Dragonfly Photography

Haiti- The Journey

Back home again after a week that changed my life a little more. I had to go back to my regular job the morning after we came back and that was kind of a shock. After taking care of people that were not demanding and were grateful for anything you did for me, my empathy level for the ER population was below zero….

The journey started on Monday, February 1st. There was a meeting scheduled at the hospital were we would be briefed about our trip, and would meet everybody on the team. All the paperwork that needed to be done, including a waver for the hospital (because unfortunately they did not want to be involved in this in the first place…), copies of our passports, emergency contacts etc. The plan was to leave early the next morning around 8 AM.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Now I live in the South…usually not too cold in the winter, but this winter was a real one. So there was concern about de-icing the plane. So at 6:15AM we were told that the flight had to be postponed until noon, and then we would get a new update. Luckily, we were able to leave and finally took off around 2PM. The flight was smooth and we got to the Bahamas about 3 hours later. We stayed in Nassau in a very luxurious hotel, and the next morning we took of to the airport for the last leg of our trip.

From the airport in Les Cayes, Haiti it was about an hour or so ride on a mostly unpaved road to Hospital Lumiere in Bonnefin, up the mountain. We arrived around 2:30 PM and were shown the guesthouse. Since we had to leave our luggage behind in the Bahamas, due to weight limitation on the plane, we didn’t have a lot to unpack. We changed into scrubs and straight to work. I was going to take over from a nurse that would be leaving the next day. She gave me the quick tour and report on the most critical patients.

The ward that now was my responsibility had about 28 patients. Almost half of the patients had an amputated limb. Lots of people with external fixation to heal their broken and crushed bones. Two of my patients were still critical. One patient, Sherlee, had crush injuries to both her lower legs and heading to amputation of both legs. She would run high fevers even though she was on a lot of antibiotics. My other worry-child was Linda, who’s left leg was amputated almost at her hip, she also would run very high fevers and appear to be very sick. Now you don’t have all the nice equipment that we have here. So everything you are used to to rely on is not there. You have to go back to the basics and trust your gut even more. There were enough antibiotics and pain medicine, but not enough small bags of fluids to dilute the antibiotics in, so everything was in syringes. However, there were also not enough syringes, so we had to reuse and reuse and reuse…. All the things you were told not to do. But you have to choose between two evils. All the antibiotics had to be pushed in by hand, and a lot of the antibiotics should be run over 30 minutes or more. So very time consuming. The Haitian nurse and I came up with a schedule. Since I would be in charge of the medicine cabinet, because these were all donated and didn’t belong to the hospital, I would be in charge of the oral medications and she and another Haitian nurse would prepare all the intravenous medications. We worked great together this way and every patient received their medication on time.
Unfortunately, you can not get around politics and power struggles….  The church group that had taken charge over the hospital after the earthquake had some interesting members. Apparently, this hospital was due to be closed the end of January. The doctors and nurses that were still working there had not been paid since March of last year. They do have housing, but basically have been working for free. Also, if patients needed medication, or an Xray, or lab work, they would have to pay in advance. Otherwise it would not be done. Imagine that…

Anyway, one of the missionaries had a little power surge going on. She would lecture me that I was not here to ‘just do my job’ but also that I had to teach. That the Haitians were all criminals and stole whatever they could. On my ward there was a room that was assigned as supply/medication room. No good lock so every night all the meds and supplies would be moved to the front of the hospital, were all the supplies were stocked and locked. One of the EMT’s that was there when I started, spend his morning putting a new lock in the door on my ward. Another volunteer made sure the lock could not be jimmied and he and his wife and sister in law then put all the meds and supplies in the cabinet. This all without me knowing about it (or caring for that matter) but much to the annoyance of the woman in charge. So she reamed me another one. In front of other people. About something I had nothing to do with or wanted to have anything to do with. Now this woman had not been very nice to me from the day we walked in but I figured it was because I did not have a penis (you know these bitter women…) Anyway, this whole thing kind of pissed me off a little bit. I had worked non stop since that morning, it was now 13 hours later and I was tired, hungry and emotional shot. So when she walked into my little supply room and asked me if there was a problem I let it rip as politely and calmly as I could. I told her again it was inappropriate to talk to me like that, especially in front of other people. That I did not come to Haiti for her, her church, her politics and her rudeness but that I came her to help the people that were laying in the beds in the wards, to help the nurses that worked and lived here that had been working nonstop without pay from tow days after the earthquake until now, and still will be working for a long, long time. I am not a religious person but will respect others beliefs, however, I do also expect people to respect my beliefs. And the words ‘I am a good Christian, he/she is a good Christian etc., I was getting a little tired of it. So I told her that if she was such a good Christian as she had stated many times, maybe she should reread the Bible because she was sure not acting like it. I was a little shocked that I actually said this, I usually do not discuss my beliefs or other peoples religious view, but as I said, I was tired and emotionally overwhelmed. But it worked. Not only did she become more civilized to me but also to other women.

