Our Trip to Haiti - A Healthcare Perspective

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(Free-Press-Release.com) February 5, 2010 -- Our Trip to Haiti - A Medical Perspective

On January 21st, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. when a huge medical team gathered at Miami International Airport, little did they know that they were about to undertake a mission of a lifetime. Just after midnight, the flight of over 100 people, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, traveling from Miami, got to Haiti's airspace and could not land. There were four airplanes waiting ahead of us 'in the air.' We had to wait in line. The tension among us was high. We were parked up 'in the air', in the middle of nowhere. When we eventually landed, I had to practice my jumping technique in order to get from the plane onto the ground.

Our medical team arrived at where we would be staying. Crowds of homeless-like individuals were already asleep on the ground.. We stepped over them, looking for a place to rest our heads, away from the homeless. It wasn’t long before we realized that the homeless people sleeping outside were actually doctors and nurses from the previous flights We chose a spot on the ground and went to sleep. It was about 2 a.m.

Later that morning, we arrived at Haiti General Hospital. Sick patients were laying along the sidewalk. They were sweating profusely from the boiling hot sun. Many were groaning with pain. Others were grimacing. The leg and knee stumps, head wounds, and general body wounds, were too many to count. Mentally traumatized patients stripped themselves naked in the street. The wounds smelled. The dressings were stale. The flies that swarmed the sidewalk did not make the situation any better. We fanned away the mosquitoes. Some medical personnel looked overwhelmed and confused. The rest of us were fired up to work. We darted through the flies and mosquitoes, removed old and stale dressings, cleaned the wounds, then applied new dressings. We gave antibiotics and pain medications. We then inserted IVs and gave IV fluids. By the end of the day, one of our nurses had dizzy spells and was fainting. I expressed our team’s mission during an interview with the ‘First Lady of Haiti.’

The next morning, before leaving on our bus back to the hospital, a group of nurses, doctors, and paramedics rushed down the narrow dusty non-asphalted street to attend to a young man who had wounds with sutures that was bleeding and needed immediate attention. The young man who had previously been in the hospital after being traumatized by the earthquake, did not follow-up at a hospital or clinic because he had no way of getting there. He had no transportation, he said. After caring for the young man, we all got on the bus and again headed to the hospital. We were so determined to cure the injured. We fell into a work routine. Towards the end of that day, another nurse had began to faint. She had now converted from a nurse to a patient. She was given three bags of IV fluids. During a thirty-minutes face-face interview with the Mayor of Port Au Prince - Haiti, Mayor Jason Jean-Yves, I expressed my concern about silent healthcare issues that had evolved from the after-effect of the earthquake.

Our mission was to save as many lives, and prevent fatalities from wound infections. Towards the end of our trip, we felt that we had accomplished that mission. The lives that we touched were precious. We wish that we had the opportunity to do more. So, we would like to encourage our American and International healthcare colleagues to do more - volunteer in Haiti and touch a life. (This story was written by Jennifer Townsend, RN, CCRN, BSN, JD, Member of American Nurses Association, Owner of Health Management Ventures, www.healthmanagementventures.com. Email: Office@healthmanagementventures.com).

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