Helping Other Communities Trip to Haiti February, 2010 On February 6, 2010, I flew to Haiti to help with healthcare needs that already existed prior to the earthquake and were now complicated because of the disaster that struck their country. I was accompanied by two physicians from our Southern California area and four other nurses and four EMT/paramedics. I came in a dual role on this trip knowing what I do about health care, years of being a nurse’s aide and years of being an EMT/Paramedic/Nurse. I felt I was up for the challenge. This was my first trip for missions out of the country and having the disaster made it more of a challenge. God had told me to go and so I had a calling to answer to as well. We all were asked to gather supplies to take. I got on the phone and called Peter Barry with Providence Hospital. He was so amazing and helpful in getting me supplies to take. Our group had over 30 suitcases full of supplies in total on the day we left Los Angeles International Airport. There were literally thousands of people outside the Haiti airport, I think looking for loved ones, and they were loud. We had a bus waiting for us from the Youth with a Mission group and this is where we stayed for five hours before getting on the bus to Port au Prince, Haiti. We encountered a nine-hour ride instead of the six we were told it would take to get there, and what a ride it was. The damage was apparent: broken roads from the earthquake and bridges that were now gone, so we just drove right through the rivers. We were able to see the many healthcare workers from around the world who came and the lines of people getting food. The children were standing alone without any adults and under the wings of a nurse in a line of the crowd. We drove up to our destination, Mission of Hope. The address is 777, so praise God, we all shouted, as we saw the sign and the gate opens for our welcoming. We had all brought sleeping bags and tents and had been told we could have a bunk and that there was some running water here. The next morning we had set up our supplies and opened bottles of medications and started labeling bags for prescriptions. We did this for eight hours while a few others helped at the warehouse unpacking supplies that came on train cars and such. Some helped at the clinic as well. Pastor Andre was right at work, praying for the sick. He even married a couple in their hospital room. I could hear singing and I wanted to be where it was, so I came down the hill to the bottom of the road where a huge crowd was in the open air sanctuary singing worship songs that had a familiar tune. This was overpowering. We had a trip to a village called Orange where there is no running water or electricity and only a generator. We were told to be sure and leave by 4 pm as it would be dark. We arrived at the village, a primitive area, and were greeted by the people who helped us move the supplies to their church building to set up for a clinic. There was a man who sat in the front entrance and logged in the name and age and complaint on a paper and also in a book for the church record. From there the patients went to triage and had vitals signs taken and then went over to a bench to wait to be called by the doctor who was at a table with a nurse and translator. If they needed an IV for rehydration or any immediate intervention it was done: fever control, wound cleaning, cast change. We treated malaria and impetigo, yeast infections, urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, otitis media, hypertension, congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation that day. After patients were seen, they took their papers to the pharmacy section to get medication and teaching by another translator and RN.
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