Day 1: Haiti Mission Trip

A street in one of the villages in Haiti

It's been two years since my last medical mission and I've been wanting to do another one since then.

The first one I did was in Guatemala in 2013 and that one was fantastic (read blog here).  This time I picked a mission through International Medical Relief (IMR) - http://www.internationalmedicalrelief.org and it took place in Haiti just after Christmas.

Sleeping in our bug tents as the area was at risk for malaria

When our team of nearly 40 volunteers arrived, it was clear Haiti was still struggling after the earthquake that happened in 2010.  Our first day at clinic was in a camp that was set up after the earthquake as temporary housing.  But these weren't houses like we have in the US.  They were temporary tents and makeshift structures constructed out of plywood and tin that were still being used as homes for families.

Many of us hadn’t seen poverty like this before, but there wasn’t time to let the reality of the people’s life soak in as we had so many things to do.

As soon as we set up triage and the community training stations, patients started arriving by the dozens. 

Our very first patient was an elderly woman who was literally carried in by her son (or it may have been her grandson -- she was 68). She told us that about a year ago her limbs started feeling numb and she could no longer walk. She also said she was also diagnosed with pneumonia in November and hadn’t had her prescription filled yet, most likely because she couldn't afford it.

Because we were just a day clinic, there was only so much we could do for the people there.  We couldn't perform any surgeries and we couldn't do anything that would require follow up care with a doctor as we would only be there for a short time.

As a result, there was nothing we do for her numbness or to help her walk, but we could fill the prescription for pneumonia.

It was a sad way to start the day as the family had waited so long for us to arrive and were so hopeful that we could help the old woman walk again.  It was devastating to watch her family carry her out at the end, but there was only so much we could do with the tools we had.

One thing that surprised us was how many young children and babies came in with their parents or grandparents. 

One of these little guys was an 11-month-old baby with a fever of 103.2 and a bit of pneumonia. With his temperature so high, we needed to treat him while still in the clinic. Without immediate treatment and reducing his fever,  the doctors were worried he would seizure. 

Another sad case was this dad who came in with his three kids asking if he could have blood for his wife. All of the kids were dressed as if they had come to the clinic straight from church. They all sat quietly in a row, waiting their turn.

He told us that his wife had given birth to another baby a few weeks ago, but the baby had died. She really needed blood but they couldn't afford to go to a hospital. It was so sad to hear his desperation.

But we weren't a hospital; only a portable clinic.  We had medication, but blood or even medication that required refrigeration were not items we could carry.

Natalie, one of our nurses said one of the patients that touched her on this first day was this tiny baby who came in with a skin infection. The babies body looked like it was cover is red blisters and in some areas, it was so bad the skin was scaling off.

“With her skin like this, she’s at risk of infection…if there isn’t one in there already,” she said.

In this situation, IMR transported the baby, grandmother and mother to a nearby hospital to get medical attention there.

While we were able to help this family, there were some serious problems in the community we couldn’t treat.

“What’s been disturbing this time around is the number of sexual abuse cases we’ve seen in young girls,” said Dr. Amannda, who was on her third Haiti trip.

We saw so many patients with STDs. It was surprising.

“It’s because of the lack of knowledge. They don’t know the risks….and then you have the lack of hygiene,” she said. "They don’t know how to clean. There is dust and dirt everywhere, and then there is the garbage. It’s simply thrown at the side of the streets and because of the heat, it often self combusts. Kids, many of which don’t own shoes, fall or step on the burning pieces and end up with burns or lacerations."

She says many people working in missions wonder if they are helping in vain. “But if only one person listens, they may tell their sister or their cousin and you never know how far the knowledge will go,” she said. “You help because it’s the right thing to do. You help even if it only helps one person that day.”

Tomorrow we’ll be at a different camp…but after day 1, we’re now prepared for what we’ll be doing.

Related posts:
Haiti Day 1: Start of Medical Mission Trip
Haiti Day 2: Transforming a school to a medical clinic
Haiti Day 3: Venturing out to help in rural areas
Haiti Day 4: Sweating it out on New Year's Eve on a Mission Trip
Haiti Day 5: Final day of the International Medical Relief mission
Haiti: The boy with the foot