April 2018: The 17th Semi-annual Grace4Haiti Team Trip
SUMMARY
Haiti changes each of us, each time we go. It even affects the veterans as our hearts are further wounded with each tragedy and mended along with our patients’ bodies. We somehow return heart-broken yet uplifted. Thank you to everyone who served.
First week
We had one of our smallest teams—only 25 members— but still had an a very productive week. Although we tried to do only surgical evaluations the first week, it was too hard to turn people away, some of whom had traveled far to see us. Since we were short staffed, we ran the clinic in Hallway C in the hospital (just like old times), and it worked very well as the hospital now has a wonderful waiting room next to the ER, with benches, a television and a radio used to call for the next patient to go to the dossier window, which really cut down on congestion.
● In the OR, General Surgery and Ortho performed 48 surgical procedures.
● 240+ patient consultations in clinic and/or in the surgical consultation wing
● Our two MacGyvers made critical repairs to numerous pieces of equipment, and made the COOLEST IV stands (thank you, Pinterest!).
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| One of the PVC pipe IV poles they made. |
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| John talking to one of the orphans at the orphanage. |
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| A shelf for the patient rooms so the patients can store things and nurses have something to write on. |
● With only 3 pre/post op nurses, anesthesia pitched in to help out in this area. In fact, the nurses both weeks developed systems and protocols that smoothed out the bumps and gave us good guidelines for next time.
● We had our only serious major trauma case this week, a very bad motorcycle-motorcycle accident involving 5 people. As usual the team demonstrated superb professionalism and team work with the limited resources available. The team will be relieved to hear that the patient transferred on to another hospital survived and is doing fine.
● The orthopedic team organized the C-hallway storeroom.
Second Week:
Second week we had 32 team members, including a full clinic contingent. With the support and cooperation from our Haitian partners at Pierre Payen we were able to continue with clinic in the hospital which makes workflow so much more efficient and is a big advantage for providers and patients.
● In the hospital, General Surgery, Gynecology and Orthopedics performed 37 patient surgeries.
● Clinic providers saw almost 200 patients, and assisted in surgery, post-op which enabled those team members breaks, rest, and see some daylight outside their domain
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| The Victor Binkley mission hospital at Pierre Payen |
There were many other successes, but sometimes the challenges were unanswerable without the tools, tests, equipment or personnel that we have at home. The C-arm is completely out of commission, the x-ray limped along as always, and our autoclave worked intermittently, forcing us to use the smaller one. Yet even with these obstacles, we were still able to care and serve our Haitian brothers and sisters.
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| MacGyver with Kim Jorgensen-OR and the autoclaves. |
Pierre Payen continues to progress and improve under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Jacques (medical director), Marc Versil (hospital administrator), Nurse Norelia (head nurse), Mike and Dawn Vandervoort (Pierre Payen / Project Help /CGGC leadership), and Stephen Hosler ( Project Help CFO). The pharmacy program Grace4Haiti partnered on with the hospital last year is reaping benefits; there is visible improvement in hospital staffing performance in many areas. Dr. Patrick and Marc shared specific plans and goals for improvements for this year and next.
In summary, in two weeks we performed 85 surgeries and treated around 400 patients in the clinic.
We are grateful to Mike and Dawn, our compound hosts, for welcoming us with more typical Haitian food. The polenta-type corn meal was a huge hit! Again, we remind our hosts that we’re fine with having rooster anytime. We’re also grateful to Pastor Watson for his enthusiasm, his work, his prayers, and his teaching us a Creole hymn during devotions.
Teamwork with our hosts
● We now have a referral sheet for follow-ups with a local doctor, another team, or our November team. The number of surgical patients who showed up wanting or needing surgeries was just too many for our already overloaded schedule. We had to start a waitlist, which then became a referral list.
● Teamwork with the Haitian staff becomes closer. Dr. Stephanie Felix, the Haitian ENT, worked with us in the clinic and performed surgeries while we were there. The Haitian gynecologist Dr. Clair Jeune assisted Dr. Cindy with many hysterectomies and other procedures. We still have work to do to integrate the Haitian nursing staff with our, having name tags for everyone went a long way in developing these relationships.
Planning Ahead
The next two trips are tentatively set for Grace4Haiti Medical Mission Trip are:
● November 2018
○ Week 1: November 9-16
○ Week 2: November 16-23
● April 2019
○ Week 1: 5-12
○ Week 2: 12-19
If you would like to go any of these weeks contact Grace4Haiti on FB.
Thank you, every one of you for your gift of your time and talents!
Jennifer, Joe, and Dave
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| In the dining hall |
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| The MacGyvers |
