Family Doc Diary: Haiti

For the 4th time in the last 6 years I had the opportunity to go to Haiti. This time with two of my children. The group that we go with is called Haiti Health Initiative. It is a fledgling organization that is trying to make a difference in rural Haiti. We go to a small village about 2 hours outside of Port-Au-Prince called Timo. After a two hour bus ride we then hike about 45 minutes into the village. The organization goes every 6 months. We haul in all of our supplies including a mobile pharmacy. We do education on hygiene, school, preventing anemia and caring for the environment. Our goal is to focus on children and women who are pregnant and breastfeeding. We also have focused on adults who have hypertension. We also educate the local lay midwives (70% of Haitian women deliver at home with the assistance of an untrained lay midwife). We give out supplies and educate the people there. These people have very limited access to healthcare. They often have to hike over an hour to get to a place where they can catch a bus or taxi in to town. Most of them don't have money to ride the bus and they certainly don't have money to pay for doctors or medicines.

Getting this year was made difficult by Hurricane Sandy. We were supposed to leave on Oct 25th but we received word from the Dental team that was already there that the hurricane had destroyed our make shift clinic. Everything was ruined under high winds and over 15 inches of rain. I spent most of the day on Thursday calling everyone and canceling flights. Channel 4 news even did a report on our cancelled trip.

News Story Haiti trip Cancelled

However as we got word on Saturday that the locals had been working hard to get things ready for us we began to think that perhaps there was a way that we could go after all. The organization quickly called airlines and hotels and the people in Haiti to make arrangements for us to go. It truly was miraculous that we were able to make it happen. The only snag was about 5 of the people on the trip had made alternate plans and were not able to go. Still we had enough of the crew that could go that it would be worthwhile. One other snag was getting Jacob from Phoenix there. We were able to find a flight on another airline that would get him there with just enough time to spare so that he could join us on the trip. We made it to the airport and Channel 4 was there to do a follow up story. I really don't like doing the camera- thing but it is good publicity for our organization.

News Story Haiti Trip back on.

After a red-eye flight to NYC and then getting in to Haiti we all made it safely. There to meet us where our local Haitian contacts. They helped guide us through customs and off we went for a 2 hour ride up a windy mountain rode and then a 45 minute hike down the mountain.

For most of the group it was there first time there. Tom Wood, and ER physician at Mckay-Dee and a good friend was there for his third time. Our pharmacist, Scott Flippance and Amy Leishman were there for their second time. Everyone else was new including 2 optometrists. A great benefit was having Michael Paquette who lives in Alberta, Canada and is a returned missionary from Haiti. He speaks fluent Creole and was a tremendous asset to our group. He brought his 17 year old daughter who fit in well with Emily and Tom Wood's daughter Sabrina. The youth on the trip did a great job. They were unfazed by the living conditions and the hard work. Emily was the trip photographer and did a great job. All of the photos posted are hers.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful as we saw over 1300 patients. We saw a great variety including 2 children who were critically ill. Both of them we stabilized and got down to the hospital. One of them made it the other one passed away the following day. It seems that is life in Haiti. The people see tragedy on an everyday basis. It is a part of their every day life. Haiti is the poorest country in the world and has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. You wonder if you are making a difference when there is so much poverty and hopelessness. I think it is the "starfish principle". You may not be able to make a difference for all of Haiti but for the people in Timo we can make a difference and give them hope.