ARTICLE - HELPING REVIVE A NATION

HELPING REVIVE A NATION
(Sarnia Observer) - By Tyler Kula,

For Bonnie Kearns, the frightening effects of cholera hit home when she saw a Haitian mother carrying the limp body of her child.

The girl looked 11 or 12, Kearns said, and like a rag doll.

"She was just so dehydrated and on the verge. She opened her eyes for a minute and then kind of went unconscious. I couldn't get a pulse."

Health care providers at a treatment centre where the mother was seeking aid literally squeezed bags of fluid into the girl's veins.

In 20 minutes, Kearns said, the girl was awake and talking to her mother.

"It just looks like a miracle," Kearns said. "The replacement of these fluids is just phenomenal."

Kearns, a Sarnia nurse and Canadian Red Cross volunteer, recently returned from working with Canadian and Haitian health officials at a Canadian field hospital in Carrefour, Haiti. For three weeks they worked tirelessly providing treatment for cholera victims.

The disease is caused by a bacterium that enters the intestine and causes diarrhea, severe dehydration and death if not treated quickly. Haiti is beset by the deadly epidemic that began in the fall.

In December, Canada deployed its Emergency Response Unit (ERU), part of its First Responder Initiative to strengthen Red Cross management resources and presence in the Americas.

Kearns was among those who journeyed to Carrefour with its first deployment and worked side by side with local health care providers.

Every day roughly 40 new patients would come to the 65-bed tented hospital seeking aid, she said.

"Some people would be on stretchers on the floor of the tents for a while before we could discharge people," she said. "It was a really busy place."

Many were treated without being given a bed, she said. Those who were healthy enough were given oral rehydration solution (ORS) to drink in a shaded area. In a few hours most were well enough to return home.

Others required intravenous treatment, some required multiple IVs.

"Sometimes they'd be in for three days," Kearns said.

Five people died during Kearns' time at Carrefour -- two were en route to the treatment centre and three others either waited too long or had other health problems compounding the effects of cholera, she said.

"It is really heartbreaking when people die," she said. "Because if they get treatment in time they usually improve, and are discharged home with more of the ORS."

Instead of beds, the centre has cholera cots, each with a hole where a patient's bottom rests.

"You have diarrhea so bad, you measure it by half a pail or a pail full," Kearns said. "Then you have to replace the fluids that they lose."

Every patient, before leaving, was given education about cholera, she said -- what causes the disease, how to prevent it, and how long to boil water before drinking. Patients were also given water purification tablets and posters with cholera information.

"When you drive through Haiti you just see so much devastation," Kearns said. "Rubble still in the streets from the earthquake. You just look and you think, 'Oh my goodness; how much more can these people endure?'"

Red Cross staff from Canada and Haiti slept nearby the tented hospital at night so they could respond quickly to any health or medical emergency.

"We hoped it would send a message, that we can deal with this," Kearns said. "That with education and doing the right thing you won't get cholera."

Kearns said she was impressed with local care providers and residents, noting Red Cross volunteers were well received in the community.

"The Haitian medical teams are working long, hard hours to make a difference in this fight," she said.

The field hospital is expected to remain in Carrefour under Canadian Red Cross control until March, she said -- at which point it will be turned over to Haiti.