A bit about Pat

I gave everyone on our team the ability to post to the blog this morning. I was going to do it before I left for Haiti, but it just got overlooked.

So Pat posted to the blog. To give you a bit about her, Pat is an RN from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I have included a couple of good pics here of her, to let you know what she really liked to do. Pat worked in the inpatient wing of the hospital the entire time we were there. Patients loved her because she was happy and kind. That is quite obvious.

 

LaMar

Back Home

I agree with LaMar about the rooster....who sang his song every hour most nights in Haiti. I woke up last night wondering where he was? Re-entry into our home culture has been full of contradictory emotions; why is it that I can put my dirty clothes in a machine and push a button to get clean water? But how wonderful to be able to brush my teeth in running water! How can the Haitian people be so beautifully grateful and loving when they have so little? They are inspiring, and I will never forget them, nor the people I worked with on our American team #16.

Pat Farris

I'm back

It has been a few days since I blogged. I apologize for that. We left Haiti on several flights Monday, May 10^th. Mine got me home about 11:00 PM. My wife picked me up, and we proceeded to talk until about 2:00 AM. I sure missed her.

 

Since then, I have been trying to catch up on various home and office chores. I finally decided it was time to get back on the blog-at least for a few times. I’ll test post some photos—if you see them it worked—and just give a few parting thoughts. The photos include:

·         Dr. Jim Goetz, after taking a pic of 3 kids who wanted to see

·         Me with a baby

 

Here are some---

Things I missed while in Haiti:

·         My wife-now that’s a no-brainer

·         Hot water showers and hand washing

·         Cold water drinks from a faucet

·         Food I’m used to

·         Paved roads and sane driving

·         Flushing toilet paper

 

Things I’ll miss in the USA:

·         My new friends from the team

·         New skills that were routine

·         The gratitude of patients

·         Food I’m not used to

·         Heat—it’s only 50 today in Iowa

·         Roosters—just kidding

 

So that’s it for today. I’ll continue to post some more in the next few days.

 

LaMar

 

 

Sunday-a time to give thanks (Sorry for late post-internet down til now)

Several of our team went to a Catholic Church last week. The early service starts at 7 and is over at 9. Many of them decided that this week, they would go to 7 o'clock service at 8. So I joined them. The church was totally destroyed in the earthquake except for the altar, which apparently cracked. At some point since then, someone built a rough wooden fram and threw some tarps over the top. We arrived at 8 to a packed crowd. Probably 400 anyway. If you want a seat, you have to bring it with you, since everything was destroyed. We got there late, so we were in the back, in the sun, standing for an hour.

 

I recorded a couple of clips that I hope will turn out when I return. I did not record video, just audio. Let me take a moment to talk about life. We live in a beautiful country with so much of everything that we hold dear. Money, cars, homes--stuff. We pride ourselves for the things we have, and the lifestyle we lead. We dutifully go to church on Christmas and Easter-PRAISE GOD! Here, these people have none of the things we think are important. They have just lost homes, family members, and what little infrastructure they had. Any security the once had is gone. The church was packed. The arms were lifted up. The voices were loud and joyous. They obviously have a different outlook on what is important in life.

 

I like their way.

 

We are planning a trip somewhere. Ross just said we are going to a voodoo temple to have a look see, and then to the beach. That sounds like a good time to me, even though I did not bring swim trunks. As my wife and kids know, however, I probably would not get in anyway, but the sounds and smells will be welcome after the week we have had.

 

The week we have had. Week. Some people commit to this lifestyle for the rest of their lives. I committed a week and learned a lot. But many times I felt like the little boy walking on the beach, throwing starfish back into the ocean. I KNOW I made a difference for that one, but it is so difficult to see the suffering and not be able to help them all. We learned early on to say no in order to maintain some sanity and to keep our strength. It is pointless to wear yourself down helping others, and then not being able to help anyone while you recuperate. Set your pace, then adjust for the heat, and the patient load.

 

I think I'll take my break now. I'll try to post again this evening.

 

LaMar

 

Choppy internet

We have really had a lot of internet drop out tonight. I get it for a few minutes, then nothing.

 

Had a good conversation with some of the new team. They were curious about our 'more interesting' cases. We had a gentleman with a swollen eye about the size of a lemon. Not sure what the problem was-we referred him on. We had a man with an external fixator on his ankle. He broke his ankle, then surgeons repaired it and put hardware on it and through it to hold the bones in alignment while they healed. We cleaned the area and rebandaged it, then told him to come back this week for our ortho guys.

 

We have put several splints on as a temporary fix knowing these guys were coming. A lady drank bleach to kill herself. We have had SEVERAL extremely sick people. A very interesting week.

