"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do"

~ J. Ruskin

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Room with a view...

A donation of wooden clinic tables, a twin sheet set, and large wooden cabinet for storing medicines transformed our clinic today. We now have three clinic 'rooms' separated by sheets and dividers. Each with a table (or chair functioning as a table) for basic medical equipment (gloves, alcohol wipes, hand sanitizer, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, otoscope for ears, opthalmoscope for eyes), a clinic table, and a chair each for doc, patient, and translator.  My clinic 'room' has a window (open space in a concrete wall) that overlooks the streets below that lead to the port. The streets today were filled with people making their way to the port---food drops came in today. (When we return I will post the views out my window...unfortunately we have no way to upload photos here).

Patients line up for the clinic at 8 am in the morning. Doors open when we get there, usually around 9 am, but it depends on how long it takes our 'tap-tap' truck to navigate the 10 km through congested traffic. It usually takes an hour. A tap-tap truck is a Toyota pick-up truck with a metal cage over the bed, and thin metal seats from each side. This is a common mode of transportation here with trucks adorned in multicolored paintings and religious affirmations, accommodating 20 Haitians. Our tap-tap is grey, and transports 8 'larger' Americans.

Once at the clinic, we quickly stock the medicines brought from the large storeroom on the Nazarene ground, the mission area that is our base of operations. We have a large supply of medicines, but our wish list is still long. We are using medicines creatively, taking advantage of side effects and other lesser-used properties. Please know we used your donations to purchase antibiotics, pain medications, benadryl, multivitamins to bring with us. These are some of our most commonly prescribed treatments.

My first patient of the day was a 52 year old man in a wheel-chair. He had lost both his legs. His complaint today was shortness of breath. This is a common complaint here. Aside from the thick smog of burning trash, there is much dust in the air from all the smashed concrete. Concrete is the foundation for most buildings here. It is mined from the hills and makes a very brittle concrete, which is a large part of why multi-storied buildings just collapsed straight down in the 35 seconds that devastated the landscape. For shortness of breath and asthma I prescribe a mask to block soot and benadryl to relax the airways. We have a group of docs coming down next week who are bringing actual asthma medications.

Later in the day I saw a 14 year old boy in a left arm sling. His arm had been crushed during the earthquake, over 30 days ago. He  brought x-rays with him. I'm not sure where they were done, or how long ago, however, they showed a communated fracture at the humeral head. This means that his upper arm bone was in two pieces that are now overlapping by at least 3 inches. If he is ever going to regain use of his arm, he needs surgery. I referred him to the children's hospital. They will likely need to re-break the arm to re-set it.

I saw dozens of other patients throughout the day, each with their own story. I continue to feel honored to be part of their recovery, and thank you once again for your part in making all of this possible.

~ Maryclaire



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