Six-year-old Moses has remained strong in the face of mudslides, earthquakes and cholera.
Nov. 18
Father Rick told a story in his book, “Haiti: The God of Tough Places, the Lord of Burnt Men”. This is the story. There was a huge rain storm about 6 years ago. It rained and rained for days. Because there are no trees to catch the water, the rain caused mud slides. A 6-month old baby was staying with grandma for the day. She saw the rain bringing mud down toward her home. She knew that she and the child would die in the mud slide. She got a basket and put the baby in it and sent him sliding down the mud and water slide to the sea. She was buried in the mud along with the parents. The baby slid along toward the sea. The Nations Guard saw the basket coming and picked it up. The baby was alive in the basket. They took the baby to Father Rick’s orphanage and they named the baby Moses. I went looking for Moses. I found him and he is 6 years old. I photographed him when he said that was OK. I interviewed him when he said that was OK. The last question I asked him (with an interpreter asking him the questions) was: “Where were you born?” He smiled and said in Creole, “I was born in water.”
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Several Akron Children's staff members help carry the casket of a Haitian cholera victim
Nov. 16
Jeff, Ellen and I had a quiet night in the cholera tents. A baby was brought in dead in the evening but everyone in the tents survived. We admitted five children after the sun came up. Two were severely dehydrated and required IV fluids. The remaining 3 children should do fine with oral rehydration. There were 3 bodies in the chapel this morning. One was the baby who died from cholera before any treatment could be given. The second body was a young man who died from cholera in Port-au-Prince. No one will bury the victims of cholera so the Sisters of Mercy brought the man’s body to St. Damien for Fr. Rick to cremate. Jeff, Bill and I served as pallbearers for the young man when we helped carry his casket from the chapel to the crematorium. It has been a very moving experience, even for such a short time. Vanita’s time down here has been very successful and it is thanks to Jim and Vanita’s genorosity that we are here.
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cholera,
Earthquake,
Haiti,
port-au-prince,
st. damien's
Nov. 15
We arrived safely in Haiti. Unloaded the plane. We were able to get through customs ok. We went to see the U.S. ambassador after stopping at the hospital. The city is still completely devastated. There appears to be little demolition and reconstruction at this point. The U.S. ambassador pointed out that it will take a long time due to the unbelievable extent of the damage. Haiti was in bad shape before the earthquake and the events of 1/12 only made things worse. The spirit of the people is unbelievable. From earthquake to storms to cholera, the people continue to keep their dignity.
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Nov. 14:
Here at the tents, when you enter or leave, you are supposed to step in a bucket of bleach. There is a mass with about 30 kids singing from the orphanage; also a dead child in a coffin. Father commented on the fact that children were orphaned from the earthquake. I was called for a child who was not responding, but was actually dead. A one-year-old who was doing well had died suddenly. We are here to prevent the spread of infection. It feels very symbolic for me, almost like a new world. I think we have been called to stand in solidarity with all of God’s children, so I know this is the right thing to do. It’s 4 o’clock and I’m back at the cholera tents. About 30 patients.
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st. damien's
Nov. 13
What a day. Flew north on a six-seat plane to help the Sisters of Charity with cholera patients. You can feel the fear that the people have any time their children have diarrhea. They rush them here. This is for surgery. The cases of cholera in the city are growing and today at mass one of the dead was in the chapel. Father is constantly reminding us of respect for the dead. The field hospital for Doctors Without Borders is maxed out for cholera so now they come here. We have 600 cholera beds here. I wonder how soon they will be filled.
Tomorrow will be busy again. The work is good but very demanding and you can sense a degree of fear from everyone because of cholera.
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Haiti,
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st. damien's
Nov. 12
Just woke up. Today, the team is doing surgery and really doing great. David and Pat are operating on kids who would otherwise never get care. Things here are moving along well. David and Pat are a great team. Two more days then out they go.
It’s Friday afternoon and I lost my interpreter so thought I’d take time to write. The hospital remains busy but all of the patients with diarrhea have been redirected. The cholera tents are busy and I have signed up for some nights to help. The name of the game is fluids, fluids and more fluids.
Had dinner on the roof tonight. The air was cool. Went with Dave and Rose Andrews to round and all is well with the surgical patients. Tomorrow’s patients are hard to line in but they do their best. Three kids died today from conditions caused by their poverty. That should not have happened. I wonder how that will change after the election? Will the world give them the aid they promised or will the average Haitian continue to live under tarps and drink filthy water that can kill him? We need to live in solidarity with our brothers and sisters to make sure this does not happen again.
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st. damien's
During the next few days, Drs. John Pope and Jeff Kempf, pediatric specialists at Akron Children’s Hospital, will blog about their experiences during their latest trip to Haiti’s St. Damien’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince to care for children in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake rocked the area Jan. 12.