 

BTW, our baby was transferred on with some kind of congenital anomolly (sp) but probably NOT neonatal syphillis. The jury is still out on him. Prayers would be appropriate.

 

Quite a group of them went to Joe's tonight. Apparently a local hangout where folks go to have fun. Jim and I decided we were fuddy and duddy and stayed back, chatting with the new group. I reckon we had as much fun, since Joe's closes at 10, and they are all back now.

 

Rocky downloaded his camera to my computer tonight. Several of us have decided to download here as a central depository, thus potentially giving everyone access if I can post most of them to the blog when i get home. We'll see how that works out.

 

It is after 10 now, and since I got so little sleep last night, I am signing off. We have the day off tomorrow, and some of us are going to go sightseeing. I am not sure what all is planned, I guess I can find out tomorrow.

 

LaMar

Our last OFFICIAL day

Bittersweet. That's what it is. Today was our last official day here at the hospital. As usual, we worked our shifts, then showed the new team where everything is. The have a real advantage over us because several of their group has worked here before, and they have more nurses and physicians than we did. The also have an orthopedic surgeon and an anaesthetist, so they can see all of the patients we referred on to them.

 

It will sure be great to get home to be with my family--I do miss them. The weather there is in the 50's. and may freeze tonight, way different than here. Today was probably close to 100, tonight will be a balmy 80. It is very humid. Sounds like in spite of the cold and rain in Iowa, the Bible Study group got a lot done at the synod office. That's great!

 

I don't think I've said much about Nancy Jessup and and Ross Schmaeman. Nancy is a Certified Nursing Assistant, and Ross is a student and EMT. Both were truly impressive working here. Nancy was everybody's go-to-gal for anything. Her patience and love of her job was second to none. She particularly played with kids who hang with us and those who are patients here.

 

Ross was also our go-to-guy, mostly in the ER but also in the wound clinic. He did wound care, dressing changes, and even gave some shots for us. Impressive.

 

We have a meeting starting up, so I'll try to add a bit later.

 

Til then,

 

LaMar

Happy?--or sad?

Well, we had a baby. A little boy was born at 11:20 Friday evening--the third child born to this mom. I expected a quicker birth when I went over there 5+ hours ago. I played a much more active role in this birth, and found that very rewarding.

 

As we examined the baby, Sarah noticed no crease line in his feet, no testicles, and little bumps on his body. Dr. Charles-a Haitian doctor-confirmed what Rocky and Sarah suspected, neonatal syphillis. I am not sure how this will affect him developmentally. Go ahead and look it up on the web. I'm too tired. I started at 0500 Friday, and it is 0030 Saturday now.  I'm going to bed and pray till I fall asleep.

 

LaMar

Friday-the last full day

I have not read my blog lately, and I can't remember everything I have written, so ignore repeat posts. The days in the hospital here are basically staffed by us from 7 am to 7 pm. We have an ER, OB, and inpatient wing, each with 10-12 beds. We also staff a clinic--essentially a fast-track--for those who do not need to have as much done. Peds checks, wound dressing changes and that sort of thing. More involved cases are seen in the ER. Things like suturing, x-rays, sick people who need IV's or breathing treatments. The clinic is open M-S 8-5, and Sunday 12-5. We have provided two physicians to staff the clinic, as well as a couple of people in wound care. Haitian doctors and nurses rotate through in both areas.

 

Monday, we were SWAMPED in both ER and clinic. Tuesday was pretty busy, by today we were pretty light, so we took off a little bit early. It was pretty cool being there when they brought the food out at 6:00 for a change. We had rice, carrots and green beans, potatos, chicken, and salad. Yum. Thank you ladies.

 

For lunch the last 4 days, I have been eating an egg sandwich for lunch that I buy for $1.00 from a vendor. The sandwich is good, and it will help the economy out some. Plus, I was getting tired of some of the food I brought down. We frequently did not have power over lunch, so I could not heat my food. Several people had them in the past, and everyone survived.

 

We had an interesting case this afternoon. I had been outside and saw a young woman limping toward the hospital. I helped her to the ER and looked at her leg. She had a 2 x 4 inch area on the inside of her leg by her knee that looked like a massive burn. As I examined her, we saw that it was an abrasion that had been covered with charcoal--by her grandmother. After cleaning up the area, which took quite a while, we dressed it properly and put antibiotic on it. We also told her not to let her grandmother do that again.

 

On a really good note, the baby that was premature just before we arrived, and was abandoned by her mother has been declared abandoned and cleared for adoption. Sorry, honey. She has already been placed with one of our Haitian nurses. It will be a great place for her. The nurse is fantastic.

