Medical Team - Vermont/New Hampshire

 

This week we were happy to host on Monday and Tuesday a medical team from Vermont and New Hampshire. Ed Amos and Ken Taylor organized the teams and they saw a lot of people. They even did some surgeries in the clinic room. It is great to watch so many people get help. The team fundraises the medicines used in the clinic. Pray for all the teams that come to Haiti to help the Haitian people.

Ed and some of the team members did some minor surgeries in the clinic room.

Ed is marking the spot to cut. "X" marks the spot :)

Ed opened this man's neck to remove a cyst. Pretty delicate job, working near the jugular vein and artery. The surgery was a success!

Ester is the Haitian nurse who works in the clinic and also helps out the medical teams when they hold clinics. She is an excellent nurse!

Ken Taylor helped doing consultations with the patients who came to the clinic days.

The team saw over 150 people on Monday and around 100 people on Tuesday.

The mothers enjoy these clinics. It is frustrating for a mother who has no income to seek help for a child who is sick. It is good to see all the help that is given when medical teams come to Haiti.

Untreated blood pressure and diabetes are a common problem amongst the older patients.

We closed school for the 2 days to accomodate the clinic. Vernaldino (Tiben) worked at the registration table. Tiben is the 4th grade teacher for our students here at Coram Deo. One day we will have enough benches to provide for the students and patients who attend the large clinics!

Amos, behind the wheel, using Kimosabe to bring people where they need to go.

The team funds the purchases of medicines used at the clinics. The pharmacy station was our front porch.

The yard was full of patients waiting for the arrival of the medical team each day.

Macdonald and TBen helped to run the registration table where patients were registered before seeing the medical service providor.

Once the patient saw the service provider, a prescription was written on a paper lunch bag and brought over to the pharmacy station to get filled.

A plastic tarp provided shade for the patients waiting to be called to the registration table.

Ken and his wife Andrea recently moved to Haiti in January 2014. We are grateful for their assistance in the medical clinic.

Witny (Danzou) called out the patient numbers to come to the registration table.

A few of the Vermont/New Hampshire team members have made prior visits to Haiti and worked with Ed.

Jn. Eddy worked as a translator for Ken. Ken is working on learning creole.

This father came to the clinic asking for help in placing his child in an orphanage. The mother of the child left him. He is having troubles looking after his young son.

Reading glasses are in high demand! A Haitian Creole Bible was used to see which strength of glasses were the best for the patient.

This woman had the keloid removed from an ear piercing reaction on Tuesday. The doctor detected a heart murmor and we brought her to Ti Frere Ti Soeur Hospital for a heart consultation on Friday morning.

February 21 - Distribution School Supplies

Janelle and Janneke came with a suitcase full of school supplies and gifts for the younger girls and boys in the kindergarten classes, as well as soccer balls for the young and older children, and adults here at Coram Deo. Thank you Strathroy Providence United Reformed Church for these gifts :)

February 21 - Bible Distribution For Coram Deo Students

 

This morning Janelle and Janneke handed out the Haitian Creole Bibles and New Testaments that the Strathroy Providence United Reformed Church donated. We were able to give a Bible to all the students and teachers of the 2nd to 6th grades. Haitian Creole New Testaments were given to the 1st grade. The bibles will be used in the Christian Education program here at Coram Deo, and in the homes of the children. We are grateful for these books. Thank you to the members of the Strathroy Providence United Reformed Church for this gift :)

Trip To Mirebalais - New Hospital - Protests

 

Tuesday afternoon we welcomed Janneke and Janelle from the Strathroy Providence United Reformed Church here at Coram Deo. On Wednesday morning we headed up Goat Mountain to drive to Mirebalais to the new University Hospital of Mirebalais. It is a joint mission/government hospital. I thought it would be a nice drive for the visitors to experience Haiti. It turned out to be full of action We knew something was wrong when we saw smoldering tire remnants and a water truck that had just put out a tire fire. Here is the story according to the pictures below.

Mirebalais is an old town and was founded in 1702. After we passed the smoldering tires a police checkpoint stopped us. They told us to turn around because if we continued we would be attacked by flying rocks. I told the policeman that we needed to get to the hospital because we were trying to find help for Junel. The haitian policeman told us to wait and to pull in a side street and to wait a minute.

A front end loader led by Haitian/UN police and UN soldiers, a water truck UN and Haitian police vehicles proceeded to head up the road. It was then that we heard shooting. The UN/police, loader and water truck all retreated back to where we were. That wasn't a good sign. We were sort of in an exposed position on the road and to protect Kimosabe and the visitors we headed across the street and entered the grounds of the medical clinic. We hid Kimosabe inside the clinic parking area so that he was free from flying rocks and bullets.

From a higher vantage point on the clinic grounds we watched the UN police. The UN soldier was keeping an eye out.

The UN soldier is walking back from the street corner where we were originally parked.

There was a bit of a stand off and the water truck waited until the situation was under control.

The loader was on hold too.

The Haitian police arrested a protestor but before I could get a photo, someone told me that if I took a picture they would smash my camera. I didn't argue with them and put the camera in its bag and handed it to Amos for safe keeping. Amos took some photos of me. The man I am talking to on the right was friendly. He explained to me why the protest took place. The people of Mirebalais are angry because they are seeing jobs at the hospital being given to people outside of Mirebalais. They decided to hold a protest to show their displeasure. I told him that we needed to get to the hospital to find help for someone and he said that he would help us get through. The plan was for me and Amos to go on foot and the visitors and Luc to stay behind.

We noticed a motorcycle coming up the road from the direction of the protest and that was a good sign that the road was open.

I went back to the parking area to take Kimosabe out of hiding.

We had no problem getting to the hospital and the man who told us he would help us get through the protest was already at the hospital. He went ahead on his own to make sure we had no problems. We are thankful for this helpful friend! We went inside the hospital and spoke with the American director of programs. She told us that the hospital has a cancer program and would pass Junel's case on to the oncology team. For 50 gourds (1.25US$) care is given for patients no matter how extensive the care needs to be. In November 2013 a pediatric heart surgery program will begin. This hospital sees 800 patients a day and employs 700 haitians. I feel sorry for them. They can't give everyone in Mirebalais a job. Hopefully the people of Mirebalais settle down and understand that this hospital is trying to not just help Mirebalais but the entire country. We made some good contacts at the hospital and hopefully in the future we will be able to refer a lot of people there for surgeries. Pray for calm in Mirebalais and for the medical people working there.