Current estimates of the Haitian Earthquake disaster include 200,000 dead, 250,000 injured, and as many as 1.5 million homeless. Through an unusual set of circumstances, LEAP was able to travel to ground zero, Port Au Prince, Haiti. We were there from day 4 through day 6 of the disaster. It was a big question mark whether we would even be able to land. Plane after plane hovered over the small airport, awaiting clearance from the military. There was the chance that our plane, like there was for all the others, would be either turned away or circling indefinitely. A group of a half dozen military personnel were sitting in a grassy spot near the middle of the runway serving as traffic control. Suddenly, our plane stopped on a dime, spun around and sped off the runway and out of the path of another plane rapidly coming in behind us.
The airport was pure chaos. Thankfully we managed out of the chaos with the help of the mission organization that was expecting us. Our hospital location changed unexpectedly midstream and we were taken to CDTI Hospital. Our drive to the hospital brought the image created beforehand by the media to reality– building after building and house after house lie in ruins interspersed with relatively untouched houses and buildings. The two search-and-rescue professionals with us commented on how many collapsed buildings were left ghostly undisturbed. We were used to the universal standard of a collapsed building being searched. We arrived to find the hospital abandoned for fear that it lacked structural integrity in the wake of potential aftershocks.The parking lot replaced the physical hospital with hundreds patients and their families lying on blankets or mattresses on the concrete ground. There were open fractures, closed femur fractures and gangrenous limb after gangrenous limb after gangrenous limb. We didn’t have access to the O.R. so we began immediately setting up surgical facilities in 3 stalls of an ER area, to which we did have access. Spinal blocks, axillary blocks and Ketamine sedation allowed us to do most of the things we needed to do. Amputations occurred without cautery and required quick tying of vessels and bleeders. Children were showing up for medical care alone or with siblings having lost their parent or parents in the quake. We worked hand in hand with the French National Medical team who performed triage and stabilization. We worked through the night and grabbed a couple hours of rest on sleeping bags or blankets on the concrete floor on the side of the hospital. Our plans were to have been picked up by the mission group that received us at the airport, and transported to homes, but that never materialized and we lost communication with them. Our brief rest was interrupted by the sound of multiple gunshots. About 4:00 am, we were awoken with the sound of a car horn repeatedly honking and banging at the front gate of our (fortunately for everyone) enclosed compound.
After sleeping a little, we immediately began working again. The group that I had hitched a ride with had an extremely well-organized plan of sending the planes back after they unloaded us and restocked with supplies. In addition to what was already scheduled to be on the plane, we identified several things and informed them. Our partners back in the U.S., visited hospitals and our warehouse and packed necessary supplies including portable anesthesia machines, portable cautery machines and multiple gigli saws. Later, we heard the radio station announce there was a group of American and French doctors working at CDTI which directed people with severe injuries to come to our hospital. More and more patients showed up. We finally got structural clearance of the hospital and were able to begin using the operating rooms midday on our second day. It was necessary to make some tough decisions such as removing oxygen (which was at critically low levels in the hospital with no hope of replenishment) from a critically ill woman with severe neck cellulitis and a compromised airway. We amputated limbs that possibly could have been salvaged to save lives.
The search-and-rescue guys immediately headed out and found dead bodies in most collapsed buildings they searched. They came across a school, and after immersing in the rubble, found a classroom of children still sitting in their desk chairs with their back packs on, crushed by rubble. They were able to team with a search-and-rescue team from Russia and save a young man.
Our biggest dilemma was knowing we had to leave the hospital early Monday morning. To our great relief, teams seemed to come out of the woodwork Sunday night to carry on our work. When we headed back to the airport, there were thousands of people in various areas lined up, presumably waiting for some type of help. When we arrived at the airport gate, it was manned by the military displaying their lethal power who then swung open the gate which led directly to the tarmac. We heard loud pops from crowd controlling devices being deployed.
One can only imagine the social unrest challenges that will escalate with 1.5 million homeless people, hungry and not directly feeling the benefits of the mass effort going on from organizations around the world. It is a true world war, all of us finally on the same side fighting for one cause, but there is way too much disorganization and very little vision of how we can effectively win. The good news is that things progress every day as we learn how to work together better, for the good of everyone. There is nothing that unites like a common goal. While the long term plan has yet to unfold, the intense battle of the acute crisis must be fought in any way possible.
God Bless you.
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