"The day after the earthquake, I was walking through Port-au-Prince's downtown area. The bodies of two women lay motionless on the street; flies darted around their bodies. Across the street there was a United Nations fort. I walked over and asked the soldier if he could do anything about the dead at their front doors. He ducked away and an English-speaking woman came to the gate saying, “There are many dead bodies. Walk around the other side. You will see them. There are dead bodies everywhere. We have sick people here. We cannot take any more in.”
The trip to the make Shift Clinic in Cite Soleil is a journey through the rings of hell. I no longer come across corpses out in the open, but the breeze and the dust in the air tells our story. As I continue throughout the city, more buildings have fallen than survived, and the odor of the dead seeps out into the air we now smell and breathe." –John, a Haitian interpreter for the Deskan medical mission team, speaking of Haiti in February 2010
In the immediate aftermath of the January 12th earthquake, members from the Deskan Institute and Training headed to Haiti with a mission to save lives. The trip was coordinated by Dr. Joan Liverpool, along with a team doctors, nurses, a social worker, translator, a mental health specialist, photographer and one high School/College student. Here’s their experiences as told by Dr. Liverpool and other Team Deskan members:
The stories are hard: severe brain injuries with contaminated open fractures, sepsis, amputations, renal failures and the worst... infants found after the earthquake without parents or neighbors. We arrived in Port-au-Prince on a flight donated by Kenneth E. Behring, Founder of International Wheelchair Foundation in collaboration with Dekalb Health Department, Giant Care of America. Our team was armed with medical supplies from MedShare-assorted triage bandages, antibiotic ointment, saline, surgical supplies and oxygen masks-and ready to get in the medical trenches.
On day two in Haiti, we had an emergency planning meeting. A referral was made by Dr. Adolfo, for Team Deskan to collaborate with Dr. Eddy Delaleu, President of Operation Hope for the Children of Haiti (OHFCOH) and David Canther, President of Active Community Teams Serving together (ACTS), in the Carrefour area. Operation Hope has formed partnership with ACTS World Relief which serves over 1,000 people per day as of February 5th, 2010 in and near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
We became an integral part of the relief effort for the people of Haiti. Volunteers in the camp were from all over the world, giving a one-week long commitment of service. Our main clinic at Operation Hope is seeing well over 800 to 1,000 patients per day. Hospital Adventist across the street, requested assistance within the hospital and we were able to send between 6-8 doctors and nurses from our network, who worked the rest of the week.
On the third day, Team 1 went into the city and set up shop in a school yard that was run by a pastor. We set up four stations and shared the patient load. The team saw over 900 patients in about 5 hours. One woman explained to me that she lost most of her children in the quake and a large chunk of concrete fell on her arm and fractured it. She has been without medical attention for going on three weeks.
The team was able to set the arm, immobilize the arm, and give her medicine for both infection and pain. The woman said “we did the first good thing that has happened to her since the quake.” She said "she would pray for us and thank God for us every night."
I watched many women and children sleeping on the ground of the hospital compound. Their Story “We have no place to, no food and no medication”. Many of these patients according to members of our team are dealing with, vision and hearing problems, fever/headache/belly ache/vaginal infection/rash/scabies and cough. They need help and follow-up care.
Six months later, Team Deskan in collaboration with ACTS World Relief has . So far, ACTS have seen 68,000 patients medically and fed 280,000 hot meals. For us all then and now our goal: To seek the real uplifting change, which benefits beyond our dreams.
