Medical Mission 2015

November 08, 2015

We just returned home from bringing the medical team back to PAP, it was a sad good bye. A team of five people four nurses and a pharmacy helper came from Detroit area, and two Haitian Americans arrived from Delray Beach Florida to interpret. Johnny and Anita were also working as interrupters and myself.  The team arrived last Friday, I drove the team to Kalabot on Saturday and shortly after we arrived the clinic opened.

Patients were seen on Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, all day Monday and Tuesday morning with a total of 290 people seen. On Sunday a young mother brought in a 16 month old baby that had severe asthma, and probably pneumonia, his breathing was greatly restricted. We did not have the medication he needed so I prepared to drive him to the hospital, the mother sent a young girl to her house to get clothes. The young girl returned and said the grandmother and the father would not allow the baby to go to the hospital. The mother then left saying she would get their things and return. While she was gone Anita and I discussed the situation. The mother had told Anita the baby has been hospitalized on two different occasions and was referred to a hospital that was very far away. The father refused to allow the baby to go to this other hospital. Anita knows of a group just this side of PAP that would be willing to help the baby and his mother; they would stabilize the child and then work with the mother so she could be trained to take care of the baby. So Anita and I decided the best thing to do was for me to drive her and the family to Anita’s house, and she would go with her husband to this hospital. Well we waited over an hour and the mother did not return. Then another woman came to get the baby. She said the mother was too ill to return and the baby could not go to the hospital. Fr. Gracia explained to us that the family practiced voodoo and that was why they did not allow the baby to receive medical care. We cautioned the women that the baby could die and Gene (our Haitian friend) told the women that this was the opportunity to get help for the baby. We had a truck to take the baby and a place to take him to get the help he needed. She just left with the baby.

The next day they sent a family member to tell us they wanted us to take the baby, but Bob had come to get the truck and Anitia, so we no longer had the truck; there is no telephone service in Kalbot so I could not call Anita to make arrangements to take the baby. We told the family that on Wednesday we would be going to PAP and she could meet us in front of the Hospital and we would take her then.

Monday night after we closed clinic we returned to the rectory for much needed relaxation and something cold to drink. While sitting in the court yard waiting for dinner a young girl was carried into the court yard. She was about 15 and at first we thought she was having a seizer, her eyes were rolling back, and she was foaming at the mouth and talking incoherently. The medical team jumped to action but could not discern what was going on. Gene and Mariette the Haitian Americans that traveled from Florida took over and started to pray over her. Fr. Gracia had us go into the house and begin eating. He seemed rather embarrassed. Gene came in and explained the girl believed her uncle had put a voodoo spell on her. Father ate quickly and went back out to the girl. I was helping to clear the table and saw him out in the court yard praying and soothing the girl. He had the girl stay at the rectory the rest of the time we were there.

On our final day of clinic Gene and Janine climbed the mountain to go to Gene’s parent’s house, they are in their nineties and are not able to come to the clinic. One of the nurses had caught a stomach virus and could not come to help so we were down three people. Many people came to be seen and we were swamped. I ask Sr. Julian (the Haitian nurse) to see patients also and she was glad to help. One of the American nurses called me over, she had a baby who was very swollen, his belly and his arms and legs. He cried anytime you touched him, she had not seen a baby in this condition before and was not sure how to help him. I called Sr. Julian over and was confirmed the baby was suffering from severe protein malnutrition. We wrote a letter to the hospital to see him at my expense and the mother left. I told Sr. Julian if the child needed to go to St. Marc we could take him the next day and to meet us in front of the hospital at 10:00 in the morning.

 

Late afternoon we returned to our apartment I prepared dinner and we had a relaxing evening. The next morning we left for PAP. Our first stop was the hospital to look for the children and their mothers. Neither of the children were there. Gene and I went into the hospital to look for them. Gene asked around and found out the malnourished baby had been there, they could not help her and sent her to Gonaives, and the mother of the baby did not have any money so a doctor gave her the money for the motto to get to the hospital.

 

We then went to an office that helps malnourished children to see if they had a phone number for the mother, they did not. So we dropped Gene off at a relative’s house and went to join Anita and Elwood. The whole team would not fit inside our truck so some people road with them.

 

On our way to PAP we stopped at the hospital in Gonaive to see if we could find the malnourished baby and his mother, we could not find them. So Anita said I had done all I could do and we should just continue to PAP. The medical team treated us to a day at the beach what a wonderful gift it was. It is a side of Haiti we never get to enjoy. The relaxation was very renewing for us to go back to work.

 

I sincerely want to thank all who participated to help the people we serve. They gave a lot of themselves without complaining treating many sick people, under difficult conditions. I am sure they will all be blessed for their hard work.

 

Thank you for your interest and your prayers,

Denise

 

P.S. The malnourished baby got to St. Marc for the help he needed, I was able to send money to the family so they could eat and buy the prescriptions the baby needed.