I am now back in the one and only Holland, Michigan after spending the last few weeks in Haiti. It is as cold and snowy as ever but I am so glad to be home, even for a short while! I know that it has been quite sometime since I last updated my blog and I have plenty to write. I am going to start with Haiti, since it is the freshest in my mind, and then work backwards through some of Honduras and Guatemala.
I left Honduras for Haiti during the first week of February. Nuestro Pequeños Hermanos has an orphanage and hospital in Haiti. Because of the earthquake, the hospital was inundated with patients from all over Port-Au-Prince. NPH actually had two hospitals in Haiti, but one was completely destroyed in the earthquake. One volunteer, Molly Hightower, the brother of a voulnteer, and a doctor were killed. This was pretty devastating for the NPH community in Haiti. Thankfully the actual orphanage was not damaged very much! Usually the NPH hospital, St. Damien's, is strictly a pediatric hospital, but due to the fact that so many adults were also injured in the earthquake, we began treating adults as well. Because of the influx of so many patients NPH needed volunteer nurses to go to Haiti and my volunteer coordinator in Honduras asked me if I would be interested in going. I didn't want to leave my little kids in Honduras for so long, and I knew that Haiti would definitely be sad and challenging, but in the end I really wanted to go. So I went, and after an incredibly long flight (Honduras to Guatemala to Costa Rica to the DR and finally a helicopter ride to Haiti) I arrived in Haiti.
Upon arrival in Haiti, I began work immediately! For the first week I was there I worked in the adult tents outside the hospital and in the urgent care tent. The first few days were absolutely insane. It was basically "organized" chaos, and everyone was running around as fast as possible to do anything they could. Still it didn't seem like there was enough time in the day to get everything done! I was caring for 15 to 25 patients on my own, and almost all had severe injuries such as crushing fractures and amputations. Many were post-op, but some were still waiting for surgery. I worked with a few Haitian nurses and two other American volunteers. We all worked 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week, and at night we were completely exhausted! Most volunteers slept in tents outside the guest house, or on the roof of the guest house. I spent the first week or so on the roof before moving into a room.
While working with the patients, it was very sad, and it was difficult not to feel overwhelmed. There was so much pain and suffering! I couldn't look at my patients as people who had been trapped in the rubble or who had been through such tragedy. I just had to see them as individual people, not related to circumstance, and focus on doing one task at a time with compassion. Luckily I was surrounded by an amazing community of fellow volunteers and had the opportunity to process shared experiences with them. The stories of the patients were so sad. There were children who were the only survivors of their entire family, there were parents who had lost every single one of their children, and there were people who had no idea if thier family members were dead or alive. There was so much chaos after the earthquake that even 4 weeks later, people were still looking for family. One of the saddest stories I encountered was that of a young woman that I took care of in the tents. She had been pregnant at the time of the earthquake and trapped in the rubble. She was one of the only survivors from her entire family. For some reason, whoever rescued her did an emergency c-section at the scene with no anesthesia. In the processes, they accidentially cut here bowel and bladder, leaving her with internal bleeding and other injuries. Sadly her baby died shortly after delivery, and obviously she was devastated. Thankfully, she was recovering well from her phsyical injuries but I cannot even imagine the emotional trauma and grief.
I also spent a lot amount of time working in the operating room. Disclaimer: I am NOT an OR nurse and knew very little about it when I started. They needed an OR nurse, had none, and so I volunteered and jumped right in. There was an amazing group of orthopedic surgeons from Seattle that were doing incredible surgeries. We had some of the best equipment in the country so we received patients from other hospitals and the navy ship, the USS Comfort. We did reconstructive surgeries, internal fixations of fractures, external fixation, amputations, and many skin grafts. The amount of people needing surgical treatment was, and probably still is, overwhelming! One day the group from Seattle performed 23 surgeries.
On the anniversary of the earthquake I went with others from St. Damien's to the mass graves to celebrate a Mass for the dead. The mass graves are located about 45 minutes outside of Port-Au-Prince. We went to the location where the government had dumped thousands and thousands of bodies, many unclaimed and unknown. Father Rick, the national director of NPH Haiti, has done so much to bury the dead and give people a respectful burial. The smell at the mass graves was indescribible, and although the bodies have now been covered, bones and body parts could still be seen on the ground. The mass was beautiful, but sobering. It was so hard to wrap your mind around the amount of destruction and death that was all around us. However, even in the face of grieving, the message at the Mass for the dead was one of strenth and hope!
Haiti was a huge challenge, not only for my nursing skills, but also for my faith and character. The people that I met there, patients and other aid workers, were incredible people who lived lives of such genuine compassion. There were two nuns, Sister Lorraine and Sister Magda, that were truly inspiring. They had both worked at NPH Haiti for more than five years in the past, and came back when they heard about the earthquake. These two women were funny and humble, yet full of so much faith and courage. Their lives were an amazing example of what it really means to live a life of service.
It was difficult to be surrounded with so much suffering and sadness, but new hope and joy were also evident at St. Damien's. So many patients seemed to have such strong faith and perserverance. I do not know if I could be as strong as anyone of them if I were in their shoes! Even though there was much sadness and grieving, every day I walked into the tents I was greeted with smiles. It was incredible and somewhat surprising to find joy in the midst of such a terrible situation.
The reality for Haiti is an extremely sad one. On top of terrible internal injuries, so many will need months and months of rehabilitation or remain permanently disabled. There are going to be generations of disabled and people with amputations. Also, the lack of infrastructure in Haiti and astronomical amount of damage is going to make it incredibley hard to rebuild. I hope and pray that the 1st world will not forget about Haiti and move on to what is next! Haiti is going to need so much help for years to come. Please keep NPH and Haiti in your thoughts and prayers!
That's all for now. Hopefully I will be better at updating more frequently!
Peace,
Anna