They will be joined on this trip by several other members of the Akron Children’s family. Jeff’s wife, Dr. Ellen Kempf, director of Children’s Oak Adoptive Health Center, will help out at a local orphanage; pediatric surgeon Dr. David Andrews and surgical technician Pat Conway will perform much-needed operations; hospital president and CEO Bill Considine will be meeting with administrators at St. Damien’s, the only free pediatric hospital in Haiti, to discuss the growing relationship between the two organizations; and local philanthropist Vanita Oelschlager, who along with her husband Jim, helped finance the trip, including the delivery of numerous medical supplies.
Tagged as:
akron children's hospital,
cholera,
Earthquake,
Haiti,
medical mission,
port-au-prince
Saturday
We spent a few hours away from Saint Damien’s Hospital. Went out to a rural village, Fondwa, which is a 2-hour drive up in the mountains.
This is the village Sister Judy was living/working in when the earthquake hit. The village was destroyed. Amazing how roads are still piled with rocks and rubble; buildings still pancaked 6 months later. Orphanage there destroyed; had housed 58. Now in Fondwa 68 orphaned kids live in an old pig sty…no light, no windows, dirt floor. There with 3 nuns, all doing the best they can; surviving. Sister Judy was injured, but survived, although one of the kids and a sister died. They now spend most of their time outside, though the metal roof gives shelter during rains; tropical storm season beginning. It’s hard to picture it during a big storm.
Friday
We’ve been so busy, little time to get onto the one computer here that is on the Internet. Thought we’d have “smart phone” access and texting, but it’s Haiti!
We’ve been VERY busy. We sleep after sundown and get up well before mass at 7am, while patients are already assembling. The mass is an amazing way for us to start the day…an open air chapel, 10-20 people, a homily from Father Rick that is very in touch to what we are doing here. Usually a combo of 3 languages – English, French, Creole, and some Italian, as there is a big group of Italian volunteers. Beautiful a cappella singing.
The effect of the earthquake is visible constantly, the structural damage, but also on the people and their lives. So many still live in tent cities as do many of the workers of the hospital. To many mothers, sitting in a straight back chair in an ER for greater than 24 hours is still better than being on the ground in a tent with a sick one. We see many serious burns because there’s lots of open fire cooking in congested areas. Malnutrition is also rampant. We saw a baby yesterday who weighed 7 pounds at 7 months. The baby was admitted for the malnutrition program here. It’s quite impressive…much like Ethiopia’s. But you have to wonder how many are out there that don’t get the program or come in too late.
A neurosurgeon is here from Italy for the week, doing shunts, closing encephaloceles (neural tube defects). We saw a head that was too too big to shunt, baby was admitted to die. We don’t see this in the States.
Jeff is spending lots of his time working with “Urgency ” staff to help with the flow and acute management of the sickest. But I saw the 7 pound, 7-month-old baby in the “clinic” as well as the neurosurgery admissions.
Amazing things accomplished here in the last months…such as a rehab area for prosthetics, etc., under roof that combines offices and rehab areas made inside shipping crates; mural paintings on the outside walls. They’re quite impressive and in contrast to the problems and damage to people and structures.
We have lots to do here, endless needs, amazing, resilient people who are living in a very, very poor country before the earthquake that set it reeling. It’s only been 6 months.
Things are never easy in Haiti. Here 3 days and finally getting an internet and phone connection. Very, very intensely hot….Haiti in the summer. Our accomodations are really not bad at all. Military style large tent, on very comfortable padded cots. Cold water, refreshing showers.
Still lots of international presence here since the quake, but hospital back to its normal volume, trauma over, but malnutrion, typhoid, etc., making a huge impact now.
Sister Judy feels the country and the people have had no time to grieve… they’ve endured…no choice, and are now surviving and numb.
Tuesday (6/8/10)
A patient was seen here from “Doctors without Borders.” Little boy of 6, living in one of their camps. Playing on a roof, fell and hit his head. The call here was that he had “brain coming out.” There’s only 3 neuosurgeons in all of Haiti, and never one here at this hospital…until yesterday when happened to have a visiting neurosurgeon from Italy arriving! Kid came here. Looked great, but with depressed skull fracture and laceration. Went to OR here with the visiting neurosurgeon. Did great, kid smiling and thumbs up to us today.
Wednesday (6/9/10)
Tough, very hot day. First baby of the day died. I saw mom enter the hospital front with a little, very pale looking 4 month infant, had vomiting, diarrhea, fever. The infant died during the first 20 minutes here. The resuscitation is so different than in our hospital at home. Mom stands right at the bedside, out in the open in a very crowded room, with many other very sick kids and their families. All watch. Seems as if they are all accustomed to this frequent vision of death and accept…no choice.
This afternoon we met with administators and Haitian doctors about working together in the future. Exciting but very challenging.
