Photos

It is hard to upload photos to this site, so there is no real order to these photos, I'll find a way to do it better this weekend when I am not so tired.

Days 9 & 10 - Heading Home

I am sorry that I was not able to post yesterday. The last 2 days have been a whirlwind of emotions and travel. We had all felt that things had slowed down considerably and with the guy from Atlanta and the new Mexican team, there were not that many cases to do. Everyone felt it was time to head home. We were not sure we could get out until Friday because we had to wIt for space on the relief flights. We were able to get in touch with Abraham at the Bahamas Methodist Habitat, the had a plane that could take 3 of us to Nassau on wednesday. Karmen, Cynthia and I were ok with staying for another day or two, I felt that there was still some followup care we could/should do. I felt so torn. There is still so much to do there even if it isn't surgical. I also miss my kids and am looking forward to seeing them soon. Not to mention how badly I feel about all of my patients that have been so understanding about being away.
The plan was to take all of our gear to the airport and at least get our bags to Nassau. Then Mona, Ron, and Hector would head out on the second plane coming into Les Cayes.
We spent the morning packing up, visiting with the kids and buying some gifts, all that the kids had made and sell in a little shop at the orphanage. We decided to all head to the airport to see everyone off, the remaining three of us were going to go to the beach for the afternoon. At the airport we unloaded our gear and waited for the plane to arrive. The first plane was bringing supplies in, it had no seats but we were able to get all of our bags on. Ron was able to ride with the pilot in the jump seat. That opened up one seat on the second plane. The plane was able to take 4 passengers, there was supposed to be another doctor heading back to Nassau, but he never showed up. That meant that we were all able to get on the plane to nassau. Cynthia decided to stay for a few more days and continue to work at the Orphanage and help out with the sisters of mercy.
Had a great flight to Nassau, our pilot was a great guy, he buzzed the beach on the way into Great Inauga island and then again on the way into Nassau. I was in the jump seat and it was a lot of fun. Karmen decided she wants a plane now.
We got rooms at the Wyndam hotel. It felt so strange to be staying in such a fancy hotel. I must admit it felt great to take a hot shower! We all had a great dinner at a steak restaurant. Some of us went to the Casino to unwind before heading to bed. I think we all slept well with out the roosters and dogs keeping us awake all night.
We got up early and got to the airport, got our bags checked and then to customs. The customs guys were very interested in our trip and we showed them some of the photos, I forgot that not everyone likes seeing the gory photos and one of the customs guys almost passed out.
The flight to orlando was quick, we had a 4 hour layover there. Karmen got to see her parents who were flying down to spend a few weeks in florida. The flight back to Maine was uneventful as well. It is cold here! Was strange to say good bye to the team at the airport, but I think everyone was happy to get back to their families. I got to see my kids, was good to hug them! Makes me realize how fortunate we all are!
I will try upload a bunch of photos in the next post. Sorry I couldn't post more of them during the trip, we had limited data transfer ability while in Haiti.
Thanks for everyones comments and well wishes, I hope that my blog was informative, wish I was a better writer.

Day 9 - the pace slows

I want to thank Rhonda for the suggestion to use rum as a sleeping aid, had a full 8 hours of sleep last night. Going to load up again tonight!
Valarie I can't tell you how honored I feel to know you feel that way. I hope all my patients are so understanding. I hope all my patients know that I feel it is an honor that you put your trust in me to take care of you, and that even though I don't always have enough time with each of you, I strive to take care of each of you like one of my family.

Since today is Karmen's birthday I have asked her to write the first part of the blog.
Hi. It is my birthday! I told the Haitians I was turning 54 yrs old and they were impressed. Figured they are so beautiful and young looking that it wouldn't hurt to make myself look good.
All in all it was a good day . Not a normal "birthday" though not a big fan of my
birthday so was ok. The surgery line up has decreased which is good but was left to do were all sad surgeries. The last was the saddest of all. We had to tell this young man with a destroyed right arm that even with the work we were going to
do today, his arm would stll not work. Though we've seen many amps and disfigurment etc it was so hard to look into this young
man's eyes and tell him his arm was dead. I'm not sure what sank in. He had such trust in us "blanca" people in our blue scrubs that he thought we could turn anything into gold. Wish I had such faith.
I'm not sure what will happen to him. Best case this arm will be a functional paddle for him. I'll never forget his gentle voice and calm mindset in such an awful senerio.
So after that, we drove to a Mother Theresa covent that has taken in a lot of our post op pts and done a fantastic job with them. It was uplifting to see family members who had been trained properly in some basic PT moves that will improve their rehab significantly. It was so good to see our pts smiling, fed, and hydrated.
This covent normally takes care of babies born with various defects but has taken on these earthquake victims because they could . Seeing these babies was really hard but knowing they were in such capible hands helped. Who knew you could be a nun and a surgeon?! Between the young pilots working for Methodist missionaries that flew us into Haiti for free and these surgical nun doctors, my
highschool career counselor neglected to fill me in on so many possibilities!
Not that I would've chosen to be nun but a surgical nun is bit more appealing.
We drove couple mins from there to the water where we had a cold beverage at a beach bar which was a nice place to sit and bask in the nice breeze. Prestige- the local beer- was cold and refreshing even for a non-beer
drinker.
We returned to our oasis, the orphanage, and showered and got ready for dinner. After a very tasty dinner of mac and cheese they presented me with a birthday cake- complete with candles! It tasted so good and was so thoughtful, I almost cried. I'm so lucky to be with such caring people. I've been reminded of this multiple times each day during this trip. I think my 37th (no not 54th) year if off to a good start. Not where I thought I'd be spending my birthday but feel fortunate that I can be here doing what I can and learning from them all. Thank you all.

