Day 5 - still lots to do!

Everyone said they slept better last night, not sure if it was because we were all so tired or we are just getting used to all the animal noises. We had another great breakast and as we were heading out to go to the hospital a patient showed up with a crush injury to her foot. She was in PoP working as a maid for a family, the whole house collapsed and she was trapped for a day in the rubble. Everone else in the house was killed. Such a common story!
After fixing up the lady we all piled into our open truck and headed to the hospital. It is always an exciting ride into town. Some people are still sleeping in the streets because they are afraid of earthquakes. We got to the hospital and split into groups again. Hector, Ron, Mona, and I went to work on a kid with an open tib/fib fractue that was from the earthquake in PoP. It was hard to fix since it was already 2weeks out and infected! We got it straighter with an ex fix, I hope it will heal now. Then we had another kid that was also injured in PoP, he fractured the distal femoral growth plate and the whole piece was displaced anteriorly 90%. we had to open it and take the whole fracture down, then pin it in place, knowing that his growth plate will probably fuse, very sad, but we couldn't leave it the way it was.
Between cases we were seeing patients in the parking lot. The stuff we see is usually badly displaced, open fractures, that are 2 weeks out and infected, arms, femurs, and tib/fib fractures.
Hector pinned a fracture on a 5 year old with a displaced finger fracture. Then we fixed a badly comminuted open patella fracture, as you could guess it to was 2 weeks old. There is still so many cases left to do! We hope they will let us operate tomorrow. It was sad to see the team from Michigan leave today. The left us lots of stuff and were able to teach us lots over the past 2 days. They will be missed.

While they were all operating in the morning, I (Karmen now writing ) worked in clinic treating infections and fractures- some rechecks from yesterday. Saw lots of nasty humerus fractures and one tough woman who had compartment syndrome of arm from crush injury from cinder blocks. Clinic went until 2 then headed to the OR to help with couple cases and saw few people in road.
All and all day was good. Was hard to go into the "recovery" rooms, especially the pediatric ward.
After a fun ride home in the back of the truck followed by a cold shower, we sit here around the big dinner table sharing stories while enjoying the molasses cookies my mom sent along.. Everyone was so siked when I hauled those out. Think we'll sleep well tonight. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers.