January Medical Trip Day 6

Today was the last day of the clinic for those who didn't just read the last paragraph of the previous blog. It was very overcast when we left and I was worried about the trip up the mountain but the rain held off long enough for us to get up to the clinic. We got set up and it began to mist a little while we took the first patients.

 I began to just be a runner for the doctors when they decided that it was going to rain harder and that we needed tarps. So Dominic, Eric, Tony, and myself made tarps out of operating table covers and put them on top of the sheets that were already there to provide shade. Eventually even those failed and the doctors had to move inside. Julie asked for some help with something and since I wasn't doing anything important I volunteered with Jess the EMT. Now would be the time to mention that Julie is a surgeon and little did I know was basically asking for help with surgery. I was basically a shelf for her to put stuff but it was really cool to be involved in something that important. The guy had some kind of growth on his shoulder and she just cut it out and sewed it up but I had never seen a surgery before so it was pretty cool.

By the time the surgery was over it was absoultely pouring, and we were quickly running out of supplies. People were standing in the rain waiting to be helped and it rained harder and harder. We decided to take as many patients as we could until we ran out of meds and then give everyone a parasite pill and a few ibuprofen to take for pain as necessary. The nurses and the doctors absolutely flew through patients and we took in over 110 people which brought the grand total to 404 people in three days.

We broke down the clinic with the help of a few of the Haitians and loaded up the trucks for an extremely treacherous trip down the mountain. We had to take off our shoes before we got in the trucks because they were so muddy. We took it extremely slow and got back safe but extremely wet.

When we got back to the hotel I took my boots to wash them in the ocean and as I was walking down to the water I heard "hello Messi" and I turned to see the guy from two years ago who thought I looked like the Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi (see previous blogs). It was so cool to see him again and we caught up. He was one of the people who was selling stuff by the hotel. I told him I'd buy something from him and I wouldn't haggle because I trust him. He actually gave me a pretty good deal on a painting and he told me he would give me a gift tomorrow. I'm not sure what that is going to be like or even if he will be able to show up but we will see.

We had dinner which was really good fish and lasagna, as well as the usual rice and potato things. We debriefed and prayed for a whole lot of things for a half hour or so. People have gone to bed one by one until it is just 5 of us left around the coffee table in the lobby now. We leave tomorrow at 3ish to head home after a market and maybe some other stuff around Port-Au-Prince. This trip has been amazing and as usual I don't want to leave. Tomorrow is one last Haitian experience for the year and I can't wait to make the trip

January Medical Trip Day 5

Today went much better. We began with a breakfast of oatmeal along with with the typical very fresh fruit and bread. I haven't mentioned the coffee yet because I don't drink it but everyone who does says it is good and gets better the more you drink it. We switched one of the Hiluxes out for another one last night so when the time came to load up, all the trucks were ready and waiting. Trips to Chadirac have become more and more fun as the group gets drawn closer together with each day. It was an absolute dèluge last night which is funny because the county (province? city?) we are staying in is actually called Dèluge. This meant that once we left the pavement the road was rougher than usual. It didn't really matter because we were joking and messing around the whole time up so that meant it was has become at least a little fun for everyone even for those among us who don't particularly like off-roading like I do.

After getting out of the trucks, we set up shop on the mountain in record time and were able to start taking patients right off the bat. I floated around for a while helping the pharmacy out and the triage station, and the doctors, mostly just running stuff back and forth moving things and looking for whatever the doctors needed. It turns out we left some IV supplies back at the hotel and I spent like 20 minutes looking for them. 

