The last few days... Team #2

We had very sketchy internet connections for the last couple of days so hopefully, this will catch us up...

As we near the end of our Medical Support Team Mission in Haiti, I wanted to review and reflect on the many things we have seen and experienced. It only took a moment to realize that this would be an extremely long posting (too long) and would become boring to someone who hasn’t been to Haiti, or ever been on a Medical Response Team in a disaster area. So much happened and so many unforgettable images were imbedded in our minds…. So many things were seen and experienced, that words might not come for a few more days or weeks after our return – or until we’ve each had individual time to process it all. So if your own Omaha Rapid Response Team member that you most closely associate with, seems to be speaking about minute details one minute and ethereal things the next, just give them a bit more time, other opportunities and conversations… it will all begin to surface.

I believe the adage that ‘one picture speaks a thousand words’ and stirs a hundred memories. So the best way to even ‘begin’ to tell about what we’ve been seeing and experiencing, is to do just that … tell it with pictures. Because I know you are already very interested in what we’re doing here in Haiti (or you wouldn’t be visiting this web page to begin with), I’ll invite you to go to a photo album web page to see a collection of photos that focuses on the different things we’ve been doing,and to SEE the thousands of words that it would take to tell you. (These are the photos I sent to my family and supporters, so don’t be put off that there may be a few more photos of me than the others, for that reason). (However, because of unreliable WiFi we will get this blog posted first, and follow up with the Photo Web address next, so please check back in a few hours… or tomorrow night - if the generator here, runs out of gas... Sorry. It will be well worth it; they're are quite moving. (It's so bad / slow, that we couldn;t even get couple of images attached to this blog entry.)

On our last morning Deb went to work with a deaf-childrens school in Gonaives She interpreted for ahout 50 church members on Sunday). Elliot (Esq.) and I went to the local hospital to assess wounds and injuries for possible transfer back to Ken with the Wound Care Team at the Univ of Miami airport hospital. The medical staff at this hospital is very limited and the orthopedic surgeon, who came from Port-au-Prince (PaP) for three days each week, was killed in the quake. Many PaP patients were sent to hospitals in surrounding cities. Gonaives had received about 20 significant injuries as you will see in the photo album. A few doctors / surgeons from Bolivia have come here a few times, leaving instructions for the remaining nurses and students to carry out until their next team arrives later this week. They are doing a great job of keeping some very significant wounds clean and dressed.

We loaded up about noon and made the 3 hours trip back to PaP (gals in the 6-pack cab – guys standing in the back of the cargo bed – hanging on as we negotiated the rock roads, gullys, bumps, bolders and washouts… and where there WAS pavement it had potholes the size of your dinning room table, which Brian and Emory had to cut, weave and dodge – with us hanging on and keeping our balance on un-locked knees… and getting 'redder' by the hour as the sun scorched down. (We took a picture to show my kids, who were always, admonished to NEVER rid in the back of a pickup, as they were growing up. It was ‘fun’ on the way out, but a 'challenge' for tired bodies on the way home to PaP.

We took the wound photos to Ken at the U of M, airport hospital as soon as we returned and about the time we arrived we were met with a ‘scramble’ to receive an unknown number of casualties from a school about two hours away, that had just collapsed. 3 were dead and medevacs were bringing an unknown number to us at the Airport hospital. We were drafted to help treat the injuries and got a quick indoctrination. About half an hour later, word came that we were not receiving any of the casualties at our location. Our transportation had left when we prepared to be there all night; so we pitched in anyway... Kelly went to the med tent, and I went to work in the ER, while Elliot, Esther, and DeDe assisted – running labs, and what ever was needed. Elliot was drafted to "bag a patient" who had already coded twice...(squeeze the respirator bag attached to an intubation tube down this ladies trachea to keep her ventilated). She later died unfortunately. The family morned over her body, in a private area behind a tarp, with cries and chants of sadness for their loss.

The President of Haiti had declared the last three days as "a time for prayer" (the UN called it 3 days of mourning). Don't know if CNN covered this part, but we received word that the President of Haiti announced today, that he had 'received Jesus as his personal Savior' ! This was a very significant event in a nation that is about 60% Catholic, 30% Evangelical Christian, 10% 'other' ... and as they say, 100% VooDoo. (It's complicated...)

These are ‘life-changing days’ for everyone, from every perspective; the victims of the quake (obviously), but also the thousands of people who responded to the disaster...
Above all, it is, and will continue to be, our hope, that we (ORR Team#2) made a difference here, for the survivors and even the many people of Haiti who barely felt the quake. 'As Port-au-Prince goes... So goes the nation."

The ORR will have sent four teams to the area for about 10 days each (as plans have it right now), but my portion of the blog can not pass without recognizing the people who are here in Haiti all the time, for the sake of the people (and especially the Children) of Haiti – as you will see from our web album pictures at Jubilee – a destitute area near Goniaves, Haiti. If you want to learn more about this go to - http://love4haiti.blogspot.com/

Thank you to everyone who provided financial support, moral support and encouragement, and of course, endless prayer support, as we represented the people of Omaha, and the United States, and Christ. It was our pleasure (and an unforgettable experience) to serve you, but more importantly, the people of Haiti.

We are packing up to leave tomorrow, about noon, as Team #3 arrives in Port-au-Prince.
We’ll see you soon…
'Til Then... “Doc” (which became much easier for everyone to say or spell, than Vaughan).

Vaughan Wenzel, PA-C
rian