Medical Mission Trip: Haiti

Dearest friends and family-
As most of you know, I recently returned from a disaster medicine trip to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti after a 7.0 magnitude quake ravaged the capital city, and entire country, on January 12, 2010. I was fortunate enough to be on the 4th team from my residency program, In His Image, to make the trip to Haiti to serve the Lord and the people of this devastated country. I joined four other family medicine doctors, two surgeons, two nurses and two other support staff on this mission to Haiti.
The Lord clearly called me to this trip, and paved the way for our travel into and out of the country. It was such an awesome treat to literally be a part, and see God’s hand at work all along the way! From the beginning our trip was not easy, as the adversary tried to stop our efforts, but our amazing trek to Ft. Pierce, Florida in order to make it to our chartered flight to Haiti in time, included me (not a night person at all!) driving all night from Atlanta to Ft. Pierce! Upon arriving in Port-Au-Prince, the evidence of destruction was everywhere. Rubble seemed to be present every which way you looked and people filled the streets, many waiting for food distribution, and others with simply no place to go. Tents and make-shift housing filled every open space possible, as even the structures left standing where either too unstable to enter, or the people were too scared to live in their previous homes. We quickly learned that new Haitian justice was quick and decisive as we passed a recently deceased body in the street, with multiple gun-shot wounds. I suddenly felt quite vulnerable and out of place as locals stared at us as we slowly drove to the Salvation Army compound that would be our home and clinic for the next week. Upon arrival, a normally cool customer, I felt immensely overwhelmed by the gravity of the destruction. My feelings weren’t helped by the news that our temporary home had no electricity, no running water, toilets that didn’t work, and you had to spray yourself with deet in order to keep the mosquitoes at bay while you slept; if you could even sleep! I laid in bed the first night, wondering what I’d gotten myself into, before praying. The Lord quickly reminded me why he’d called me to go on this trip, and I read a passage from the book of Luke that I had prayed for the previous teams.
“And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing,” Luke 9:1-2.
My God and King was calling me to be His hands and His feet to these people; people He created just like me; people He loves, and yearns for.
My experience in Haiti was very diverse, and eye opening. The back wall of our sleeping room was about 20 yards from 15-20,000 Haitians living in a tent city that had arose after the quake. Without the aid of ear plugs, I never would have been able to sleep over the noise of music, commotion, laughter and occasional blood curling screams that filled the night air up to 2 am some nights. Yet mornings on the Salvation Army grounds would start early, as the local Christians would awake with the roster calls, and would shortly be singing praise songs in Creole! In many ways, it was like going to sleep with the devil and awakening with the King. Many members of our team had such difficulty with sleep, without even mentioning the hot humid weather each night!
Clinics were held on the first floor of the former school building on the Salvation Army compound. Our first day of clinic was filled with energy as a man who had been trapped in the rubble of a market place, was pulled out alive and brought to our clinic! He was terribly emaciated, but alert. We attempted to place an IV, but his fragile vein ruptured and we quickly transferred him to the University of Miami Hospital that was set up in tents on the airport grounds. Miraculously, he was in quite good condition given his circumstances! No renal failure, no serious infections or fractures! The patient soon became the lead story on CNN and locally, our team and residency program were thrust into the news. Interestingly, the patient told a story of a man in white bringing him water while he was trapped, which could be the only explanation to his survival, but who was this man in white? None of his friends or family knew of his survival, and no one else claimed to be his water helper. I choose to believe an angel helped Mr. Muncie survive. I personally transported a 4-mo old infant, whose mother had been feeding her nothing but water, as the child had been suffering from diarrhea for a week, and mom was not breastfeeding and had no formula or milk to give the baby. The baby was brought to me by a distraught nurse, yelling, “Seizing baby!” Sure enough, the little girl was in the throngs of a clonic seizure; most likely as a result of low sodium from being fed nothing but water for a week. The mother held her infant as we grabbed the ambu bag, for which we only had an adult mask, and no means to intubate an infant; we laid hands on this precious creation and prayed for God’s protection on this child. By the time we made it to the hospital, the seizure had stopped, and the child was becoming more alert. In all we transferred 5 patients to the hospital that first day, and we saw around 300 patients.
Throughout the week, we treated more acute/chronic illness than acute trauma as in previous weeks; but we still had our share of laceration repairs from debris, fights, and stabbings. We also delivered one baby the morning of departure and had one mother bring her baby in to the clinic at 2 AM after delivering in her tent! I helped tie off the cord with suture as the placenta was still intact; we inspected the baby and mom, who were both fine, and sent them back into the night! More proof that women can deliver babies without us doctors getting in the way!
Clinic was my favorite part of each day, as I sat with a patient to one side, and my new friend, Romain (my translator) on the other side. We quickly formed a friendship and good working partnership. He taught me some Creole; how to say “Do you know Jesus?” and “God Bless you,” were my favorite phrases. I learned of Romain’s plans and dreams in life, which were so similar to many young people in the U.S., but his path was instantaneously more difficult post Janurary 12, 2010. Romain loves basketball, and Dewayne Wade, but is hopefully a new OKC Thunder fan after I left him with a Thunder T-shirt as a “thank you.”
The most difficult part of clinic was seeing the children. Parents wanting so much to keep their precious little ones healthy and give them a future, it was almost hollow to tell a mother that her child had a virus and would get better on their own, knowing that many of these children may die in the next year from infections, dehydration, or starvation. Most had no resources to feed their families and depended on the distribution of food from relief organizations to survive.
But the Lord was definitely at work! Haiti is a nation that has a history steeped in voodoo, and black magic; Catholicism is also prevalent, but true, personal relationships with Christ seem few. I found the scripture in Luke 10:2 to be so true, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Many of our patients came from the Salvation Army Church and compound and claimed to be Christian already, so we prayed for all patients and encouraged them in Christ. We had about 7 patients pray to receive Christ during our week and planted hundreds of seeds among the approximate 1200 patients we saw in 4 days of clinic. Samuel, a man who survived the quake by jumping from a 2 –story building, prayed to receive Christ after my simple question, “Do you know Jesus,” as he answered “no, but I want to!”
Our trip was cut short by a day, as the Haitian government called for a national weekend of remembrance starting the Friday of our trip, as it was the 1 month anniversary of the quake. By another work of the Lord, we were able to get a flight a day earlier than planned since our last day of clinic was cancelled, which was good, as some of our team was beginning to come down with a bit of GI illness. We made it home in time for Valentine’s Day! I must admit, I did feel guilty as we left. Guilty that I could just pick up and leave and go back to such a blessed country, family and home; that these people, no different than myself, were left to fend for themselves amongst the rubble and destruction. I pray for the dreams and plans of the young translators, who all wanted to come to the US, and one who had aspirations of medical school.
A report last week stated that the Haitian president had openly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ, and had stated that the country must turn to Jesus in order rebuild and overcome this massive setback and destruction. Of course one would never hear of such a report in our national media, so verification is only from fellow believers still on the ground in Haiti, which we pray is true! Please continue in my prayers for the people of Haiti; my new friends and their hopes and dreams, the babies in need of food and clothing, young people in search for love and hope, the elderly looking for a better nation. Pray for the rebuilding of Haiti, the rebuilding on a foundation that cannot be shaken. Pray for an awakening in Haiti; an awakening to the love of Christ and the hope of salvation.
Thank you all for supporting this trip. For you were all a part in thought and prayer! God Bless!