This is the part where the day took a very intense turn. When I asked why we needed whatever I was looking for, Lorie showed me. There was a child whose age was supposedly 3 but he didn't look 3 yet. He was the most malnourished kid I have ever seen. He was extremely weak and his triage form said he had a parasite, he had blood in his stool, and he was unable to stand. He went limp twice just when I was with him. They asked me to hold his feet and smack them to try to agitate him enough for a vein to show its' self in his neck because his arms were too weak for a vein to show up to use for an IV. He was being held by Lorie and Jess was trying to find a vein. His mother had been escorted over to the prayer team a while ago because this situation did not look good. I didn't get any pictures of pretty much everything that follows because of the circumstances so prepare for a big block of text.  When we were about to try for an IV, Julie, one of the doctors came over to help and decided that even if we got an IV in him, he would die later on in the day. Just after she said this, he closed his eyes and didn't open them. He went limp and she lost his pulse so she started rubbing his sternum really hard. He opened his eyes again and Julie said that he was beyond what we could do and that he needed a real hospital. Laura was there and went around and took donations from all of us to pay for the hospital. We all threw in a little cash and Jess and I rushed to the first car in the row with one of our our translators, Nathan. We explained the situation to Woodkey and he immediately got on the phone to a couple different hospitals to see who could take him. He also grabbed one of the drivers, Berry who was walking by and told him what we needed. Nathan got in the bed of the truck and the mother of the kid got in the passenger seat and Jess and I got in the back seat. 

Let me explain right now that I watch and follow a few motorsports, so when I say that Berry went down this mountain like a rally car driver, I know what I am talking about, and I can not stress enough that I am in no way dramaticizing or exaggerating the following. Speed is your friend in rough conditions because it makes the suspension of the car absorb the bumps. This is where I am going to lose everyone who doesn't care about cars or racing so just skip to the next paragraph if you aren't interested. Sitting in the back would have been the time of my life under different circumstances, but looking back on it, it was like I was the back seat of a WRC car. He took the paved mountain road fast, not unreasonable, but fast. As soon as we hit the gravel portion of the road, Berry came in to his own. I trust this guy with my life but I had a plan if he lost it and it rolled. As soon as we reached the gravel portion, he dropped a gear and we were moving extremely fast even without taking the conditions in to consideration. He held two different 4 wheel drifts around wide corners, heel-toeing and using the throttle to control the truck. He was left foot braking to keep the weight over the front wheels and help rotate the car around tighter corners. He drove like a hero, and he is a naturally talented driver. I have no doubts that he would do extremely well if he drove professionally. Nathan hung on to the roll bar on the truck like a champ. He did everything we did except outside the truck!

Sorry for the tangent, anyway, we got to the hospital and got the kid out of the car. There were 6-8 different buildings and a map designating them. We first walked to the ER and it was like walking in to the 1940s. The nurses had the whole uniform things with the hats and the conditions were rough to say the least. The looks on their faces were not reassuring when they saw the kid. They pointed to their right and outside and Nathan confirmed that we had to go to another building. We walked out of the ER and to the right, passing a large covered waiting area and up some stairs in to a building that said pediatric in creole. I haven't realized till just now how odd it was that the entrance was on the second floor. We walked in and the first thing I noticed was drops of blood on the floor. Every seat was filled. There were rooms filled with children in cribs with their parents sleeping on the floor on cardboard next to them. There was a premature ward that I just got to peek in to with very old incubators and very, very small babies. We walked in to a room with a doctor in it (that I'm not sure how Berry and Nathan knew it was the right room) who took one look at the kid and told the person she was with to leave the room. She said something to Berry, and Nathan said to tell her what was wrong. Jess just unloaded everything that she knew about him while the doctor and a nurse began taking vitals, and by the grace of God the doctor spoke nearly fluent English. She wrote a prescription on a piece of paper and gave it to us. I didn't know why until Nathan told us that you have to provide your own meds in Haiti so we had to run to two different pharmacies around Saint Marc to get the drugs we needed while the kid was being admitted. 

That was an experience in and of its' self because it was the first time we had just walked around a city in Haiti before. When we got everything that we needed we went back to the hospital and found the kid still with the doctor who said that if we would have waited to take him there much longer he would not have made it. He had disentary and a parasite as well as being malnourished and anemic. The doctor told us that they would keep him for a few days and that they would likely be able to save him. If we would have remembered to bring the IV stuff, we would have given him one and he would have died tonight. I'm not quite sure why I was there throughout the whole thing but I'm glad I was. We left the mother who seemed to be in shock with a big bottle of water and enough cash to pay for more meds if they were necessary and food for a couple days, which was Berry's idea. He likes to goof around and has this persona that he is too cool for stuff but he has a huge heart and truly wants to do everything he can for people. On the drive back he said he wants to be an ambulance driver. 

