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HAM conducts
about four medical missions to Haiti per year. Each time, a team
of professionals--physicians, nurses, and others--travels to Haiti to
work in the Dumay medical clinic and to
spend some time in Demier. At times, the security situation has
forced us to cancel trips. Typically, we see around 1,000 patients
during one week. We are able to treat many more patients than the
permanent medical staff can handle, and we bring medication and
equipment to address some conditions they cannot.
April 2008 Trip
By Tracee Karaffa
We're home and just fine Leslie (pediatrician/ER doc), Janine
(optometrist), and Tracee (family practice doc).
We were safe the whole time, but frustrated by not being able to get
downtown to get to meetings we've worked 2 mo's to set up with PEPFAR,
USAID, CDC, and PFSCM to request support for the clinic, esp. the HIV
program. The rioting started on Monday, and the whole downtown was
closed and like a war zone the entire trip.
Saturday, we arrived to a welcoming committee including many clinic
employees and friends. At St. Joe's, we met up with the newlyweds Mark
and Jenny Hare. They were on their way to their new home in Papaye.
Sunday, after church, we met friends at the Montana for lunch, then saw
pt's in Vanessa Carpenter's new Angel Missions Haiti clinic - next to
St. Joe's in Petionville.
Monday, we hired pastor Oxe who works at the Dumay water clinic to be
our driver throughout the week, but we do need our own truck to
transport employees when they have no transportation (frequently), to
transport ill patients to the hospital when needed, and to transport the
"blancs" when we have teams in Haiti. We went to our Dumay clinic and
had meetings with the entire staff including our new administrator,
Paul. We worked through some old problems and laid the foundations for
future improvements in the clinic. In the afternoon, we saw some of the
sickest patients. That evening, we attended a performance of the
Resurrection Dance Company - St.Joe's dancers - what a pleasure!
Tuesday, we asked human rights lawyer - Evel Fanfan of AUMOHD to come
with us to mass with Father Rick Frechette (priest/physician who works
in the slums and founded "our little brothers and sisters" pediatric
hosp. in Tabarre). We hoped Father Rick would be able to then connect
Evel with victims in Cite Soliel. We then tried to go to Mother Teresa's
hospital for the dying, but were turned away due to rioting (we later
found out a man was burned to death outside of the hospital the day we
were trying to go there.)
We changed our plans and went to Mother Teresa's orphanage to see the
ill babies in need of attention (almost all of them, but we only saw a
few). After we were there a short while, someone came in and told us to
leave fast - on our way out people in the streets were piling up tires
in the road to build a fire and rocks started flying. We had to go home
on back roads dodging the rioters. Charles was trapped in a church part
of his way home, with rioting and gunfire
out on the street. He reached his home after a couple of hours hiding
from the violent mob.
That evening the Union Brother's performed for us, singing a cappella,
Haitian Christian music.
Wednesday, we had to stay in all day. There was rioting on all the main
streets with windows broken, tires burning, and rocks flying. There was
gun fire and there were helicopters circling overhead, but we were in a
safe place. The biggest frustration was being trapped and unable to
work. This was supposed to be a full day in the clinic. All the HIV pt's
and over 100 pediatric, medical and optometry were scheduled to be seen.
President Preval addressed us over TV and radio, but the crowds did not
hear what they wanted! Preval told the desperate Haitians that the cost
of food was rising all over the world and he could not control it...
they must stop rioting!!
We did eye and medical exams on the boys living at St. Joe's, since they
were also trapped due to the closing of all schools. Janine also
examined employees of St. Joe's and discovered one young man in his 20's
was almost blind due to glaucoma. We brought him medication from Dumay
the next day.
We were told by Michael (St. Joe's founder) that a musician was joining
us that evening, so we planned a party with entertainment (via the
musician), wondering why anyone would be coming to Haiti right now? John
arrived on his first trip to Haiti, one of ~15 on a an Airbus flight
from Miami. He made it to St. Joe's with the help of "Big" and "one
armed Jackson" - dodging road blocks and fires all the way. All I could
say was "what the hell were you thinking?", but we were glad John
decided to come despite every reason to cancel his trip.
Thursday, we waited until mid-morning to decide what we could do. The
downtown and most stores were locked up. We were supposed to have all
our important meetings Thurs., but all the offices were closed. We
decided to go out to the clinic in Dumay via the back way, through the
river. We were very busy with patients within walking distance (those
who could avoid the busy roads and still get there). We packed up and
left at 4:00 to be sure to get home before dark. Michael was able to get
out and shop, so we had more than rice and beans for dinner. Many of
those rioting on the streets could afford no dinner at all... if you
would like to read a really good explanation of why we are experiencing
a worldwide food crisis, check out:
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update72.htm
Friday, we returned to the clinic through the river. John joined us,
helping in the pharmacy, photographing our activities and touring the
area. We saw patients scheduled to be seen on Wed. and Friday. Of course
we could not see everyone, so there was some unrest outside the clinic,
but we saw as many as we could while still returning home before dark.
We also met with an engineer to start planning the building of the
pharmacy - some picture's to the left - The clinic is overcrowded. We
hope to alleviate the problem by building a pharmacy/storage/office
building outside the current clinic. Back in Petionville, at Angel
Missions clinic, Leslie examined a young man with very advanced
cardiopulmonary disease. His pulse ox was 75%. Even in the USA, nothing
could be done to help. We were able to use a Pulse Oximeter and EKG
machine donated by Licking Memorial Hospital of Newark, OH. to examine
the young man.
Saturday, we joined 3 children in need of surgery in the USA: one with a
cleft lip, one with an encephaloceole, and one with club feet. We flew
back to Miami: Janine, Leslie, Tracee, and 3 special needs kids.
Unfortunately, we missed our flight from Miami to Columbus, so we had to
fly to Pittsburg and drive the rest of the way home (there was no way we
were spending another night in Miami with 3 unhappy children we had few
supplies for). Janine's husband, Mike, drove us home....thank you Mike!
Fortunately, while on the plane from PAP to Miami, we met the director
of PEPFAR in Haiti - it was an Airbus A300 with no empty seats, but she
ended up standing next to Leslie, who was wearing a shirt with our names
on it. She recognized my name as the person she was supposed to meet
with on Thursday, and came and talked to me on the plane - that's what I
call a "God Thing" - she said we would plan to meet in July, and she was
sure we could work something out!
So, it looks like I won't have to take our PEPFAR requests/needs all the
way to the President! |
Getting ready to come home with our three babies in need of surgery.
Janine examining a patient at the clinic.
Janine examining a boy at St. Joes.
Leslie seeing patients in Dumay.
Mme Enoch in the Dumay pharmacy.
John practicing piano with Aliston.
Above and below: Tracee discussing plans with engineers and the
clinic administrator.
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