Day 8- Still lots to do

Another night without much sleep, it was dogs fighting that kept me up most of the night again. Need to remember to bring earplugs if I ever come back here. Think I'm going to take Ronda's advice and drink a bunch of rum tonight!
This morning the woman with the crushed foot came for followup, it looked a lot better today. We also recasted one of the workers who broke her arm a few weeks ago.
Then we headed to the hospital, had a bunch of cases today. Started off by fixing the woman with an amputation on one side and a broken femur on the other leg. Hector took an extra finger off a kid. We did 2 amputations today, one was done by one of the new guys, he is very brash and cocky, aparently he rushed through the case and ended up having to go back to the or to find vessels that were bleeding. He also tried to reduce a 3 week old shoulder dislocation. As you can guess it didn't work, he just tortured the poor guy. It is surgeons like this guy that give us a bad reputation. I think he means well but is trying too hard to be the hero. I have been trying to teach dr alexi as much as I can, I try to help him and show him the tricks I know, he has taught me a lot too! We spent a long time in fracture clinic today too. We ran out of plaster at one point and everything came to a grinding halt. The staff just left and we waited over an hour for the supply depot to open up so we could get more stuff. It is obvious to me that there will be many mal unions to deal with down the road. Although I amazed with how stoic these hatians can be. We are still seeing people coming from PoP with untreated injuries, but it has slowed down considerably. We made rounds in the wards today too, we were able to send some people home. But many people have no where to go so they just stay in the hospital. It is amazing how patients are not mobilized, they lay in bed with a foley catheter and an iv with an empty bottle of fluid. It is a status symbol to be in the hospital with all of those tubes coming out of you.
We are still having issues with patients not getting meds. We have taken to giving patients a baggie of meds after surgery so they don't have to deal with the nurses.
Cynthia was able to talk to the health minister today, he doesn't think they need another group of surgeons, he feels like they are caught up and all they need help with is post op care. I'm not so sure that they are out of the woods yet. I agree that there is a lot of wound care that needs to be done, but there will be more amputations to do and lots of skin grafting to do. .
I wonder how things are going closer to PoP, I Imagine it is much like here. Only a lot more patients.
I was hoping to go to PoP tomorrow to get medical supplies and check out the destruction, but the trip fell through. I am a bit disappointed but maybe I'll be able to go later this week.
We did pick up a bunch of rum on the way home tonight. I need to get some sleep tonight, we have another busy day tomorrow. Looks like we we be heading home Saturday!

If you have not been reading the comments I suggest you do. We all look forward to reading your comments. Nice to feel connected. Sorry if there are lots of typos I am doing all of this from my iPhone! Thane again to Sam and Irl for talking me into getting one.

Day 7 - Frustration and Hopelesnes

Today was a tough day, for many reasons. With the full moon last night the animals were wild last night, dogs barking and roosters crowing all night long. Think I got about 3 hours of sleep.
We didn't stick around for Sunday mass because we were supposed to start in the or at 8 am. We piled into the truck and headed to town, it was amazing to see everyone dressed in their Sunday best heading to church. We passed many different churches on the way to the hospital. We had hoped to do a number of cases today, but when we hot to the hospital no patients were there! We waited and we waited, but no patients! So frustrating. The team that showed up yesterday, dr newfield and 2 nurses, headed to the er to see if there was any work to be done. We headed to the clinic to check on our postop patients from yesterday. Many were laying on a blanket on the floor in the hallway because there were no beds. What is upsetting is that the meds that we ordered for our patients, were not given to them. The nurses told the families that they needed to go buy their medications and pay for the postop xrags! There is a ton of donated medications and crutches that are to be given to the patients but are not getting there. Turns out that the nurses are getting the meds from the depot but don't give them to the patients, they are most likely selling them! Hard to believe that they are doing this!
When the patients finally started to show up, we got the ball rolling in the or. Some of us spent the morning rounding with Dr Alexi. To say it was overwhelming is an understatement. We saw so many unbelievable sites, from anthrax infections of the eye to infected amputations. We saw post op xrays from some of the other teams, some were great others were apalling. So hard to get things right without fluroscopy in the or. I don't blame the other teams, but at some point we surgeons need to check the work and fix what isn't acceptable. Too easy to just do the case and walk away and not spend the time following the patients. That is my greatest concern about this whole catastropy, we come in trying to help, but the system is overwhelmed and we as surgeons need to make the time to follow the patients. It is far to easy to just do the case and walk away or do another case. We need to spend just as much time following the post op patients ad doing the surgeries. The local docs don't have the time to care for all the patints in the hospital. I think the biggest problem is lack of leadership. If I can do nothing else
while I am here, I hope that I can at least organize the people that are here at our hospital to get everything done as efficently as possible. Ideally I could help to organize the other volunteers here at the other hospitals too, but it is hard because you don't want to take over from the hatians and make us look like arrogant Americans. Such a fine line to walk between caring for the patients and not overstepping your welcome.
There is still so much to be done. I'll try to post some photos, if you have a weak stomach you may not want to look.

