We could not believe the traffic to the clinic today, and our ability to handle it. We were down one doc, three nurses, and one medic- yet we saw 25 more patients today than any previous day.
We are completely in tune as a team- from paramedic to nurse, to docs, to translators. It was absolutely incredible, and all of us were proud.
We were haunted as a young woman sang her prayers in the church below us as we prepared the clinic this morning.
Sicker patients arrive. I sent a 79 year old woman for immediate surgery for a gangrenous finger. She burned it on a fire 5 days ago, and today pus and air was oozing out of it without any pressure on the wound or finger. It just hissed on its own. There is a large Carribean market we pass every day to and from the clinic. The entire market was crushed and hundreds perished within. Every day back and forth from Belle-Aire we smell the decay of those bodies. This was the smell emminating from my patient's wound. I evaluated her finger and immediately gave her an injection of antibiotics, and transported her by our Tap Tap to the newly reopened General Hospital with a letter in English, and a letter in Creole. She will certainly have the finger amputated, and I hope we have saved her arm and her life.
A baby and her mother both were turning yellow. The baby started throwing up yesterday and her belly is distended. Her eyes are yellow. Yes, her mother had hepatitis before she was born, and yes they both used to take medicine for the infection but not any more. I sent them both urgently to the MSF (Doctor's Without Borders) hospital up the street.
Maryclaire had a young woman return in follow up with her HIV test results after I saw her yesterday in the clinic. HIV-negative. Syphillis- positive. She may be two months pregnant. We don't have any penecillin today, but we will tomorrow. She'll come back tomorrow.
We are overjoyed by our work in the clinic, and the people who bless us by coming to see us. All of them are in great need. We feel as though our efforts are bearing fruit, and look towards more infrastructure coming into place. We have come to find out our clinic is now going to become a permanent clinic, in this location. The director of Heart to Heart will arrive this weekend, and we will have the rooms finished properly in the future, with glass and frames in the windows. Some day there will be power, and water. We cannot believe we are part of this. We cannot believe that in the coming years when we are back again to work we will be in this clinic and say "we did this".
While we were gone, three new doctors- OB-GYN, Internal Medicine, and Med-Peds arrived, along with a new RN.
In the morning, Maryclaire and I are going to try something very different. In the early morning, we will orient the new docs to the clinic. Afterwards, we are taking a translator, a driver, and a truck, and we are going to run a walking clinic.
We will go through the neighborhood with our backpacks, supplies, and support- making house calls in the streets, in the tents, and yes even in some standing homes. We will be seeking out the patients who will not come to our clinic because they are either too terrified to enter a building (especially the top floor of a building), or are too sick to come see us. We will use the truck as a dispensary, an examining surface, and even an ambulance if need be. We're not sure how it's going to go, but anything is worth a try.
This is definitely worth a try.
Wish us luck.
-Aaron
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