We got back to the clinic after stopping for water and sketchy Haitian energy drinks. I told everyone that the kid made it to the hospital and would probably pull through. Then it was back to work, we ran much better today and actually got through about 220 people. I played frisbee with kids and ran stuff back and forth between people. Kim, Dominic, and Tony had to start cutting pills in half to give to kids because we ran out of child doses. The joke is that they are now referred to as Breaking Bad. After our translators and Haitian medical staff staying 2 hours past when the were supposed to, we cut off the patients and went back to the hotel.

Dinner was 15 minutes late but worth it in every way. I'll let the picture speak for its' self. Everyone was exhausted so this was a nice reward at the end of the day. The lobster was a little scary but it smelled too good to pass up.

Tomorrow is the last day for the clinic and we already know that we are not going to be able to help everyone, so it will for sure be the hardest day. All we can hope for is to make a difference in as many lives as possible and let God take care of the rest.

January Medical Trip Day 4

Today was truly an experience. But I'll get to that in a minute. We got up a little earlier so that we could get out as soon as we could. That didn't really go according to plan due to the fact that the car that the 410 Bridge had some kind of problem so we were two hours late. While they were getting another car, we pulled two of the trucks up to start loading them up but since it rained last night the beds were really wet so Rich took one and floored it in reverse and slammed on the brakes to get the water out which I wish I would have thought of. When we finally got the other truck here, we loaded up and picked up a couple of Haitian doctors and nurses on the way and got to the house where we were set up the clinic.

Getting set up took like 20 minutes and we were ready. Before we knew it we had patients going through triage, seeing the doctors and getting medicine at the pharmacy. We worked fairly smoothly but towards the beginning we did have some issues. 

There were some problems with the triage forms and the fact that there were sort of two different triage forms being filled out, and not quite enough translators. However, the biggest problem was the Hatian people who would try to circumvent the system we had set up. People would just show up at the triage station at the actual clinic, without the paper that they got from the 410 Bridge saying that they paid for the clinic. We would love to have taken them but then it wouldn't be fair to the people who paid. Also the vast majority of people coming to us had never been to a doctor before, so some were coming just to come even though they didn't necessarily think there was anything wrong with them. I totally understand this perspective however, because they may not know if there is anything wrong and why not find out while there is a doctor here because who knows when the next one will be here. It was extremely frustrating when someone feigned an ailment just to come get some random medication, but luckily one of our guides, Nadia, was watching people as they came to the intake and weeded out those who were fine coming up but all of a sudden had an unexplained ailment. Luckily she said that there were only a couple. Something else that slowed everything down was either a miscommunication somewhere or some people trying to game us, but many parents would get a wristband signifying that they paid for themselves, and then would have the doctors treat them and then have them treat their kids, who didn't go through triage. Again, if I was a parent, why would you not try to take every advantage given to you when it comes to the well being of your kids? It is totally understandable but extremely frustrating.

Side note. Initially I did not think that having them pay was remotely a good idea because they they have so little. But in line with the 410 Bridge's philosophy of having the Haitians "leave some skin on the pavement" so to speak makes the clinic an investment, and even from a Haitian perspective, the amount they have them pay is not that much. So I think I agree with it now, especially since there is not a chance that we could help as many people if the clinic was free and those that we couldn't help would not be happy to say the least.

I spent most of the day with Sean the chiropractor doing demonstrations and being a dummy for the Haitians to show where their pain was. There were some people who he really helped and came out obviously looking much better. I helped as much as I could but as the day got more and more chaotic, I decided I could help out better outside with the guys who were bringing people through. 

