Sorry, I took a little break to try and get back into the swing of things here at home. Today I have four videos for you from our day in Haiti last Sunday. Two are of our time at church. You can see some of our team holding little ones. The other two are of the state house building in downtown Port-au-Prince.
So we had one more very sick baby come into the clinic today, towards the end of the day. Deanna was in the Chambrun clinic in the morning, so it was God’s timing that the child came in later in the afternoon when she was at the mobile clinic. The baby was just eight days old and suffering from severe malnourishment and some sort of infection that required IV antibiotics. Even though the hospital told us two days ago when we brought baby #2 in that we can’t bring any more babies in, we headed towards the hospital again.
At the hospital, there were no beds and they were trying to send the team away. They were pretty crabby about it too. Of course we were not having it. So Deanna found another Pediatrician and they agreed that if the mom could bring the baby to the hospital each day, they could give the antibiotics that the baby needs and send them home again. Well, another nurse saw us, and said she would find us a bed. Somehow, a bed did become available. Back to this story in a moment.
The baby we brought two days ago we found again. At first the hospital told us the baby died, but that turned out not to be our baby (thanks be to God). The baby was in the incubator. It had a tube to feed it and the hospital said they were planning to keep it for three to four weeks, a clear indication of how sick the child was. If you remember, this child was the one whose mom recently died, and the grandmother was left to care for it. The grandmother came over and gave Deanna a big hug and was committed to staying with the child. What an encouraging miracle to see the little child doing so well.
Back to the baby from today: so the baby was going to get in to the hospital. As they were checking the baby in, they asked its name. They were waiting until the grandmother to come and name the baby, so eight days old and the baby still did not have a name. The nurse said they cannot admit the baby with a name, so the mom turned to Deanna and said we will call the baby what they call her. So little Deanna Pascal was checked into the hospital tonight to get the medications she needs.
So we are loaded up, driving home on the bus for the last time…as we are coming down the narrow road in our bus, we come to a point in the road where we could not pass.
It is Pastor Pierre. He is by himself with a pick-up truck full of food. He is handing it out to the community of people all around him. I got out of the van to say hello and see if I could help. As the people mobbed around me to get closer to the food, I was nervous. Pierre just put packs in my hand and without words said to hand them out to the people. I immediately thought of Aslan, the lion in the C.S. Lewis children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia. It says of Aslan that he is not safe, but he is good. This is the heart of the man, Esperiendieu Pierre. He has seen his family just two days in the last six weeks. He works most days from 5:00 AM until 10:00 or later at night. It is 7:45 as I write this in the evening, and he is not home. He is a man that is working so hard of his people in the country. And in the midst of it all, I could sense the joy he was getting in handing out food to the people. At least for a moment, he was having some fun.
Pastor Pierre flies to the States tomorrow to get a much needed week with his family. The thing he said he is looking forward to most, besides seeing his wife and kids, is sleeping. I think he has earned it. I am so grateful for Esperiendieu, and for the demonstration of his heart in our stumbling upon him in the road, handing out food.
Aaron has been sending me tons of stories and photos…I don’t want to have anything fall on the “cutting room floor”, because you all are praying for your friends, loved ones, and Kingdom co-laborers on this trip. Because of that, here are several pictures from Thursday. Be patient as they may take a few seconds to load. Note there is a second page of pictures that you can view. -CH
Today was a tough clinic. It seemed like so many things were going on at once. It started with finding the best place to do the clinic. We finally found a good spot at an IDP camp next to the one we were located on Monday. The tent where we set up was extremely HOT. We were pushing the fluids. Then one of our nurses needed to step out for a while because of a pretty powerful headache. After a good rest, some meds, and some food, she actually started feeling better and went back to seeing patients. We had lots of random visitors. It seems some people have just showed up in Haiti wanting to help, but not necessarily connected to anyone on the ground, so they are floating around looking for where to plug in. I was thankful for the relationship we already have here on the ground.
Dr. Klotz looking at patient
Next, we ended up taking one team member back to the house because the heat really got to them. The team that was running the clinic in Chambrun closed down early and was able to join the mobile clinic. They provided a much needed boost of energy for our last few hours. We saw about 290 patients today, and we finished the day with one last hospital run. A young baby that was eight days old was very malnourished and had some sort of infection, it was causing her one eye to close. As I write this, part of our team is just returning from the mobile hospital out at the airport. It is 7:30 and they have not had dinner yet.
I love our doctors on this team. They have such huge hearts, full of compassion for their patients. There were a number of times today when they would encounter a patient, and they would know exactly what to do back in the states, but given the lack of resources here, it was really tough to know what to do. I saw them each try and think through the options. I saw emotion well up more than once. One woman may be in congestive heart failure. Another woman was possibly having mini-strokes. An eight day-old child was severely malnourished probably had a very serious infection. Another patient had high blood pressure and was going blind in their eyes. One child had blood in his vomit. What do you do with such hard cases? We were very limited. Our doctors were not only extremely competent, but full of love and compassion. I was proud of them.
Brook with patient
The nurses were just the same. They loved each patient that came through. They each were learning a bit more Creole as the week went on, able to introduce themselves by name as they began to hear the complaints. A 22 year old came in saying he thinks something was wrong with his brain. As he was questioned further, it seemed he was having panic attacks. We treated so many cases of scabies today, a little critter that crawls under skin and leaves a trail of infection as it goes. One man wanted desperately to have children, and had a lab report of his low sperm count. We laid hands on and prayed for he and his wife. The things were saw were so numerous. And we did our best with what we had. I was so very proud to watch all our whole team love so well.