this is a girl with anthrax of her eye!

This young man had compartment syndrome of his arm and a late fasciotomy, now with necrotic muscle of the majority of his forarm and no sensation in his hand.

this gentleman had his arm trapped when a building collapsed in PoP. Someone came by and cut his arm off with a knife. now he has an infected amputaion of what is left of his arm! Yummy

this poor woman we found on the ward today. as you can see she seems fairly happy. Despite the fact that she has an above knee amputation on the right. what you cant see is that she has a badly fractured Left femur fracture that no one is treating. We are going to fix that tomorrow so she at least has a leg to stand on. ( bad joke)

This is one of the wards, you can see all the family members there taking care and feeding the injured patients. These are the lucky ones that get beds, others are laying on the floor in the hallways.

Hello, my name is Mona and I'm working on steve's team as a recovery room nurse which I thought would be usefull but found out differently. I've ended up being an anesthesiologist assistant to our anesthesiologist because there is such a lack of equipment and no monitors to speak of therefore he needs more assistance than he would in the states. When I finally did bring a patient back to what should be a recovery room, the conditions were deplorable. We bring people to large wards of 20 or 30 beds and find that they are actually lucky to have a bed. I often bring them to a rolled out rug on the floor or a sheet layed out on the floor. Family members and not nurses are caring for Them if they are lucky enough to have anyone. I brought a female back to a ward today who had no family, her bed sheets were soaked with blood, there was no staff or supplies available to clean her up. It is very hard to leave these patients who's IVs have run dry, are having substantial pain and are not given pain meds, our docs are opening dressings and finding infected amputated stumps and wounds and finding that antibiotics hadn't been given. We can only do the best we can and hope that some good comes from it.

Day 6 - Not your usual Saturday!

I was ready to kill the friggin rosters last night. I need a pellet gun to scare them away! No one slept very well because of the noise. We headed to town early in the hope of meeting the seaplane that was bringing in supplies and picking up the Michigan team. But there was no plane in the bay when we got there. We headed to the hospital to get started on another busy day. Hector started off with a distal radius fracture, while I worked on a distal tib/fib fracture. Did I mention that we had no power and no airconditioning in the OR! Not fun! Ron, Mona And cynthia all pitched in to help get everythng done.

It goes without saying that both fxs were from January 12th, bad mal reductions. With what little equipment we have we were able to fix them. It was hard to take my patient back to his "room" only to find that his room was on the floor in the hallway! His family was waiting with food to take care of him, he had been waiting 5 days to have his surgery!
We tried to do as many cases as we could today. We saw lots of people between cases and were able to add on a few cases that really needed to be fixed.
The most heart wrenching was the cousin of Dr Alexi's. She was injured in PoP when she was crushed in a nuDilding collapse. She had it looked like she had compartment syndrome in her leg. She said at 8 days after the earthquake a doctor did fasciotomies to save her leg! for those of you who are not medical, compartment syndrome is when the muscle in your leg is injured and starts to swell, it swells so much that it kills the muscle and nerves in the area of the swelling. Normally we treat this within a few hours, after that there is not much we can do to save the leg. This poor woman is a beautiful 27 year old, but her leg was insensate from the knee down. Dr. Alexi was in a horrible position, someone did an ultrasound that showed the arteries still open, so they hoped to save her leg. It was fairly obvious that we would not be able to save her leg. He decided to try to save her leg. I worry that she will get septic, we will follow her every day to see how she does.
We fixed an infected comminuted femur fx and a 2 week old open humerus fracture. It didn't seem like we did enough but writing about it it does seem like a lot.
Another team showed up today, they are from Atlanta, turns out the Ortho guy did the same sports fellowship as me 2 years after me. Will be good to have more hands. Wish I could do something for the OR staff, they are really working hard and putting up with our team. I think this is more than they have ever done.
There are lots of rumors about what is going on in Haiti, the lack of housing for refugees seems like the most important. The rainy season is not to far away. The other disturbing story is about guys going around in trucks offering kids food and then abducting them, presumably for child slavery which is rampant here in Haiti.
Guess I'll head to bed, maybe I'll get some sleep tonight!

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.