Real Rural Medicine

R

Leogane, a rural town a few hours drive outside Port-au-Prince was the epicenter of the earthquake. For our first week, we stayed at the Heart to Heart volunteer center in Leogane. Each day we'd load the truck with medicines and head out to one of five surrounding communities. One, Fondwa, had a 'clinic in a can', the rest had open-walled churches that functioned as clinic while we were there.

Hand-made decorations in Church in Dufort, Haiti

Every clinic day, regardless of which site we were at, began with a public health service announcement on cholera. This was delivered by our translators. Large brochures in the design of comic book style depicted how to avoid cholera. Cholera is one form of your basic traveler's diarrhea. In industrialized countries, it is rarely fatal. However in Haiti, over 4000 lives have been claimed in the past 5 months. This is a result of many factors, poor living conditions, poor nutritional status, and importantly lack of access to oral rehydration salts and antibiotics. However, public education on proper hygiene will go a long way in decreasing the incidence of cholera.

Public Service Announcement: Cholera

Cholera education

We did treat cholera while there, in children and adults of all ages. We also treated the common US ailments of high blood pressure, diabetes, back pain, common cold. And uncommon ailments from a US perspective: lung parasites, typhoid fever, malaria.

A common cold and a shirt from New Orleans

Well baby

90 years old. Walked miles to the clinic to talk about her arthritis.

This woman had a large goiter for many years.

I drained a quarter sized abscess on her left arm from an post-vaccine infection.

I treated this little guy for cholera.

Well Baby

A unique challange to care in Haiti, among other things is practicing low-tech high-minded medicine. There are no computer databases at your fingertips, no specialists just a phone call away to get a consult with, no fancy diagnositic equipment or immediate lab capability. As we set up clinic in the rural towns, we had just our basic equipment: stethoscope, otoscope (ears), opthalmascope (eyes), blood pressure cuff, suture kit, Sandford antibiotic guide, and international medicine reference book.

My clinic chair.

Aaron explains how to use medicine for asthma