Mad Haitian Love

Many of you may not know that I spent some time in Haiti with a great group known as Healing Hands for Haiti in 2002 and 2003.  

The group provides medical service (focused on rehab) to the Haitian people.  It is an amazing non-profit group.  I never served an LDS mission, but my brief time in Haiti felt like it was my life changing experience.  I had never been exposed to that degree of poverty and devistation.  I was instantly humbled.  On both of my trips, I stayed for approx 2 weeks each time and although this time was short in the scheme of things, I felt like I had been subjected to a lifetime of experiences that I would NEVER forget.  

I was submerged into a culture that, despite it's poor circumstances, had found happiness.  They were thankful for the basics that I never thought about: food, water, shelter, and love.  

I spent a good portion of my time in orphanages where a large percentage of the children were left on the door step by parents who could not take care of them and loved them enough to give them up in hopes of them getting these basics.  

Some of the orphanages had better funding, donations, and were better equipped to care for the children.  Others made me cry as soon as I walked in...children lined up in a crib with no muscle tone to even hold their own head up because they have never been held and they were extremely malnourished.  The Healing Hands group kept medical records on each kid and I would find a chart, look at the actual age of a child and gasp because they were the size of a 2 year old but they were actually 8.  

This scrapbook page is of a fairly decent orphanage in Port au Prince on my first trip to Haiti.  

 

Nothing could have prepared me for the heart ache I felt for the children I met.  

The little boy in the picture below is one such kid.  He was in a very, very, very poor orphanage that didn't have much of anything.  Most of the kids in this orphanage had other disabilities (MS and down syndrome just to name a few diagnosis.)  They needed so many supplies and would never get them.  

This little boy was so sick that he couldn't even move.  I could hear from across the room that he was choking on his own spit.  I picked him up and could feel the fluid in his lungs shake his little frame as he struggled to breath.  He was also burning up with fever.  

 

I had to leave him that first day without providing him any medical assistance.  It killed me, but I didn't have anything to help him and I had to leave to get what he needed.  I hoped he didn't die before I got back the next day. 

I had no way to give him the antibiotics and nutrition that he needed because he couldn't swallow without sucking everything right into his lungs.  I went back to the clinic and scrounged to find a nasogastric tube, but they did not have one.  They did have ONE dobhoff tube.  These tubes are much longer and are meant to be placed into the small bowel to feed patients long term.  This tube was an adult size (way too long) but it was the only thing I had.  I talked with the physician on the team regarding antibiotics to take back with me, dose, and frequency.  The first time I placed the tube, he was so lethargic that he could not even fight or resist as it passed through his nose (which is NOT fun and is painful).  I crushed up the meds and then gave him nutrition.  At the end of each day, I had to remove the tube, take it back to the clinic, clean it, and go back the next day to do it all over again. I did this for over a week.  By the end of the week, he had his eyes open and even resisted the tube going into his nose.  I was ECSTATIC that he could had rallied enough to fight.  I remember telling him over and over to keep fighting. 

I never saw him again.  I checked back with another team to see if he had lived to see another medical team come in and he had.  I will never forget him.

A couple months ago, I started to think that I needed to go back. In fact, I had contacted my old roommate, Erin, and asked her now that we are both done with grad school if she would consider going back.  I started looking into when groups were going etc.  Then, of course, I got caught up in my own life (moving, surgery, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) and before you know it, Haiti is in the spot light and comes to the forefront of my mind again.  

January 12, 2010 - - 7.0 Earthquake rocks Haiti

The ONLY thought in my mind was: how can I get over there to help?  

I looked into every organization that I could find and asked if I could get on their team.  Each organization already had their teams assembled and were awaiting safety clearance before they went in.  I checked with Healing Hands and they too were on hold.  I even signed up with the DEMPS group at the VA (Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System). I was told that I would be put on the list but that the DEMPS groups are deployed by location to the disaster and that the Utah VA may not even go but that I was on the list.  So I took their training, started to get my immunizations updated, and expedited my passport (I hadn't updated it since I got married and changed my name).  I didn't care how I got there, I just felt like I needed to be there.   


Then out of the blue, I receive an email from my cousin who had heard of a Utah group (Utah Hospital Task Force Group) getting ready to head over and they were taking applications of interested people.  I signed up IMMEDIATELY!!  

 Over 700 people applied to go and I was one of 150 people chosen to go on January 27th for 3 weeks.  I was nervous and had some reservations about it, but knew I needed to go.  Then, my husband injured his knee and we were waiting to hear if he needed surgery.  I felt so torn.  I felt like I needed to be in two places at once.  I had to withdraw my name from the group to stay in Utah and take care of my hubby.  He had surgery the day the team left for Haiti.  I know I made the right decision to stay home, but it was hard to say no to this opportunity to go back and serve.  Senior executives at the USAID office said that this group of 150 people was a group that "appears to be more 'put together' than any team I've seen during my time here at AID." 


I watch the blog postings daily of the utahhospitaltaskforce.blogspot.com.  I encourage anyone who needs to get outside themselves to read the daily records of what this team is doing for our fellow brother and sisters.  

I would also encourage anyone who feels like they would like to donate to the cause to do so via www.healinghandsforhaiti.org.  If you want to have your donation to go to the Utah Hospital Task Force, just indicate that as you process your donation online.  Your donation will help fund another plane full of people to go to Haiti.  

I'm not sure how I will get over there...but I will.  I don't know why I wasn't suppose to go with the frist group, but God made sure I wouldn't be there because he gave me an equally important person to take care of here. 


I have mad love for the Haitian people and cannot wait to get back over there to help.