This morning, while Pat and Beth went to clinic, Amy "Uno" and I (Tom), went to the peds ward and distribute stuffed animals to the kids. As of right now, the peds unit is a free-standing cinder block structure...with now air-flow whatsoever. There were 13 infants over there, none over the age of 18 months. While I put on a puppet show for one little angelic girl, Amy did amazing cutsie-wootsie faces with another little girl across the room. Conditions for these children will change, once they move the little ones in where the adminstration office currently are (hopefully in a couple of weeks). Adam joined Amy and I shortly thereafter, as we all pitched in to help Amy Lindsay clean out the "storage room". Now let me explain said room: a cinder block structure on the hospital grounds, with no light, no floor, jammed floor to ceiling with hospital supplies, some of which have been there since before the earthquake...and it's hot in there, like cook some bacon on my head hot. As the thought of bacon entered my mind, I soon realized it was already ab out 1pm, which meant...time for beans and rice!!!
In the meantime, me (Pat), Beth, Matt, and Terry are wrapping up a busy morning clinic of about 50 patients jamming the hallway. People are pretty orderly and there's really no incidents to speak of. We start a little late because the xray guy doesn't show up till 9:30am, and there's one surgery to squeeze in before clinic anyway. But there's no complaining, no shoving matches, no "I've been waiting 6 hours for my appointment." Pretty remarkable considering they're seen on a first come first served basis so people start lining up at 7am, so a few people actually have been waiting 6 hours for their appointment. Makes me think of the last time we were here in November when Hurricane Tomas hit the channel between Haiti and Cuba. Clinic shut down early one day and the patients were told to come back the next morning, and a few people actually did stick around overnight to wait for their visit the next morning. The patience and resilience of these folks is formidable. What makes it even more remarkable is that since our last visit the hospital has now started to charge orthopaedic patients 50 goudes (a little over a buck) for their clinic visits - about half a day's wages for the average Haitian - and people still line up. The rationale is that there are a few well-to-do Haitians who can clearly afford private care but come here anyway; moreover, having a free source of orthopaedic care in the area (i.e., us) makes it difficult for the local guys to make a living. My personal opinion is that it's better to let a few rich folks get in for free than shut out a poor person who can't pay. But that's the system that's in place, and we're the guests here.
One guy's elbow is full of pus after a surgery a few weeks ago - a poor guy with an ununited both bones forearm fracture from the January 12th 2010 quake (after awhile you start feeling silly asking people when they hurt themselves). Stuck in the needle, and bam, 35cc's of mustard colored pus in the syringe. Along with another woman with an infected toe who needs an amputation, and another gentleman in the hospital with an open tibia nonunion who needs another washout, we've got a few surgeries to do today after clinic. So I quickly follow Tom's lead and wolf down some rice, beans, and eggplant as well before heading to the OR.
You all are amazing- keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI'm in awe. You're all amazing!
ReplyDeletePat is always trying to remove my toes while I nap. It's a little weird.
your missing a heat wave here...over 80 degrees the last 2 days! thank you for all you are doing!
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