As soon as I got outside, this man rode up to the clinic on a mule with the help of some family or friends. I was extremely conflicted and I could tell most of the rest of us were too. He didn't pay, but we had made a few acceptions earlier in the day, but we had begun turning away people, but he seriously needed help, but looking at him, the triage team had already pretty much made up their minds that he was beyond our help. While the leaders were deciding what to do with him, another guy limped up with the assistance of family. 

The first man was clearly a stroke victim, he was nearly completely unresponsive, could not focus his eyes and could barely move. The second was also likely a stroke victim but I actually never found out what his diagnosis was. His entire left side was paralyzed and he could not focus his eyes. He was barely responsive and was very weak. In the end we decided that we would help them but no more exceptions after these two even though we knew that there was not a whole lot we could do to help. The thought didn't really cross my mind at the time but it bares a resemblance to the story of the paralyzed man who was lowered in to the house Jesus was in. Unfortunately we do not have the power to un-paralyze someone, or treat a massive stroke that happened years ago. So the doctors did what they could but ultimately they were told they need to go to a real hospital. 

The doctors were absolutely amazing by the way. They saw patient after patient never complaining about the conditions, which obviously left much to be desired, and went through 60ish people in the time we could be there. Another important job was those of us who played with the kids all day and kept them entertained. It was hot and muggy and they played soccer, jumped rope and played with those kids from 10am-4pm nonstop. The prayer team also did a fantastic job as well as everyone in the P.T. and pharmacy team. I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish in one day and I have no doubt we will do better tomorrow.

When it was finally time to go, we made two house calls on the way down the mountain. When I say we I mean the doctors because a lot of us would be totally useless in that environment, myself included. One was for a mother and baby that was born today, and I believe another was for someone who was just unable to get up the mountain. After a long break and time to decompress back at the hotel, we had a small devotional and regrouped and talked about what we could improve. We are coming back with a plan tomorrow, and it will get better.

Sorry this got posted so early the next day but I locked my iPad in Sean's bag in the room and just never had time to get the key from him. I'll try to have the second post up tonight before 9:00pm Central.

January Medical Trip Day 3

Blog 3

Today started at 7am for breakfast where we ate eggs, bread and very fresh fruit. We were all dressed for church which meant we were dressed a little warmer than usual. We split in to two groups for church. One group went up the mountain and one group went down. The church that my group went to was the only one I have gone to in Chadirac.

At one time it had been completely closed in but they took down the wall that faced the foot of the mountain to allow for a breeze. This also allowed for possibly the best view from the mountain so it was a little hard to concentrate at times.

 Tony gave a message at the lower church and Tim gave a message at our church. They worship with so much passion and you can see how much they depend on God to take care of them. 

After service we had a hike back to where we left the trucks and took a 5 minute drive back to the massive hill from previous years. For those who don't feel like going through my blog to find my description of it, it starts off with a reasonable incline for about a hundred yards, then goes to a flat spot, then drops to a crazy incline for about 30 feet. It evens out slowly after the drop, and there are a few more brief steep inclines but all in all its about a mile as the crow flies but significantly longer in actuality due to the steepness. 

At the bottom we met up with the other group where the school is being built. The foundation and rebar wall supports are in for about half of the building and the other half will be set later this month. The building will be arranged in a terraced formation in a "U" shape with the vertical parts of the "U" being on the top and bottom terrace and the bottom part of the "U" in the middle. The space between the vertical parts will actually be a small soccer field which is really cool considering there is nowhere for soccer on the mountain with that much flat space that isn't occupied by a farm.

We had a quick lunch in the church that the second group went to and then began our hike up the world's biggest hill to go on home visits. We had a rough time getting up the hill and we only got to visit two houses due to how much prep work we had to do for the clinic tomorrow and how tired everyone was. Right when we were about to leave, one of the Hiluxes got a nail in the front driver side tire, so we got to help change a tire out there on the mountain. With as many people we had, it went pretty quick. I rolled the spare out from under the bed of the pickup, and while Oscar put it on, Sean and I put the bad one back under the bed.

Back at the Hotel, all the medical professionals started prepping for the clinic, getting everything organized, putting stuff in boxes, and labeling everything. The rest of us helped out where we could but mostly we just had some downtime at the hotel. After the doctors got everything organized, the rest of us were called in to the dimly lit back room of the hotel to do all the grunt work of labeling and separating medication.

