Haiti - Challenges

     I slept in a little Thursday morning (6:15am instead of 6am) and took a nice warm shower, but tried to keep it short. I think we had better water pressure there than I do at home in Indy. Breakfast consisted of eggs over hard, fruit, and toast. After a short delay waiting for the key again, which we expected, we got to work. The biomeds brought us a few defibrillators and we made that our priority expecting they would be returned to service as soon as possible, but they explained that the hospital staff don’t have training and won’t usually use them if there is an emergency. Needless to say, we were “shocked” to hear this. I don’t even know if they have conductive gel for the paddles used to deliver the shock. It’s hard for them to get parts for the equipment down here and often it’s something as simple as the replacing the battery like for the AEDs. Similar to the defibs, but completely battery powered, these AEDs were no use with dead batteries.

     Sister Ann stopped by while we worked and invited us to pass out the blankets and stuffed animals from the Trimedx Foundation. There were kids of all ages in the pediatric building, most with their mothers and some with both parents. We gave every one of them a blanket and animal. David took some pictures of me and even insisted I continue to pass them out when I offered to take his picture. The moms expressed their gratitude but I still wish I spoke their language.

     We went back upstairs and started testing some tourniquets which were brought up from surgery. The test equipment that should have worked for measuring the pressure didn't and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to test them at all. Then David had the idea of using the high-pressure port on our ventilator analyzer. We had to piece together an adapter with the bits of tubing and connectors we had with us, but thank God it worked. These models were unfamiliar to us so we had to find and follow the service manuals, but sometimes that’s the best way to learn.

     We helped return some of the equipment we finished and then finally convinced the biomeds to let us test the ventilators that were sitting in the ICU unused. It had been a bit of a struggle to get them to help with this and we concluded they may not think the ones in the ICU need to be tested because they didn’t seem to have any problems. We replaced them with ones we had just tested so they would have some if needed. The ICU, by the way, was one large room with just six beds, all occupied, lining two of the walls. There was a locked door to the courtyard with a desk next to it and one door to the surgery hallway. One of the vents we switched out was in French and we couldn’t find anything in the manual on how to change it. At this point we knew which buttons to press and some of the French words were similar. We had one of the biomeds run through this test with us since he was much more fluent in French than English. Unfortunately, there was yet another challenge – the oxygen pressure from the wall outlet was too low to pass some of the tests. It wasn’t just the room we were using – an old operating room. Sadly, resources such as this are not always available in countries like Haiti. We thought about bringing the four vents upstairs or the oxygen tank we had been using down to us, but then one of the biomeds suggested taking a tank from the ICU. It seemed like the best option, but still wasn’t easy to get to between two beds and behind some equipment. The work day was nearing its end, but we finished testing one of the vents and called it a day.

     On the way back to our residence, some of the salesmen we had talked to before invited us to come see what they had for sale. I intended to buy a couple things and as I expected their starting prices were high. We haggled a bit and I probably still ended up paying them more than the things were worth, but I didn’t mind. I had skipped lunch today and once we returned I enjoyed an apple I had brought from home and a cold glass of water. I read for a bit, but made little progress because my mind kept wondering off.

     Dinner consisted of lasagna and sliced tomatoes. The serving was large, but remember I had skipped lunch so I could have eaten more if it weren’t for the half liter of coke. David and I talked about the privilege and opportunity we had to be here and to serve the hospital. We both had an attitude of thankfulness toward the Trimedx Foundation for coordinating the trip and paying our expenses. I hope to encourage a few of my coworkers to consider volunteering soon.

     David had spoken with Sister Ann and we planned to go to visit some of the orphans the next day in the afternoon. I expected this would be the hardest thing for me to see, but that was no reason to avoid seeing them. God has helped open my eyes and put memories in place of things I had previously only heard about Haiti. I wish I could do more to help…