realizing we had no orthopedic supplies, I pulled out my Swiss Army Knife and carved the box into manageable lengths suitable for splinting material, a scenario that would be repeated many times over the course of the next few days. It was rather refreshing to do conscious sedation without a crashcart or nervous resident checking intubation supplies.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-family:Garamond;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That was Monday—Tuesday would be even worse!</span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><table height="65" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr><td align="left" width="56"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td><td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td><td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-62229381298823963442010-03-03T11:18:00.000-08:002010-03-04T08:55:26.825-08:00A Promise Made, a Promise Kept<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg9LwNvYKggX_FEdPfxBrchiVvM8y7__lm7JXx462_EjepkkHTUtEz9rklmJsKwfY_8Iy3IpVUEm6D1-nqG1PrrihgQOCkMsmvcYCb-JTHghMeVUU-Qods1MpovYoD3zh7B0MHL_OobQM/s1600-h/IMG_1169.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg9LwNvYKggX_FEdPfxBrchiVvM8y7__lm7JXx462_EjepkkHTUtEz9rklmJsKwfY_8Iy3IpVUEm6D1-nqG1PrrihgQOCkMsmvcYCb-JTHghMeVUU-Qods1MpovYoD3zh7B0MHL_OobQM/s320/IMG_1169.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444505271380818594" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">By Crystal Wells </p> <p class="MsoNormal">If I remember but one face of Haiti, it will be that of four year-old Ornesto, with his big eyes and a nose that crinkles when he laughs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He is small and delicate, with a frame more like a child half his age, and a warm, rambunctious personality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Beyond his energy and spunk, Ornesto is a survivor. Buried alive in a rockslide, Ornesto was rescued, but at the cost of his left arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His head is scabbed and wrapped in bandages and he lives in one of the pediatrics tents at University Hospital, where International Medical Corps has worked since January 14.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I am not unique in my love for Ornesto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He’s easily stolen the hearts of a hundred women who have walked through the pediatrics tents, but I am bound to share his remarkable story in order to fulfill a promise I made to his father before I left the country.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is a wrenching tale.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Before the earthquake, Ornesto lived with others of his family in the mountains above a town called Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are part of Haiti’s rural poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His father, 65, supported four children, including Ornesto, from the little money he made from farming and slaughtering livestock. He never learned to read or write—which I discovered only after he was after asking him to spell his name. He replied that he could not, so for lack of proficiency in French or Creole, I will spell his name like it is pronounced to my ear, Kesisan Claude.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Claude and Ornesto are rarely seen without each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Where Ornesto is playing outside the pediatrics tent, Claude watches calmly and proudly in the shade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He sleeps on the floor beside his son’s cot and makes sure the bandages are changed on time.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“We have no tent or anywhere to go,” Claude said from beneath the rim of his straw hat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The earth crushed where we lived.