Haiti Relief Fund of New York

I have had a few days to process what I experienced. It was unlike anything I have ever witnessed in my life. I can start with the initial emergency medical response. 100’s of casualties with wounds of every type. Crushed and broken limbs, amputations, internal injuries, broken backs, pelvis’s, and open wounds of every variety. The doctors and nurses worked around the clock to tend to them all, most without sleep, not much to eat, and very little in the way of working facilities. The team I travelled with from the New England area were some of the finest, most caring people I have ever met. They treated every patient with love and dignity. The 10 person team did about 150 surgeries in 4 days.

With very limited space and resources the wounded went from the OR to an outdoor pavilion that was turned into a post-op area. Unfortunately, it was an open air facility with little reprieve from the heat, humidity and bugs. The patients were all grateful, however, for the care that they received. It was difficult to think that so many of them really had no idea of the further hardship that they faced. About 1 in 3 had some sort of amputation, some multiple. Think of the difficulties that a handicapped person has in the US, now imagine someone requiring the crutches or a wheelchair trying to navigate one the most un-ADA compliant places on the face of the earth. It is difficult for a healthy person to navigate the streets of Haiti let alone someone with a handicap. They are calling this the “handicapped generation” of Haitians.

The wounded were then moved to a newly completed orphanage on the adjoining property. However, after 2 major after shocks they fled this building and are living out in front on the ground. They were terrified of being back in any building. It will take years for them to get over that.

Next stage for me was to travel into Port au Prince. I went to secure some meds that had been brought in from the US and were needed at our field hospital. How we got in was an amazing story in itself. Vehicles were limited and I had been trying to secure one with no luck. I believe God really wanted us to get in so along come this relocated Canadian now living in the DR. He has a 4 wheel drive vehicle, a necessity, knew how to drive like Mario Andretti (those of you who know me know it takes a lot to impress me behind the wheel of a car) and spoke French (very helpful for directions). Everyone told us it would take half the day just to get into PAP.  1 1/2 hours later we made it to our first stop at the Community Hospital in PAP. We even had a Police escort at one time. As I said God opened the door for us to be there.

Once we got in, the reality of what happened just floored us. I was just like someone had dropped an atomic bomb in the middle of the city. The devastation was unprecedented. 90 percent of all buildings in a city of 2 million people were damaged or destroyed. The US embassy was the only building I think that was untouched. To say that buildings there are substandard is an understatement. They just crumbled like sand castles. As we drove through the crowds of people, many were just standing around shell shocked others trying to get back some sort normality. It is apparent that it was going to be a very long time, if ever, that this country can ever be rebuilt. The very core of the government was destroyed as well as the Presidential Palace along with many other government buildings. Of the 30 senators or statesmen, 20 were killed. The symbolic cathedral was destroyed and the archbishop killed. The smell of death was everywhere.

Third stage was the homeless. I am not sure they even have a count yet, but we easily saw 100,000 or more in “tent cities” everywhere. Tents were anything that could used to shelter from the sun. Sheets, blankets,tarps, table clothes and sheets of tin or plywood. There were little if nothing in the way of facilities. A few porta johns for thousands, all over flowing. Most people were just forced to relieve themselves on the streets. We saw some food and water lines but most ran out with many still hungry and thirsty.

These people didn’t choose this, it was forced on them. We see this on the TV and we think “what can I do?” We can start by not forgetting them. There is a tremendous need that will go on for sometime. I challange anyone to see and experience what I did and not have it change thier life. We live such an incredibly sheltered life in this country. We all need to step outside our comfort zone and show love and compassion for not just Haiti, but for all people who are so much less fortunate then us.

This is not the end of this journey for me, but just the beginning. Please stay with us here and check for updates as we continue to collect money and supplies to rebuild Haiti. Please give from your heart and don’t let this become another yesterday’s story.

Bob

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Donations to recovery efforts in Haiti before March 1st can be claimed on your 2009 tax return.

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As always happens in big disasters, the media are beginning to lose interest in the situation in Haiti. Yet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless survivors of the disastrous earthquake are still urgent!We are focusing on putting together boxes of basic food staples. Please see list below:

Rice

Beans

Cereal

Granola bars

Tuna

Peanut butter

Ready to eat tomato soup

Canned fruit

These items should be packed for shipment in copy paper size boxes & labeled.

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Court arrived home on Thursday night after  8 days in the DR & Haiti. He will be posting much more later, as well as adding many photos.

We are continuing to collect much needed supplies & monetary donations as we need to fund the supplies getting down to Haiti.