 

Well, I am out of here. They just said we may be having another baby in a while. Hopefully I can get on later and let you know how that turned out.

 

LaMar

Yesterday was so great--today not so much

Hey, all. We lost our first patient today, which is rather surprising in itself. But today we lost a 3 month old girl. She had been over at the Japanese Red Cross getting an x-ray for abdominal swelling. They sent a runner for us and Andy responded. The message wasn't very clear that it was an emergency, although the end result would not have been any different. Andy came into the ER with her in his arms, doing CPR. We ran a full code, but never got anything back. Not having a cardiac monitor does not help, but in her case it still would not have mattered. Her mom was dead, her dad had given her to a cousin to bring to the hospital. She died surrounded by people,  just not her family. I found it quite sad.

 

LaMar

 

I HAD A BABY!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I didn't have a baby, a 19 year old Haitian woman had her first baby, but I caught it! Well, I didn't catch it, Sarah Parker's hands around mine guiding them caught the baby. Sarah is a widwife who came down a couple of days before us. She has participated in 6-700 births--or so--and was great encouragement for me. The poor mom wasn't sure she wanted to focus on having the baby girl, and wasn't sure she wanted anyone's hands on her. But I had a job to do and by golly I did it! I think I was beaming when Rocky took my picture.

 

Great day number two was when Keith Flanagan, DVM from Oklahoma and resident of Haiti for 25-30 years showed up at our door. He had 4 DVM students with him who were VERY appreciative of an ice cold coke this morning. It was great to catch up with Keith. I met him on my first trip down here in 1988, and have worked with him several times in the past. His youngest son, Brian, also works in Haiti. Please pray for the farmers of Haiti. Keith says a very rare swine disease has shown up here that causes a polio-like illness in pigs. This could be very devastating for those deaths in particular, but also because pigs that are vaccinated for Classic Swine Fever-a nasty problem, can then die of this other disease, leaving the farmer questioning the value of any vaccination.

 

We had a puppy die this evening. Keith looked at it and diagnosed Parvo Virus. Rehydration via IV was recommended, but we were not willing to waste tubing or fluid on a dog. We tried oral rehydration to no avail.

 

We have a group of students who are part of HODR's, Hands On Disaster Relief. They are from all over and have really been helpful as runners for us and other groups. They clear rubble, they work like fiends. One of our workers today was a fourth year med student from Hong Kong. It did not take us long to press her into service providing medical care. She was awesome.

 

All in all, we had a GREAT day!

 

BTW--mom went home with new baby in her arms a couple hours after she gave birth.

 

Love and God's peace to all,

 

LaMar

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Greetings, all. Well, it's hump day and Cinco de Mayo--so what. They don't celibrate either one here, as far as we can tell, although it was a slow day. You know, if we had the day off, it would be enjoyable sitting around. But sitting around while you are on the job is BORING. No new babies today. Not much of anything interesting. Two volunteers--not with our group, were airlifted out of PAP today after we transferred them yesterday. The one probably has appendicitis, and the other may have dengue fever. We do not have a surgeon on board.

 

I have not talked about Pat Farris, RN, Eva Cestari, RN-psych, or Carol-jean deLuca, RN-psych. They work in the in patient wing and take care of all the patients who are sicker and longer term. They have done an incredible job with all those patients, and I have seen nothing but compassion from them. Carol was sick today with some muscle cramping, probably due to the heat.

 

Every morning we lose power at the hospital for 1-2 hours. Okay, were in a big, multi-room tent. The sun is up early and gets hot before you know it. So the tent is quite stuffy. We all feel relived when the AC comes back on.

 

Thanks to everyone for reading along. I need to re-read my own blog so I don't repeat myself. Also, if I keep the blog short, I'm less apt to drop the internet connection.

 

Til later, LaMar

Wednesday morning

Nothing much to report since overnight, except we have power and internet this morning. I slept well. Our room is a bunk bed and a single. I have the top bunk and Jim is in the bottom. The single is empty after Scott left on Monday. I would move there, but he was all bit up--I'm thinking there might be some nasty bedbugs there. We are a corner room, so get some cross breeze going on which helps.

 

Food here has been good. As I said earlier, we have an evening meal prepared for us. Usually rice, beans, sometimes a potato like tuber which is probably boiled. We have had diced mixed vegetables twice, cooked with a clear type sauce--I wish Jamie was here to describe the food better. Last night we had beef chunks with onions-enough for everyone to have some, the night before was meatballs. We also had okra last night.

 

Pop is cold, even frozen at times. I have not had the beer yet, but Andy said he needed that after yesterday. Yesterday was just a long hot day, even though we have AC in the hospital most of the time. We see people on cots in the ER, so everything is either bending, stooping or knealing. It takes a tole on backs and legs. Interestingly, my leg has been pretty good.

 

I'll let you all go and try to blog again tonight. Thanks for the comments, girls. Now I know someone other than mom is reading. Love you all.

 

LaMar

I missed a baby by THAT MUCH!

Any of you who are following this blog know that I came down here expecting to catch babies. Well it just has not happened. I blogged on our first one, at least I watched. The second one was last night. The third was 5:45 this morning--I go on duty at 7. I popped in OB several times today while a woman was in labor, but not very active. I took a half hour lunch__I SWEAR--A HALF HOUR--I got back and not only had she delivered --SHE LEFT! Man I was ticked. They came for me, but did not have time to get me in the house. Know one is currently waiting in OB. But I am sure we will have more babies here.

 

I did wound care in our outdoor clinic today. With an interpreter, we sit in a tent and people who come to the hospital for follow-up care but don't need a doctor, get seen by us. Injury re-check, wound cleaning and re-dressing, whatever it might be. I had two that I referred into the ER--a two year old boy with a cut by his right eye--a friend threw a rock, and a man with bad toes. The little boy was going to be a handful, so I sent him inside. The man needed some soaking to get his toe rot stopped. He had skin erosion between all of his toes due to an injury that was draining. When I went inside, they were both sitting there waiting. The boy's mom and the man were all smiles when they saw me--that's why I came down here.

 

We referred a woman to the TB sanitarium. Her chest x-ray was nasty. We had a volunteer with appedicitis who we transferred to PAP for an appendectomy. We transferred a second one with Giardia.

 

We were busy, but not terribly so. I got lunch at noon and supper at 7:30, so it wasn't too bad. The team is really good, and the volunteers are extremely helpful. The frstration lies in not knowing where everything is. We go to do a new procedure, and we have to llok 10 minutes for supplies. We have inpatient, OB and ER, and we have two oxygen concentrators. We have two pulse oximeters to measure oxygen in the blood, but one had dead batteries. I had two new batteries with me, and took one out of my flashlight. We get a different type of syringe, or catheter, or tubing almost every time we grab for supplies.

 

Well, tomorrow is another day. I will close now and wish you well. Kiss your babies and enjoy your hot water.

 

Oh, BTW, eat chicken---cock-a-doodle-doo!

 

LaMar

SPECIAL THANKS TO MATT WEBER!!!!!!!

Special thanks to Matt Weber who set up this blog for me! Matt was on the same Guatemala trip I was on last year, and did the same for that group.

 

Thanks, Matt!

 

LaMar

Monday, May 3

Hey, everyone! We're sure having fun in this tropical paradise. Temps are 95-100 with the humidity about the same. I was finally able to take off my sweatshirt for part of the day. Ha!

 

Dr. Rocky Seale (ob/gyn birthed our first baby today. He and Sarah Parker-midwife- did an outstanding job helping mom deliver her first baby. I was there observing, and was able to run for pediatrician Dr. Amelia Burgess when the baby quite breathing. For a while it was really touch and go with all those plus Dr. Dave Hall and Dr. Jim Goetz there as well as a Haitian doctor. Baby finally started breathing again, but was really laboring at it. We transferred her in Dr. Burgess's arms in the front seat of a car to another hospital. That was close.

 

We had several wound dressings to change, a couple of broken arms to put temporary casts on until we can get x-rays--the Japanese radiology clinic is only open m-f from 8-11, or something like that.

 

I sewed up my first laceration today, about 2 inches long on a foot. That skin is really tough!

 

Well, I'm stopping for the night. Hope everyone is well and likes reading the blog.

 

LaMar

Sunday was a busy first day

Okay, Sunday was busy. Clinic did not start until noon, but as we walked by at 7 this morning, several people were there waiting. One woman was taken in because she was pretty sick. I did not follow her, so am not aware of her problems. We splinted a man's arm and gave him bus fare to the next hospital. He had a wrist fracture that was slightly deformed, so we splinted it with what we had and sent him on his way.

 

Shortly after, we got two lacerations. A pedestrian stepped out in front of a motorcyclist, and both came in with head wounds. Dr. Dave Hall showed Andy and me how he wanted suturing done, so I guess we'll be doing some of those from now on.

 

There were several--maybe a dozen?--people who came in for dressing changes. Since it is so dirty down here and people do not have the ability to stay as clean as we think we do, we have them come back every day or two to get their bandages changed. We cleaned head wounds, arm wounds, leg wounds and two cases of mastitis that went far enough that the young (16-18 year old) women now have 1 1/2-2 inch holes that need to heal. The first one was really complaining about a lot of pain, and even though we had been given recommendations to rebandage and send them back home, I called Dr. Rocky Seale in for a consult, and we discovered a large pocket of pus under the original damaged area. I was glad I waited.

 

Andy did a phenominal job today. He kept flitting from ER to in-patient areas, but his IV success rate was pretty low.

 

Our biggest problems were mostly logistical. Where DO we keep the betadine? I think we have most everything located now, so I hope we are ready for tomorrow.

 

We have a three year old who is worrisome. She is being transferred out tomorrow because of dehydration/respiratory problems. She will leave at 0600, but she is having a lot of breathing issues. Please say some prayers for her.

 

Another three year old we tried to do conscious sedation, but we just did not give her enough versed. She had some orthopedic problems with a bunch of packing. We removed the packing without sedation, and she did fine.

 

I'm signing off for the night. Hopefully back tomorrow.

Sunday morning

It's Sunday morning. I awoke at 5:30, half an hour after my alarm usually awakes me. A rooster was crowing, of course. I slept really well in a top bunk bed. Jim has the lower. Jim Goetz is a pediatrician from out east. I would guess him as about my age. Scott is our other roommate. He is a physician who is on the other team, so he'll be leaving Monday morning.

 

Andy Farrell I think was up all night in the ER. I went over there before I went to bed to let him know to call me if he needed help during the night--he didn't call. While I was there, there was a young woman having some distress. Respirations about 30-40 per minute, general malaise. Someone thought maybe typhoid fever. It sounded like she had a pleural rub with diminished lung sounds on the right. Let's just say she was having trouble breathing. Anyway, I told him to call me.

 

No calls, and I haven't seen Andy yet. Andy works as a paramedic for Johnson County. He is a lot younger than me, maybe 30ish. Andy just came in. The woman is doing about the same. They brought in an anaesthesia machine in order to give her oxygen. You know, we take a lot for granted in the US. We have systems in place, and they work. Here in this field hospital, we have no bottled oxygen, and the oxygen concentrators don't work very well. And we only have one, with an OR, ER, maternity, and inpatient.

 

Supplies are good. It will take a while to figure out what we have, and then some more time to figure out where it is. IV fluids are running short. I'm not sure what the options are when they run out. Someone has put up a sign that says M.A.S.H. #4077. There are definitely similarities with supply problems and having to make do with things. We'll see how it goes during our first week.

 

It is 6:30 and I need to be over in the ER at 7. I'll go for now.

 

LaMar

We made it

Safe and sound in the country. Electricity was off and I could not access internet for a couple of hours. The last of our team just got here, so I will try to access the blog later.

 

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

 

LaMar

I'm on my way

I left Cedar Rapids early afternoon today, and am now in Fort Lauderdale. The flight to Dallas, and then to Fort Lauderdale were pretty uneventful. I just got settled in a chair where I will probably spend the night. Another gentleman is sleeping nearby. He is leaving at 0630 tomorrow for New York. My flight for Port-au-Prince (PAP) leaves at 0645, so we made a deal. We would watch each others stuff, so we do not need to take luggage to the bathroom with us during the night.

I did receive some good news that I was not expecting. My luggage will be kept overnight by the airlines, so I did not need to pick up the two-50# bags and re-check them in the morning. :-) That should speed things along a bit in the AM.

It has been a long day of flying and waiting, so I think I will call it quits. I did take a pic out the windaw as we got to Dallas/Fort Worth. I hope to post some pics on the trip, so I'll try this one first.

Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight in the airport.

LaMar

Thanks for the donations!

Wow! Did people come through. Area Ambulance Service in Cedar Rapids donated many of the supplies the group was asked to bring. I was prepared to pay, but they said they wanted to help out. IV tubing, gloves, chux, yankauer tips, suction tubing. Thank you so much Keith and Bob.

 

I got medicine from Mercy--$200 worth of bactrim and amoxicillin. Thank you for that.

I also received amoxicillin from Dr. Brian Darrow. Thank you my friend.

 

I am humbled by the desire of people to give. Thank you all so much. The medicines and supplies I know will save lives.

 

LaMar

I'm excited for tomorrow!

Well, the time is getting closer! I spent part of the evening packing supplies. I really was fortunate to receive so many donations of goods and medicines. I pick up the Mercy donations tomorrow--$200.00 worth of Amoxicillin and Bactrim. Flight leaves at 1:10, and spend the night in Fort Lauderdale. Really looking forward to the trip.

 

LaMar

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