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the minutes before the earthquake, Ornesto and his cousin, 5, went down into a ravine near his house to use the toilet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They were in the ravine when the earthquake hit and were pinned by falling rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Claude thought his son was dead, but still dug for six hours with a dozen others before they found Ornesto with his dead cousin crushed on top of his left arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His head was badly cut and his arm mangled, but he was alive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Without a car to drive to the nearest hospital, Claude carried Ornesto to Carrefour on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, getting a ride when he could, before an American came and transferred them to the University Hospital. There Ornesto’s left arm was amputated and there they have lived since January 23rd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are the only two living in Port-au-Prince. “His mother died,” Claude said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The other children have scattered and live in other houses with friends and family.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We are the only ones here.”</p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3pSzbzDIB6-iAHQOfTqoHKNbuIJkW-QFxk2iqg_LsZ-zvLaC1JxzZOwew_x7IMvWVq95Wy_0bCNLi25RWwdwj-F8bTUZdv3K8ViBAH-mT8qVaIfIQPlVJvjP9NvRfD165iqRwlPoV_c/s1600-h/IMG_0768.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3pSzbzDIB6-iAHQOfTqoHKNbuIJkW-QFxk2iqg_LsZ-zvLaC1JxzZOwew_x7IMvWVq95Wy_0bCNLi25RWwdwj-F8bTUZdv3K8ViBAH-mT8qVaIfIQPlVJvjP9NvRfD165iqRwlPoV_c/s320/IMG_0768.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444505649060908514" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal"> Claude worries about where they will go when Ornesto is discharged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He does not know how he will support his son after losing everything he had in the earthquake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In sharing his tale, Claude exacted a promised: If I retold the story I must include that Ornesto, with his beautiful face and larger-than-life spirit, is up for adoption.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Claude says he wants Ornesto to live a healthy life filled with opportunity and this is something that he is afraid that he cannot provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Because of this, Claude hopes that someone will consider adopting Ornesto, even if that means giving his son up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Please do not misunderstand me and think that I am advocating for Ornesto’s adoption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I simply had to share his story to shed light on what parents all across Haiti are praying for and dreading at the same time. If anything, I believe the plight of these parents underscores a need not for more adoptions, but for livelihoods programs that create new income-generating jobs so that Haitian parents such as Claude must never face such a heart-wrenching choice.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In all the promises I have broken and kept, this one had to be honored, even if I am one of a hundred women to do so.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-36082959174095501132010-02-28T20:30:00.000-08:002010-03-02T14:53:07.211-08:00Observations made on the road to and from Gressier, 2/8/2010 <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZNjEh6CJMhlVLZBjbW-pW6LBxkEYpxltOX44fx3YlUSf25chMhVGdGRjaZq3FY7uhA2KdvOSmjjZhUJ9zpZxwqMU0X2UHhTQ80cUbo_g52tDnXZ-wRtmj0ZJc8W8MKvDkIFy7wEPJII/s1600-h/Dr.+Beth+Sloand+-+Mother+and+Child-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZNjEh6CJMhlVLZBjbW-pW6LBxkEYpxltOX44fx3YlUSf25chMhVGdGRjaZq3FY7uhA2KdvOSmjjZhUJ9zpZxwqMU0X2UHhTQ80cUbo_g52tDnXZ-wRtmj0ZJc8W8MKvDkIFy7wEPJII/s320/Dr.+Beth+Sloand+-+Mother+and+Child-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443201737322824882" /></a><br /><div>We drive 45 minutes each way, from the hospital in Port-au-Prince to Gressier. It has been an eye-opening experience, since prior to this I have only been between the hospital and hotel, a 5-minute drive. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>* Everyone is sleeping outside. Everyone</b>. Those who have their homes flattened, those whose homes have cracks, and all others. Everyone is afraid to sleep or work in any of the buildings until an official government engineer inspects a building and finds it safe to re-inhabit. This affects Port-Au-Prince and all the towns we passed on the way to Gressier. I suspect it affects the third of the country most heavily hit by the earthquake. </div><div><br /></div><div>* Sleeping outside means that people are gathered together in tents to sleep. <b>Tents are mostly sticks lashed together with sheets or towels or shirts stretched across. </b>Sometimes, cardboard or tin or other materials are added to the mix. The tents are in large areas, such as parks or open spaces, all packed together. They are also pitched in small areas, such as the median strip of highways. Daily life goes on in front and within these tent areas — people wash their clothes and their children, prepare their meals and eat. There is little privacy, a luxury here. </div><div><br /></div><div>* There seem to be increasing numbers of sturdy tents from NGOs. Shelterbox provides beautiful tents for families, and I am seeing more and more of them in some parts of Port-au-Prince. That is a great thing because <b>many fear the rainy season and the difficulties it will cause for people living in flimsy dirt-floor tents. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>* The condition of the roads, never very stellar in Haiti, is getting worse each day.</b> As we drive to Gressier, our driver and translator exclaim periodically when we encounter a new split or depression in the road, probably caused by the frequent aftershocks. Says translator Denise, “the earthquake crashed the road more, and cut it worse.” </div><div><br /></div><div>* An increasing problem: trash.<b> Trash pick-up seems to be on hold as any large trucks and resources are dealing with the bigger issue of earthquake rubble.</b> Meanwhile, people have nowhere to put the mounds of trash — plastic bottles, cartons, wrappers, etc. Haitians tend to use and reuse whatever they can, so there is much less trash per person here than in the U.S., but what is here is simply adding up and combining with the dirty water in the streets. We saw one whole street with a continuous mound of trash 6 feet wide and 4 feet high. People climbed over it to get to the other side of the street and children played along the edge — a public health problem brewing. This also makes driving difficult, as you have to weave around the trash piles, as well as slow down for the new cracks in the road and avoid other rubble and wires. (There was one tangle of wires hanging across a street we routinely travel. One day last week, it had dipped so low that there was a spark when our bus went under it and didn’t quite clear. The next day the wires were removed, thank goodness.) </div><div><br /></div><div><b>* Clean-up crews of citizens have taken to the street — men and women, young and old.</b> We saw hundreds with blue T-shirts, armed with shovels and brooms and wearing masks to protect their lungs from the thick dust that is in the air. By the end of the day, there was a visible improvement in the look of some neighborhoods. These crews are dealing with small jobs along the side of the road and walkways. These folks are doing all the work by hand. Bigger machinery must come to remove the huge concrete slabs and chunks of concrete bricks from destroyed buildings. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>* Crushed buildings seem fair game for scavengers.</b> In these circumstances, people are struggling to survive, and they are willing to dig through rubble to pick up pieces of wire, wood, and other items that they will reuse. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>* Food distribution is a tricky business. </b>We pass one area where the UN and U.S. soldiers stand a few feet apart in a long line to provide security as the distribution occurs. Some programs are giving the food to the women to bring home to families. Once, there was a brewing protest — it seemed people didn’t like the method of distribution. </div><div><br /></div><div>* Generally, a sort of daily life has somewhat returned. People are seen walking along the street, moving their wares to sell, bringing home food, children playing, etc. The streets we have seen are mostly quiet. <b>There is no sense of violence or lack of safety that I have observed.</b> One exception is when a foreigner sticks a camera out the window to snap a photo of people bathing or the tent camps, etc. Then usually one or two angry people yell in protest — understandable.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr. Beth Sloand, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing</div><div> <a href="http://www.nursing.jhu.edu/blogs/blogs/bsloand/default.aspx" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">http://www.nursing.jhu.edu/</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr>blogs/blogs/bsloand/default.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr>aspx</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px;font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-77487636599059413432010-02-28T18:30:00.000-08:002010-02-28T18:30:00.606-08:00Still smiling after moving around on a broken femur<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghT-lUA-nTfe399r6b73nyjDtGAOBa3W5I1s003SvYZYR1SBhc-xPFEk8sDh0n98FyX7SdMqoDAteDfDOswdcP9yyC5sCdLvNepRvGu7_Y5eEVW2md_WiSac3wELZ2RMCz8mWWwBuTePU/s1600-h/YoungWoman-DSCN2601.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghT-lUA-nTfe399r6b73nyjDtGAOBa3W5I1s003SvYZYR1SBhc-xPFEk8sDh0n98FyX7SdMqoDAteDfDOswdcP9yyC5sCdLvNepRvGu7_Y5eEVW2md_WiSac3wELZ2RMCz8mWWwBuTePU/s320/YoungWoman-DSCN2601.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443195308973479410" /></a><br />This beautiful young woman was seen in the ED tent at University Hospital for hip pain, three weeks after the earthquake. <div><br /></div><div>She had been seen other places twice before and given pain medications. With the notes on the WHO paperwork we could follow her care and with a brief assessment we decided that she most likely had some type of femur/NOF fracture. This was confirmed by x-ray and with the liaison that we had with the team on the comfort, International Medical Corps Dr. Brian Crawford coordinated her transfer to the USS Comfort. </div><div><br /></div><div>I was impressed by the ability of her to still smile after moving around on a broken femur----ouch. She was also the last patient that I transferred to the Comfort.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Nurse Gregory Hynes<br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-22181684380919942012010-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:002010-02-28T15:30:00.328-08:00Feeding orphaned infants<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ1RLC1dhV2DeWoG-fLS1NXGRr12TCkHfJtbaFfWqoacfyThdb3_TCixXgAnd1zTqNaX-sXSw3ZlO1xb-oSMeZOo4S4JIiSsLi57hH0r44atpjl1ISlxl06i8pSWPNeD7JvpKdir3Ykq8/s1600-h/P1253303.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ1RLC1dhV2DeWoG-fLS1NXGRr12TCkHfJtbaFfWqoacfyThdb3_TCixXgAnd1zTqNaX-sXSw3ZlO1xb-oSMeZOo4S4JIiSsLi57hH0r44atpjl1ISlxl06i8pSWPNeD7JvpKdir3Ykq8/s320/P1253303.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443193036630244354" /></a><br />Here I'm examining a 2-month-old girl brought to an International Medical Corps mobile clinic in Petionville. <div><br /></div><div><b>The infant suffered from malnutrition as her father struggled to feed her in the absence of the child’s mother who perished in the earthquake 2 weeks prior.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b></b>Mashing up whatever food he could find to feed the newborn infant, the father looked to International Medical Corps to assist him in feeding his child. <b>Haitian nurses assisting in the mobile clinic identified a local breastfeeding mother who volunteered to help feed the child,</b> and both parties were managed by the nearby DMAT clinic to coordinate a wet-nursing schedule.<div><br /></div><div>Doctor Jennifer Schwieger<br /><div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-32150002179587545912010-02-28T12:30:00.000-08:002010-02-28T14:37:49.434-08:00"Je aider..."<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFpggspOM6OYkDnV1XWm5zPWTl6bbkQoE291w52-0SkZgutYD1wIIdu02j7MwPbHikL9C1kySfIZSGnLwZTUUT7STFYjvtX1oBW5S2k0skHqk7Ok_PunKPxguhxIDZNW56QsVvr5lD9E/s1600-h/GirlBeingCarried-cropped-DSCN2603.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFpggspOM6OYkDnV1XWm5zPWTl6bbkQoE291w52-0SkZgutYD1wIIdu02j7MwPbHikL9C1kySfIZSGnLwZTUUT7STFYjvtX1oBW5S2k0skHqk7Ok_PunKPxguhxIDZNW56QsVvr5lD9E/s320/GirlBeingCarried-cropped-DSCN2603.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443191569281448530" /></a><br />This is the same girl that I sent to the USS Comfort on one of my last days in the ED tents and was very impressed with the local people's willingness to help. Her mother was also injured and could not help her get around and she needed to get to the restroom. <div><br /></div><div>She wanted to walk but we insisted that was a bad idea. “Je aider” came from two gentlemen who were standing in the tent and they carried her in a chair to the restroom and then back. Yet another testament to the help that was being provided by so many.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nurse Gregory Hynes<br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3269215176339150474.post-31537060008353606012010-02-28T10:30:00.000-08:002010-02-28T10:30:00.554-08:00Even with the progress we've made, mixed feelings about leaving Haiti<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkXBY51SGb1CyPdaJaqJDQk9gkykweFZRNlepK1gdg79cv2oyznITvXlzBeZjj9OUWWNwf2yT5hK9eNPLfLU0REs1eM7BygOATBycAwxJvHxFZ-W55uU_ZyH6H7R9Ylk9EFDnYYcLiyY/s1600-h/IMG00408-PaulAuerbachHeashot.jpg"><blockquote></blockquote><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKkXBY51SGb1CyPdaJaqJDQk9gkykweFZRNlepK1gdg79cv2oyznITvXlzBeZjj9OUWWNwf2yT5hK9eNPLfLU0REs1eM7BygOATBycAwxJvHxFZ-W55uU_ZyH6H7R9Ylk9EFDnYYcLiyY/s320/IMG00408-PaulAuerbachHeashot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443181003270242354" /></a><br /><b>January 25… </b><div>At the end of our 9th full day working at the University Hospital in Haiti,<b> we have made remarkable progress in a little more than a week, and a hospital has emerged.</b><br /><br />Our tent E.R. saw nearly 300 patients today, and we are preparing to see more than 500 tomorrow, in what are essentially two rooms. <b>To keep the place running, we are electricians, masons and plumbers, as well as doctors. </b><br /><br />I find myself beginning to lose my endurance<b>. Everyone is getting tired…I can see it in the faces of all the people with whom I work from every country and whom I have come to admire a great deal. </b>Every day brings new crises of capacity, supplies, sudden patient influx or something else. We have been with these people more than a week and have come to know them, so deaths and disfigurements affect us a lot.<br /><br /><b>The media frenzy is beginning to die down.</b> Four days ago, you could not turn without a camera or reporter being there to document the activity. If that brings resources to Haiti, I am all for it. I have been disappointed, however, in some of the inuendos. Let me tell you the truth – everyone is working incredibly hard, getting along, cooperating, and there are very few controversies. We have the operating rooms coordinated, a way to care for orphans, and a small blood bank. Our big problem is space, but USAID [United States Agency for International Development] just brought us three big tents tonight, which is a huge relief.<br /><br /><b>I visited many of the patients I know this afternoon, just to touch their hands, wipe their foreheads, and encourage them.</b> They are all missing a leg, an arm, and many relatives. Think about how life has changed for them and about what you might do to make it a bit better for them. Please pick a relief organization and make a small donation. It truly makes a difference.<br /><br /><b>January 26…</b> </div><div>On the 10th full day in Haiti, we find ourselves at the transition point where we must carry out our duties, but begin to transfer responsibility to the persons who will assume our roles upon our departure. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some of our team has begun to “hit the wall” physically and emotionally. I am fine emotionally, but these old muscles are aching for sure. However, every time I walk past a young Haitian child who has lost a limb, yet still smiles and tries to give me a wave, I am energized.<b> It will be very difficult to leave, but I know that within a few days, we must get our batteries recharged.</b><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bGdbTH1hrLb-US7KS-CfpEyCRt-v4fvWWfNAoq6q2FfSqzgoTIvAp1toQCkMogZWO4IwCQCgswOzyu1DK0T2wzUrzepaBT7j9Xi3-ptTtyjH6QnX08E7ZgrpBfR0uFCbjSLCkoMy4Xw/s1600-h/IMG_7029_bobNorrisPatient.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7bGdbTH1hrLb-US7KS-CfpEyCRt-v4fvWWfNAoq6q2FfSqzgoTIvAp1toQCkMogZWO4IwCQCgswOzyu1DK0T2wzUrzepaBT7j9Xi3-ptTtyjH6QnX08E7ZgrpBfR0uFCbjSLCkoMy4Xw/s320/IMG_7029_bobNorrisPatient.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443183983680313266" /></a><br />The hospital complex is really taking shape now. The tents are wall-to-wall and all filled with patients. We have arranged for electricity and sanitation. We have oxygen bottles and new stretchers. Yet, we are still missing critical sterilization equipment for surgical instruments, modes of transportation, phones, and sufficient supplies to call this a complete medical operation.<br /><br />Some of my new friends from other NGOs have begun to rotate out, and I miss them already. We have become close “under fire,” in a way that is not possible in any other venue. We would trust each other with our lives.<br /><br />Three of us shared a common experience today, individually, as we walked down the road past the crushed nursing school and towards the Swiss surgery tent compound. <b>We all noticed for the first time beautiful flowering bougainvillea that had been completely overlooked when we marched, heads down, along what was only a week ago a thoroughfare of death. </b>We smelled the cooking from the street, and walked past tents of injured persons singing, trying to be happy, attempting to begin to get back to normal. They are so brave and so deserving of all that we can give them.<br /><br />Our group has befriended the young 5-year-old boy who was pulled from the rubble after a week. He comes to visit us, and clings to the nurse who was most attentive to him during his resuscitation.<b> His parents are lost now and he is an orphan. He is like thousands of children in Haiti now. </b>The orphanages are filling, and reconstruction cannot occur fast enough to avoid enormous tent cities.<br /><br /><b>January 27…</b> </div><div>We’ve been here working at the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince for nearly two full weeks, and it is shaping up. The care being delivered is remarkable given the circumstances since the earthquake. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTN44EdjEeKPXl2Qt7vF1rA3k1lYSbu9G9RvTE6KSzP6MY_zPLUVG0T7gfmnws63WGiE6G9qfgD3t7XwKupVw97fkYGFo-hjgmQmDXoHi0FIWzhE-J4oRdCfEqNgNaK2f_D3DmPcZ5y4/s1600-h/IMG_7079_Aguirre_womanTreatingToddler.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTN44EdjEeKPXl2Qt7vF1rA3k1lYSbu9G9RvTE6KSzP6MY_zPLUVG0T7gfmnws63WGiE6G9qfgD3t7XwKupVw97fkYGFo-hjgmQmDXoHi0FIWzhE-J4oRdCfEqNgNaK2f_D3DmPcZ5y4/s320/IMG_7079_Aguirre_womanTreatingToddler.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443185126220582706" /></a><br /></div><div>There are two operating rooms running 4 beds each, a tented medical unit for our sickest patients, a fully stocked pharmacy, an increasing laboratory testing capability, and more tents. Still, this is not a hospital as we have become accustomed to in the US. It is a medical facility under tents, and the conditions are not sterile. While the situation is improving, and we have optimism that it will continue to improve, for the patients who have suffered bad injuries, they are certainly not yet all out of the woods.<br /><br />I find myself going back to visit a few patients, like the young woman professional dancer who lost her leg. She was returned to the OR today for a revision of her stump, so was postoperative and asleep when I saw her. In the crowded tent, <b>she was covered with flies, so I sat by her for a while and fanned them away with a small notebook. In another tent, I watched a mother bathe an emaciated infant. The baby will not make it through the next two days.</b> One tent over, a woman shouted out in pain during childbirth.<br /><br />The garbage is being picked up and we should have upright portable bathrooms tomorrow. That is a triumph towards which I have struggled for days. Once again, the U.S. military showed its compassion and coordination when nearly 50 patients were evacuated to more advanced care.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrK7-S5hCJoDzFrWsSMBNwrtdMwJ0GgwxvKxoy-z-bcQtyUOWbv-N9IZ2VC-QwOlMH6lxdruv6Do44Xk1mSjC62nao2i7DE4-GBuyicYIL2lo00HKI9MQUj3vpubE-W_W5S6FgJ24OtSg/s1600-h/IMG_6607_HeadlampsFullerHowell.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrK7-S5hCJoDzFrWsSMBNwrtdMwJ0GgwxvKxoy-z-bcQtyUOWbv-N9IZ2VC-QwOlMH6lxdruv6Do44Xk1mSjC62nao2i7DE4-GBuyicYIL2lo00HKI9MQUj3vpubE-W_W5S6FgJ24OtSg/s320/IMG_6607_HeadlampsFullerHowell.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443187720571341490" /></a><br />Yesterday the generator went out for many hours, so we could not run the O.R., or so I thought. <b>A team of resourceful surgeons wore their headlamps and made it through some of their cases.</b><br /><br />Tomorrow we will finalize coordination of sanitation, electrical lines, tent placement, number of physicians needed through the next two weeks, and <b>how to accelerate the return of Haitian physicians and nurses. </b>There is much work to be done.<br /><br />We got word today that we may be going home soon. I have mixed feelings about that. It will be difficult to leave, but all signs point to it approaching the right time. Emotionally, I am OK, but my legs are a bit wobbly. I wake up as tired as I was when I went to sleep. The people here deserve fresh legs.<br /><br /><b>January 28…</b> </div><div>We found out today that we are going to ship out tomorrow. My feelings are certainly mixed. There is an incredible amount of work to be done here – we have only contributed to the first wave of what is necessary. I cannot remember the details of much of what we did the first three days, when we were functioning on hyper-drive in a battlefield setting. My recollections become detailed after the third day, when we were able to see only four or five patients at a time, and we stopped triaging amputees to the operating room.<br /><br />Teams of non-Haitian surgeons have left to go home, because the operations to be performed now are largely orthopedic and plastic surgery, as well as specialty cases.<b> Sadly, there are scores of patients with spinal fractures who are paralyzed, and little can be done for them this far out from the initial injury. </b>Children continue to reach out to us. I had a small child who is a triple amputee offer me his cracker with his remaining hand. One can only pray that the memories he carries of this tragedy are erased swiftly, that he is assisted in his rehabilitation, and that his life improves. All of these will, of course, be hard to achieve.<br /><br />I visited one of my favorite patients, the young woman who danced ballet professionally before she lost her leg below the knee. She had a revision of her stump yesterday, so she was asleep, recovering from anesthesia, when I saw her. Today, she was bright and alert, and gave me a big smile when I walked to the side of her stretcher bed within a very hot tent. She motioned me to come closer, and we exchanged contact information. I will do what I can to stay in touch with her.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRg00t2LNM4kwS8m_a0qbZMEU8-7uRwM_kzcAgM0HtZ87IWlE5G-GQanvOww-zKgCVN1Ncv-rv6cIKvop29M0mE_ZTKsnrpOH6mrSs8kynKfPQ0-rVozhYkNpS3rPKZBdTl8WLpXHPrc/s1600-h/IMG_6855_PatrickAnil.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjRg00t2LNM4kwS8m_a0qbZMEU8-7uRwM_kzcAgM0HtZ87IWlE5G-GQanvOww-zKgCVN1Ncv-rv6cIKvop29M0mE_ZTKsnrpOH6mrSs8kynKfPQ0-rVozhYkNpS3rPKZBdTl8WLpXHPrc/s320/IMG_6855_PatrickAnil.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443188660673626274" /></a><br />Many of our interpreters are living outside in enormous congregations of people in parks. I gave my tent to one of these persons and am distributing everything that might be useful to victims of the earthquake and to medical persons who have just arrived to take over from those leaving to rest or return home. There are plenty of medical supplies – <b>the Haitian people need shelter, food, and water. </b>Soon, they must begin to rebuild and take what was a feeble economy and turn it into something. This will be no small undertaking.<br /><br /><b>I am so proud of my Stanford colleagues and all the other doctors present in the compound who have worked tirelessly for the past two weeks.</b> The teams from California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Spain, Taiwan and many other locations all pulled together in a model of collaborative behavior.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsDTVPjNymXvR6IGfIi443GX2gevPib9sEMEZvUlKhfQTbuHOj6uip8qxuiPYa5hDw6DXOmLT-lJl7DpZ9kHLlBBXGlb4UcPknNC5vGFqRLip01uNRpHWu7J00ok7MohmNubl8hN55uk/s1600-h/IMG_6963_AuerbachHeadshotSmiling.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsDTVPjNymXvR6IGfIi443GX2gevPib9sEMEZvUlKhfQTbuHOj6uip8qxuiPYa5hDw6DXOmLT-lJl7DpZ9kHLlBBXGlb4UcPknNC5vGFqRLip01uNRpHWu7J00ok7MohmNubl8hN55uk/s320/IMG_6963_AuerbachHeadshotSmiling.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443188668666078338" /></a><br />It became time today for me to hand over the reins to Dr. Solomon Kuah, who will assume my role as the medical coordinator of the NGO activity. I said goodbye to many persons with whom I have become close under the most challenging circumstances. These are wonderful people. In a meeting of the leadership present, I told them that I have never been so proud to be among such an incredible collection of talent and dedication. Then I allowed myself to be infused with 9 liters of IV fluid so that I could get vertical and walk out under my own power.<br /><br />Dr. Paul Auerbach</div><div>Photos by Margaret Aguirre<br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="65px" width="100%"><tbody></tbody><tbody><tr> <td align="left" width="56px"><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1694" border="0" /></a></td> <td align="left"><h4><a href="http://www.imcworldwide.org/Page.aspx?pid=1106">Follow Interntional Medical Corps</a></h4></td> <td align="right"><a href="http://twitter.com/IMC_worldwide"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1693" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/internationalmedicalcorps"><img class="nope" src="http://www.imcworldwide.org/view.image?id=1692" border="0" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div>International Medical Corpshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761172447449209329noreply@blogger.com0