Before we knew it, we had blown through most of the meds and it was time for dinner. The rice down here is incredible and I'm not sure what is in it but I can't get enough. We had pork and fish as well as baked carrots and salad. The fish, while very good was interesting because of the fact that they just scaled and gutted the fish, breaded them up and put them in a pan to bake, they had heads and fins still and that made some people a little nervous but I ate one and it was really good if difficult to get around the bones.

After dinner we quickly finished the meds and started packing everything we needed up. Tomorrow will be the big day, we really don't know what we are going to be seeing at the clinic and the 410 bridge says it is going to be the hardest physical day we have seen yet. I'm not sure how much harder it will be than carrying rocks up a mountain (see previous trips) but I guess we will see.

January Medical Trip Day 2

Today began with a great breakfast of fresh mangos, pineapple, and watermelon with eggs, bread and of all things spaghetti with a slightly spicy sauce. It was a little interesting eating it for breakfast but I didn't mind.

Going up the mountain we used the same route as always, going through the semi-controlled chaos of the cities and towns juxtaposed against the relative serenity of the mountain roads. We were told that they had improved some of the roads up the mountain. We were lied to.

Although, in my opinion, paving over the rough paths we have to take would further spoil the raw purity of this place. It still amazes me the difference in Haiti and the Dominican Republic even though they are on the same island.

Where the D.R. protected its rainforests and really has a tourist industry, Haiti's natural resources are nearly depleted now and it doesn't seem like Haiti does much for tourists. I will say that there are actually tourists staying at our hotel with us though, and that it makes exponential progress every time we come.

The road on which we traveled was stunningly beautiful as always, and the people go from staring distrustfully at us in the cities to smiling and waving at us in the mountains. When we got to the village the first person I saw was Tiwil (complete guess on spelling, it's pronounced like tuwee) the kid from both previous trips. He was smiling and being a goofball.

We got to see where we will be having the clinic and much to my surprise it will be 90% indoors. I'll take pictures when we do it so you can see what I'm talking about.

After checking out the future clinic we had a hike to the place where we met with the village leaders last year to have another meeting involving all of us. They gave us a bit of a progress report of what has been happening and gave those who haven't been before a brief run through from when the 410 Bridge first came to Chadirac.

We introduced ourselves and the leaders introduced themselves. They told everyone in our group to please play with the kids as if they were their own and that they were so excited for us to be there to put on the first medical clinic. 

When the meeting was over it was time for a quick lunch in the trucks. While everyone was eating I had a chance to observe the kids for a little bit. I wish I would have gotten pictures of this but I didn't think about it. They got two sticks and fenced. Like actually fenced. I took a fencing class in college and they all used the same form and some of the same steps that I was taught. It was so cool. I guess it makes sense as fencing is a largely French sport and Haiti was a French colony.

After lunch we got to play with the kids. We blew bubbles, painted faces and finger nails, danced, and jumped rope. I got to play soccer for hours with the kids. We played keep away, and had a short scrimmage where the goal was a rock the size of a grapefruit. The biggest hit was taking free kicks between two trees. I haven't played goalie since high school but it was fun to do it again and I didn't do too bad.

When it was time to leave we loaded up the trucks again and went back down the mountain. We got back to the hotel at about 3 and had some down time which I spent in the ocean and by the pool. We had a lesson in Crèole which stuck with some of us better than others and did our Pictures Of The Day and devotionals on the deck by the ocean listening to the small snappy waves roll on to the beach as the sun set behind the island a couple miles out. 

We had a very island-y worship session with Rich who brought a ukulele along. For dinner we had really good rice and beans with salad, beets, beef kababs and baked chicken. And now the day is winding down and coming to an end with the group gathered around the long dining table just talking and having fellowship.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to two different churches because our group is so big and to play with the kids some more. So far the only difference between this trip and previous ones is the sheer amount of stuff we brought, but I know that will change on Monday.