So with this little incident behind me, I could focus on what I came to do. And enjoyed every minute of it. You will never meet braver people than the people that I met there. Every face had a story that made you want to cry. People lost everything, not only were they injured but they also lost their family, jobs, schools, houses, their whole life. And still, there would be laughter behind the tears. Grateful to me for taking time out of my life to come to help. Grateful to me for giving pain medications. The whole ward would clap and cheer when someone would get out of bed for the first time and walk around with a walker and the help of two amazing physical therapists, Ulrike, a German who has been living in Haiti for the past 12 years, and June, a physical therapist who is also a wound care specialist. I met Marie-Rose, who cut off her own arm to escape from underneath the rubble. A little girl in the pediatric ward who lost her mom and three siblings. Christopher, who lost his twin. Ralph, who lost his leg and had a knee injury on his other leg. He was in his second year at the university in Port au Prince, but the university is no longer there. A nurse midwife that lost her leg and understood that I was too busy to brush her hair for her. Of all the things, I would have loved to sit next to her and do this little thing for her that would mean so much, but one of my other patients crashed and I had to take care of her. The 15 year old boy who’s leg we couldn’t save. All this pain.

The Haitian nurses I worked with were so very nice. Of course, the first day they have to figure you out. Imagine this would be you. Suddenly, these people from another country come in and start telling you what to do and how to do it. Not the best way but unfortunately a mistake that I encountered when in Tanzania and the nurse who was with me was quite arrogant and the worst example of an American…

When we figured out with the help of a translator how to work as a team, we ended up having a great time. The girls actually spoke English but hid it from me for a couple of days…because they didn’t think they spoke it well enough…. So after the fun we had about that, life became easier and I was able to learn a couple of Creole words and my new friends would be able to practice their English.

The days flew by. Working from 8 in the morning until about 10:30-11 at night. I don’t think I have been this tired in my whole life! Then back to the guesthouse and hoping there would be water. And if there was water it was very very cold…. Sleeping on a cot or bunk bed. Up again around 6 since there were a lot of people living here and the walls were not very thick. And the roosters having a conversation didn’t help either. But you do it. Also because I was so very lucky with my team. Lee and Dave, the orthopedic surgeons, and Chris, the nurse anesthetist. All of them great people and now my friends for life! Susan, who I knew from when I was a pediatric flight nurse and she worked in the PICU, and then working together in the peds ER. Here we are, meeting again in Haiti. She had been there a week before us and decided to stay another week. We had so much fun at night after the long day.

My relief team came on Saturday but did not start working until late Sunday afternoon because they had to go to church first….

Luckily I had two nurses taking over from me so on Monday they started to get to figure out their routine and I had time to hang out with my patients and spend most of the day in the OR. Where I think I found my new thing…medical photography. Never like the OR but looks much better through a lens. Or maybe it was the team that was there, who knows.

The next day we were going back. However, the plane that was supposed to take us had a cracked propellor so we stayed a day in Les Cayes at the compound there. For us the Hilton! Luke warm water, what a luxury! Fresh fruit for breakfast and pancakes!! WOW!!! After a very long day we finally made it back to Charleston around 2 in the morning, to my house around 3 and in bed at 3:15….

So here I am. After my regular three dayshifts in the ER the past three days. Laying on my couch exhausted still. Looking at pictures and wanting to go back tomorrow to check on all my patients.

Hopefully the people of Haiti will survive all this and become more acceptant of handicapped fellow Haitians. Because there will be a lot of them.