It is hard to imagine but we are on day 11 since the quake. The pace has not slowed down but everyday we have more resources to work with. The greatest for me has been the arrival of a dear friend Dr. Nat. Nat is the medical director of the Caris Foundation and Verena and I are close to he and his girlfriend. Nat's arrival has allowed me to be twice as productive. He is staying with me and apparently is under strict instructions from Verena to look after me and to make sure I eat.
Today Nat and I hit the ground running. We had sent out a team of Caris Foundation doctors yesterday out to some area hospitals to assess their needs in terms of medicines, equipment and doctors. None of the hospitals needed any more staff. They have plenty of medical personnel. They did need medicines and supplies. The day before I received three huge garbage bags full of medicines that had been dropped of to me by another good friend Rob. Rob and Joe are from Global Orphan Project and they have setup a 300 child orphanage. He came by our hospital because we had three orphans that we were releasing and he came to get them. It was sad in that they had lost everything but I was glad they were going to be placed at Global Orphan Project.
Based on our survey from yesterday Nat and I set out with well over $40,000 worth of IV antibiotics,and all kinds of medicines dropped off by Rob. Added in to our loot was a duffel bag full of surgical supplies dropped off to me by Jeff and Clive. That is how logistics work here. We distributed the badly needed supplies to some hospitals. We then arrived at the clinic at Diquini that needed supplies. We arrived to find that the French had setup and were now coordinating things along with the local staff. There was an orderly triage system and 100 or so French doctors, medics and soldiers on hand to help. I had not returned to Diquini since the second day after the quake. It was there that I witnessed and experienced some truly horrible things that I'd rather not remember and it was difficult to be back. However I had promised the medical director that I would return and so I did. The blue tarp where the amputations had been performed on that terrible day was still up and I tried to not even look in that direction. However this time I had returned with supplies and things at Diquini were a world better.
I had an emotional reunion with an American surgeon that I had met on day 2. I had just evacuated Verena and was leaving the airport when I met this doctor who had just flown in and did not know where to go. I immediately told him to hop into my vehicle and after many stops we arrived in Diquini. A few hours after we met we found ourselves under a blue tarp amputating legs (me just trying to stay out of his way). It was a particularly tough day for me because later that day I heard that Nadine (a great friend and terrific lady) had died under the rubble at the Hotel Montana. I could not keep it together but somehow we managed to do what was needed at Diquini and to go to yet another hospital across town late into the night. We got separated in the chaos and I had not seen him until today! Of course days later miraculously Nadine was found alive. We allowed ourselves a moment to hug as if we were long lost friends and then both had to get back to work. We exchanged contact information. A great great guy.
Nat and I were immediately briefed by the French commander that he had 18 patients that he could do nothing more for and that would need to be evacuated. He did not know how to contact the American hospital ship USNS Comfort anchored offshore. He did not even know that the American Field hospital at GHESKIO, only a few miles away, even EXISTED. I immediately established contact with our field hospital as Nat sat down and evaluated the 18 cases for evacuation. All were extremely serious cases. Two patients had severe burn injuries (over 60% of their bodies). There were spinal chord fractures, skull and facial fractures and more. As we were going over the list and coordinating with the American hospital a French medic came over, excused himself and said to disregard the skull fracture as she had just died. Nat and I received approval to bring two patients to our hospital at GHESKIO for treatment and we would try to get 8 flown to the hospital ship.
The problem was we were the only transportation. I had asked my friend David to lend me two open air flatbed trucks and he did so without hesitation. We loaded up only four of the severely injured patients into the trucks and Nat would drive them down to the docks for medevac to the hospital ship. He went because as a doctor he could argue to make sure as many as possible got evacuated. I stayed behind with the other two patients and the French promised me a helicopter to take them to our field hospital. The helicopter arrived and we loaded them unto it but the problem was the GPS coordinates that I had gotten from the American commander were not the same system used by the French. As the helicopter was lifting off and I was trying to calm down our terrified Haitian patient, I tried not to look at the tube sticking out of his chest draining blood from his collapsed lungs. The pilot leaned back and told me to put on my headsets. He shouted over the noise "Can you show me where you want me to land when we get there..the GPS coordinates are not useful". What..how? I am in the back of this helicopter trying to keep this patient calm and can't see a thing back here. Don't worry he says..a crewman slid back and attached a harness to me that attached to a metal rope that ran the length of the chopper. He then slid open the huge side door and said to crawl forward. Hold yourself here, lean out and point to it when you see the field where we can land. So I found myself, wind blasting in my face, straining to find our hospital and then from there finding the LZ which is just a small dusty field across the street from it. Somehow I manged to find it and point it out. I crawled back to my seat in the rear and was thrilled to hear the click of my seatbelt as I sat back down.
As we landed, a squad of soldiers from the 82nd secured the LZ . They rushed our patients across the street and into the sanctuary of our field hospital. After a few discussions with my new French friends I met back up with Nat who was just returning from his travels.
I don't know if the two patients I dropped off by helicopter are still alive tonight..I will check on them tomorrow. One was a woman who was 6 months pregnant. But I do know that they are under the best medical care possible and have a fighting chance.
I do know that one of the patients that Nat had in the truck will die. The American hospital ship only agreed to take three out of the four..and only after Nat begged that they take the ten year old girl. The 20 year old man was not so lucky. Nat had to return him to Diquini and back to his spot outside under a makeshift shelter.
A big thank you once again to the 82nd Airborne and to the French Armed Forces.
Send my love to all,
JM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment