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Dear Friends,
I've got an update but not the pics yet. My camera is charging!
We saw over 200 patients at Pastor Coulanges church on Tuesday when we arrived and then over 200 again the next day in a local tent village where refugees were. We had to stop the clinic so that we would have enough medicines for another day of clinics, otherwise we could have seen probably 400-500 people easily. Many of the complaints are related to pain from injuries or stomach issues due to lack of food and water. There are many many people with fractures and abrasions or open wounds that have never been treated or maybe only have been covered up but no antibiotics or pain medicines.Most of the functioning hospitals (both mobile and local) are packed to overflowing and lack both supplies and personnel to accommodate all of the injured and sick. On our third day, we visited a tent camp that was being run by a group of medical students who can not go back to school to study until the universities are re-built. Since the first day, these students have been caring for over 500 people living in this camp and pooling their money to be able to buy the needed medicines and supplies that these refugees need. Some of these students are also homeless because their homes were destroyed. But they told me that they had no other option but to help because the need was so great. They have also gone without food themselves so that they can use their money to pay for needed medicines. The Good Samaritan Hospital plans to continue to work with this camp on a weekly basis and bring medicines and food to the camp. We also hope to establish an evangelism component to our work with these particular refugees. We were able to evacuate several patients to other hospitals, including two who traveled all the way to La Romana for care because the border Dominican hospital in Jimanie could not care for them. We knew that if we brought them to our hospital that they would get appropriate and loving care.We will probably bring them back to Haiti on our next trip that leaves late Monday night. Some of our patients were evacuated to the UN/Red Cross hospital but that hospital was closing and re-locating as of Thursday so we were able to make contact with another hospital, King's Hospital, and they accepted our last few patients. King's Hospital is run by Medical Teams International and are one of the few hospitals doing orthopedic surgery and open to receiving new patients. They also have close ties with the UN and other organizations.
If people are asking how they can help, the answer continues to be, donations of money. I just received a preliminary grant from One Great Hour of Sharing for $10,000 to be used in our continued work in Haiti. More will be needed and churches are encouraged to continue to give to this fund. At this time, Haiti is not equipped to receive other than medical or search and rescue teams. There are so many people wandering around and many, many foreigners who are not medical and therefore really have little that they can do other than watch. Haiti needs medical supplies, money and individuals who can provide medical care or surgery. We are hoping to establish a good relationship with King's Hospital so that surgeons who are interested may be able to work there. To give an example of how desperate everyone is, when I walked into the UN hospital and was speaking in Creole, Spanish and English, the staff immediately asked me if I wanted to come work with them that they were desperate for medical people like me! Although they had translators and some spoke French or some Spanish, it is hard to find medical personnel that can communicate with both the patients and the staff from around the world. I turned them down and told them I have too much to do with the Good Sam right now and they needed me too! Please continue to pray for those who go to serve and those who are desperately waiting for our help.
Many blessings,
Kristy
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