January Medical Trip Day 1

The day began at about 4:00am when we all got up got to the airport at 5:00am and luckily this time there were no delays. All of us boarded and took off through cloudy skies toward Atlanta. 

Atlanta's airport being one of the biggest in the United States was a little bit of a bear to navigate but our plane was delayed an hour which was a blessing in disguise because it actually gave us a little bit of time to split up and get food. The few that were with me got Chic-Fil-A and spent 20 minutes riding the tram thanks to yours truly thinking that it was only one stop to the end of the line instead of six. When we finally regrouped, the person on the PA said that we would be changing gates due to a problem with the plane we were originally going to be on. It was just the next gate over so it was no big deal.

I would have taken a picture of the flight to Haiti but it was pretty much entirely white due to clouds so it wasn't that interesting. When we landed we went through customs and immigration and loaded up in to 2 Toyota Hiluxes (think Tacoma) a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (think Lexus SUV) a Nissan Patrol (no US comparison just awesome 4x4) and a Nissan Frontier. If you can't tell, I like off road stuff so seeing and riding in these cars that we don't get in the states is always fun for me.

It was really cool seeing all the guys from the last few trips. Woodkey from last year is leading us again and seeing Oscar and the other guys was great. This year there is a woman leader with Woodkey named Nadia. She will be translating and stuff for us as well.

Since we got in a little late, we had to drive to the resort partially after dark which was really cool, the cities we drove through were just as alive in the night as they usually are in the day. Unfortunately since it was dark I couldn't get any good pictures without the flash and I didn't want to distract any of the drivers including ours in the chaos that is Haitian traffic. But, we got to the hotel La Xaragua without any issues which is where I am typing this out from.

We had rice, fried plantains, conch and some kind of sheppards pie thing without breading which was really really good. Woodkey gave us an overview of the week and basically just told us to be flexible since this will be the first medical trip to this community and we really don't know how everything will work out.

Tomorrow we head up the mountain to visit the community and maybe scope out where the clinic will be. Thanks for following along and I will be posting every night around this time, so look her if you want to keep up!

Over a year later...

A year has passed since I have posted anything. I was not able to go on a Haiti trip with the interns this year as I am no longer able to be an intern. The Obtern-ship is only available for 3 years and since I did it the first 3 years, I was unable to do it again. Fortunately, the church decided to do the first adult age trip to Haiti which I could have gone on, however I had just quit my previous job that spring and was not able to get the finances together to go. Then I learned about this trip.

This trip is a medical mission and I have a full time job which means I was able to get the money together to go. We leave on Friday and I am so pumped to go back to the island. This trip will be the first medical mission that Oakbridge has done and the first medical mission to go to the village of Chadirac. I have very limited medical training, mostly just health classes and what I have learned from the internet but hopefully that won't matter too much as I am going to be an assistant to one of the professionals going down. I will be trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible as I am very confident that this will not be my last medical mission.

I bought a Camelbak backpack on eBay that will be able to carry all of my clothes and stuff for the week so I won't have to check another bag, and I will actually have room to take stuff to the village. I am using my check bag for just medical stuff for the clinic to try and take the load of packing really heavy off of everyone else. A few other people were able to do that too so we were able to take everything we needed down. 

We are 20 in all with a hand full of medical professionals and the rest mostly assistants with some administrative people to make sure everything runs smoothly. We had our last meeting today and I didn't really think about this but a lot of the adults going down have young kids who they are leaving behind. For some of them, this will be the longest they have gone without seeing their kids which must be difficult.  I can tell that a lot of the people are starting to get the pre-trip nerves like every year, especially when most of them haven't gone before. Thinking back to my first trip, I had no idea of what to expect and I'm sure that makes a lot of them nervous. I haven't really expressed this to the first timers yet but the not knowing actually makes the trip more exciting for me, and typically I hate surprises. 

We leave at 7am on Friday and I will be blogging every day of the trip so prepare for the typical hyperbole and slight exaggerations with more pictures hopefully since I am sure looking at a wall of text gets boring.

Here we go...