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It was two days before she was found under the rubble of the home she shared with her mother. The 18-month-old little girl was trapped under her house after Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. Her mother, however, wouldn’t give up. “She was trying to move the rubble herself to find her child,” one doctor told me.

Eventually, the Haitian woman found her child under her home. Seriously wounded, hungry and traumatized, the baby needed immediate attention. However, so did everyone else in Haiti. The mother began walking to the local hospital with her injured baby in her arms and was picked up and driven the rest of the way.

Once there, the doctors were able to stitch up and treat the girl’s head wounds, but that’s all they could do for lack of supplies and the many more who needed help. Somehow, the woman and baby arrived at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani a few days ago—the little baby still in need of critical care, her hand infected to the point of the possible need to amputate it. However, this little Haitian baby has survived against all odds and her mother seems grateful and full of hope.

by Laura Brost, COTN–USA staff writer

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Crystel and Jeff Nosea giggle and laugh together like any typical four- and seven-year-old who are brother and sister.

Except they’re not typical.

Crystal’s leg is in a full cast and Jeff has a broken pelvis, which calls for a cast that extends from his hips down to his thighs. He can’t move well. Their beds lay next to one another in the OR recovery area at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani. Their giggles ring through the open-air building and create a sort of happy innocence. Jeff has a toy car and Crystel holds a Barbie—prized possessions to the two young Haiti earthquake victims who have suffered much in the last week.

Their mother and father sit with them—an exhausted yet grateful look on their faces. When the earthquake hit, the stairs in their house fell on Jeff. Crystel’s leg was crushed by a crashing wall. The four family members arrived in Jimani in a truckload of other injured people on Saturday. Just a few days later, the two children have had surgery and have been treated. “They are feeling okay,” their mother says through an interpreter. “They are playing,” she laughs.

The only problem now is that the family has nowhere to go. Though the two older siblings of the family remained back in Haiti, there is still no place for these four if they return. And how will they transport two children with such serious injuries anyway? Staying at the Good Samaritan Hospital for six to eight more weeks to wait for the casts to heal the bones might not be an option either, though. “We don’t have any place to go,” the mother says. “We are just waiting.”

by Laura Brost, COTN–USA staff writer (Photos: Scott Cook)

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The clinic in Barahona is now accepting children from other medical facilities in Haiti. Bob is headed into Haiti tomorrow to assess needs/ etc at clinics around the island. More volunteers are arriving daily. Our team is planning on coming home on Thursday. We are still , and will continue to collect supplies at all designated drop off locations.

Bob’s Comments:

Aside from the obvious wounds that have been inflicted on these people from this terrible event, it will also be the post dramatic stress shown here that will haunt them for a very long. In this photo you see the injured and thier families outside a now vacant shelter. These 300 or so people, many with amputations, fleed the well built orphanage in Jamani, which has been transformed into a recovery center, after a 5.0 aftershock some 2 1/2 hours from Port au Prince. Families carried and dragged the wounded, some seriously, many missing limbs and many many broken bones from the building. A few jumped from the balcony, one man breaking his back, fearing that they would be trapped, killed or seperated from their families. They refused to come back in the building and most are still outside days later. With a possible year of after shocks predicted, it will just add to what for most will be a lifetime of misery.

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Spoke with Bob last pm. All the medical personnel were still up in the small village of Jamani. They were working out of a clinic that had originally been built as an eye treatment clinic. They were making good progress and were actually sending trucks across the border to get more patients that were unable to get there on their own. The docs & nurses were staying in a house that was under construction across the street from the clinic. They had no bathrooms so they had to use the facilities across the st. at the clinic as well as no bedding, just mattresses. Luckily it is warm.

Bob was back in Barahona, where the COTN has set up. Yesterday he made the 2nd operating room functional by replacing the ceiling, etc. You can see the before/after photos in our photo gallery.

Bob keeps stressing that s of now, more medical personnel have arrived than they need. There is the huge issue of managing them and their needs, ie accomodations, food, etc. He is strongly encouraging anyone who is interested in volunteering to do so in a few weeks. By then, many people will have left and the sick will need aftercare & follow up. For info on where to sign up, go to the COTNI.org website or go to realmedicinefoundation.org or email caitlin.mcquilling@realmedicinefoundation.org.

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I have been  continually asked whether donations are still needed. The answer is YES!!! From what I hear, the Real Medicine Foundation has committed to support COTN indefinitely. They are helping get the supplies there; we are still working on logistics about getting our local items to the outbound flights.

Our last shipment had to be driven to Florida. Hopefully, our team in the DR will receive the goods today.

Keep up the good work everyone!!!

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