One of our team members had a breaking moment today. He saw a young man with a dark t-shirt on and it had some writing. When he looked closely, he saw the following phrase printed in white letters across the front of the shirt:
It was a breaking moment because he realized where he was standing. Haiti is a country in desperation. It feels like so much is riding in how the outside world responds to what is happening here. Pastor Pierre mentioned the other night that he is shocked that the suicide rate has not gone up in Haiti, as people are so desperate. As we talked about this encounter this evening at group, we realized the good news. The good news is that the bases are loaded. We have such an opportunity to hit one out if we step up to the plate. We have such an opportunity to help usher in the Kingdom of heaven here in Haiti and be a part of seeing Christ come to Haiti in a radical way. We are in fact up, and for today and for this week, the church of Jesus Christ is hitting it out of the park.
A man came into the clinic today. He was 95 years old. Yes, 95 years old. He was a sweet old man. He was complaining of blurry eyesight, and was a bit stiff and weak. As one of our nurses began to get his story, we learned a few details like he was sleeping on the ground, and he was probably dehydrated and a bit malnourished from not eating and drinking enough. Who wouldn’t be stiff from sleeping on the ground, especially when you are 95?
I wish I could have spent the afternoon listening to this man’s story. I think the average age most Haitians can expect to live to is 58. How did this man live to be 95, plus who knows how much older? We cared for his needs and decided he was probably our favorite patient of the day at the mobile clinic. We even snapped a picture of him and Krista, who was the nurse that took care of him…
This was the smoothest day at both clinics. We also nicknamed it “dirty Wednesday” as it was extremely dusty and dirty on the mobile clinic. We saw 113 patients at the clinic in Chambrun, and 306 patients at the mobile clinic, which is 419 for those of you keeping score at home. That is a lot of patients for two doctors and a team of nurses. Here are some snapshots of what we saw:
Working in the mobile clinic
-We saw a young child with the largest head I have ever seen, maybe 5 to 10 times the normal size from Hydrocephalus. She had open sores that we re-dressed, and the most caring Mom.
-A man in his mid-60’s with testicular cancer. The tumor did not look good.
-A young girl who was 20, had two kids, and had a heart murmur that really needs to be seen by a heart doctor.
-A young 15 year old was throwing up in line, so we pulled her out and got her up front. She had not had a period the last two months. When she was asked if she had been having sex, she broke down and started crying.
We were not sure what was happening at first, and it was creating quite a scene, so we moved her to the bus. We think she was possibly raped or made a mistake or something and was scared to talk for fear of the shame that would be brought on to her by the community. Our group prayed for her tonight during our debrief session.
-A mother of six came into the clinic with a few of her kids. She lost her husband in the earthquake and was left with nothing but her own life and six kids. She was extremely tired and worried, and was asking us for a tarp.
-We have de-wormed countless kids. Worms are quite a problem here and it takes away your appetite while causing your tummy to hurt. Thankfully we have had plenty of medicine for this.
-There was a woman who came into the clinic that was having a miscarriage.
-One of our nurses took a pregnant woman who was her very first patient who requested an abortion. She did not want to have anything to do with the baby in her.
-One person came in that was complaining of a very fast heartbeat. When they were asked why their heart was beating so fast, they said “because I am fearful every day.” We have actually had a number of patients talk about their anxiety since the earthquake and describe various symptoms that began the day of the quake.
-One of our nurses had someone come in that had really dirty and nasty feet. So she went and got a bucket of water and a rag and washed their feet. As she was washing them, she said to the person “You know, this is what Jesus did. He washed feet.” And the person nodded their head as if they understood and knew that Jesus did wash feet. I was proud that we did a bit of that today as well.
After running clinics now for three days in a row, and if you include all the patients Saturday, this would be our fourth clinic, we are beginning to understand how we each work and how we all fit together. Today was by far the smoothest day in clinic yet.
There have been countless snapshots and photos from our time here. Here are just a few images:
People in line at the mobile clinic
Dr. Deanna working at the mobile clinic
Brook with a cute kid
Deanna with a 75 year-old guy with bad arthritis
Cute hat on a kid
Brook with a cute kid
Deanna and some kids showing off their muscles
Reinoso’s holding a baby with the same name as one of their daughters (Alyssa)
This is the one that has Dr. Klotz worried…there was an older gentleman who came into our clinic on a wheelbarrow. We don’t know how far he came from, but it was quite a distance. To younger women were taking turns pushing him and had brought a jug of water with them for their journey. Sometimes patients come into the clinic and you can tell right away they don’t need to wait in line. He was wheeled right inside our barrier rope. It almost makes you think about the crippled man whose friends lowered him in through a roof to get to Jesus.
His hair was completely gray, and he wore a white tank top. He couldn’t walk and could barely stand. He was blind. He had hands that trembled, but they had been doing that for the last fourteen years, so that was not what brought him this day. He had a fever of 102.5. He had terrible pain in his kidneys. Dr. Klotz examined him quickly and determined he had an infection in his kidneys, and maybe his prostate as well. We gave him the proper medicine and he was on his way after a short while with us.
This man was sick and is who was still on our Dr’s mind as we were leaving the clinic. Pray for him as you think about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name…but God knows it.
It’s hard to tell some of these stories…there’s no telling what each day will bring here in Haiti. Here are a few snapshots from Tuesday, March 2:
