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Published: April 14th 2014
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Haiti
Missed first flight. Rerouted thru FLa. Sat next to great fam w really smart kid with anxiety problems. Dad said when a sports team loses he would worry about if a player was going to get fired and if they had family. Got on flight to port au prince- amazing shit show. People brought on TVs and trophies that wouldn't fit under their seats but they closed the cabin door. Had to finagle things in, took 30 min. Hilarious. Sat next to wonderful Haitian woman who left Haiti 43 yrs ago and moved to Montreal to become a cosmetologist. Now lives in Miami. Her husband wants to move back to Haiti. Said America is the land of opportunity but she was now too old and too tired to keep up. Wants to make room for the next generation. Has a house in the mountains. Recommends I vacAtion in Haiti and see japmel and the beaches. States when she moved back to Haiti she drank coconut water and almonds and brought her cholesterol down to normal.
Also homemade castor oil will cure arthritic hand joints.
Easy trip thru customs. Greeted by a sign held by an airport worker, waited
for a bit for Edgar. Works for grace 4 Haiti, lived in Haiti whole life. 1.5 hr drive nw to Pierre Payen. There was a large mountain in the distance and the near peaks have makeshift housing. Before the earthquake this was bare- government issued land to those whose homes were destroyed. Still large cracks in the highway from the fault line. Driving is similar to any 3rd world country. Erratic and dangerous with no real rules. Lots of motorbikes. Makeshift roadside stands selling drinks, motor oil. Random cows.
Arrived at the complex. Great welcoming team. We are staying in a large open house across the street from the hospital. Surgeons, family docs, nurses, med students. I missed the first day of OR, but went over to the hospital to help out with post op orders and pick trays for the next days cases. We are low on keflex and certain drugs, but otherwise are decently stocked. The AC is out in the OR, so going to be toasty. There are two ORs and one old carm.
We meet for dinner (goat stew) and I meet more of the team. It is one of the girls birthdays, so
the plan is to go to a resort for cake, beers and pool time. However, after dinner, a trauma comes in to the ED. I go over with two other docs and two RNs. A young girl was attacked by a man with a broken beer bottle. She had deep lacerations in her leg, but fortunately that was it. I ran the trauma and ultimately washed and repaired her wounds with assistance of one of the Haitian interns. Everyone pitched in, grabbing lidocaine and sutures etc.
I came back, and a van load had graciously waited for me. We went to the resort and had some beers and birthday cake. The team is amazing. We all eventually jumped into the pool with buckets of beer. Young, old, clothes, suits. Unfortunately our celebration was cut short by a major trauma that came in. We were bussed back, threw on scrubs over our wets suits, and headed to the ED. Turns out it was an isolated tibia fracture with significant soft tissue injury. We went straight to the OR. Naomi served as circulator, pulling trays and autoclaving instruments. Claire, our scrub, was amazing and on top of everything. Chad, the anesthesiologist,
threw in a spinal faster than I have ever seen. Myself and a third year medical student washed and debrided the wound and placed an ex fix. Came together nicely. Plan is for a rotational flap tomorrow to cover his open wound. Needless to say, when I hit my bed at 3:30am I fell straight asleep.
And woke at 6:30. We had breakfast of eggs,mangoes, bananas and a lot of coffee. Three cases today, bilateral femoral osteotomies in a 9 year old with knock knees, a tumor excision, likely osteoblastoma, and a tumor biopsy, likely osteosarcoma. We will take the specimens back to Kansas for pathology analysis. A Haitian orthopaedist, Dr Thomas, scrubbed with us. He will assume care of the patients after we have left.
There are two ORs running during the day. The patients pay cash for services.
Just finished dinner of chicken and salad with the team and will likely be asleep very soon.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
We are nurses
So we are enjoying your blogs. Great stuff.