Greetings again!
This may be the last chance I have to write you as tomorrow morning I head back to the capitol at 6am and will be staying with the Americans, Bob and Rae, for the day until Saturday when they take me to the airport for my flight at 11am. I fly from Port-au-Prince into JFK airport in New York, and from there to O'hare in Chicago. Hopefully all the snow has already come and between flying to New York and Chicago I make it on time! I may have access to internet at Bob's house, and if so I'll update on what happens tomorrow, but just in case, wanted to let you know the flight info. I return back in Chicago (all things going as planned of course) at 11pm Chicago time.
Today I went to the Salvation Army Bethany Children's home to do wellness checks for the kids. There are 36 kids that reside there with the Major who takes care of them, ranging in age from 6 years to I think 17-18 if I remember the birth days correctly. Before I saw each kid I was given the folder that contained all of the information that the Salvation Army has on them. Talk about heart breaking.....some of the kids did have a packet full, with their birth certificates, information about parents and family, where they're from, IDs, etc. Others.....nothing, other than a note that said "found after earthquake, parents assumed dead." No clue what their date of birth is, where they are from, who their parents are....nothing. Just their name. So for each child I read through the extent that anyone really knows about their lives....most of them orphaned, a few of them having parents but the families being too poor to care for them brought them here. I wanted to take pictures of all of them to show you, but I was extremely pressed for time with 36 exams to do in one day, so I was only able to snap a photo of one 6 yr old girl.....I thought about putting her in my suit case and bringing her home....but I feel that would not be allowed. Her name escapes me as it was a spelling and name I didn't recognize, but her middle name I believe was Rose, and her first name started with a C if I remember right (with 36 new names to learn they got jumbled...) -- so we will call her Rose for now. Anyway, I did not sneak her back, but if I was allowed to adopt one (or gotten one for my sis) she would have been the one. She was very shy and simply smiled the whole time. Most of the wellness checks were very simple....I took their blood pressures (providing they weren't too small....I only had an adult cuff....good to know I need a child one now), listened to heart/lungs/stomach, checked their ears, nose, throat, examined their skin for cuts/abrasions/bug bites/etc (and if they had any, I cleaned and bandaged them, put cortisone on the bites)....basically a typical physical exam. And of course....reflexes. Not because checking their reflexes really would mean anything as I couldn't follow up if it was something serious neurologically, but because I remember laughing when I was a kid every time the doc hit me with that hammer thing....and sure enough, they all just laughed and looked entirely surprised when I hit their knees/ankles/elbows and their limb went flying. The Major asked why I was doing it....I said "oh, it helps me check that they are neurologically intact...." Kind of true, but more just cause it was fun lol. Most of the kids are remarkably healthy, but that's probably because the Salvation Army orphanage does take remarkable care of them. Many of the files noted how underweight and malnutritioned they were when they were found, but now they were up to a good weight (from what I could eye out) and they all looked rather healthy. The Major asked if I would please document everything I found, so I wrote just a basic little note with whatever their complaint was, my basic findings (listed their BPs, that the ear/nose/throat was non-erythematous, tympanic membranes clear, if the ears were compacted with wax and weather or not I could clean it depending on how small the canals were, if I cleaned and bandaged any wounds, etc -- just the basics). For some of them, it was the only other thing in their file other than the admission note to the home. I guess that felt good, giving them some documentation that someone in the world spent time to write down something about them. Really, I didn't contribute a whole lot to their health.....one girl was tested and found anemic back in 2007, and she still has pretty severe fatigue....she didn't look anemic necessarily at the moment, but I recommended if it worsened to take her to the hospital. Another boy had BP of 140s/90s, so I recommended that they keep an eye on it. Many of the kids complained of having headaches, so I advised that they drink lots of water and if they have access to Tylenol to take that (I should have brought some down to leave with them....). But I think it was worth it just from the angle of giving these kids the 10-15 minutes that I spent with each of them, letting them know that someone thought they were worth the time. I know they were initially very scared cause when they heard the "American Doctor" was coming they all thought I was coming to give them shots haha. They were quite relieved to find out differently. So, I dunno, I know the Major was very thankful, and she expressed it, I'm not sure if it made much of a difference in the kids' lives at this point, but who knows.....I guess it impacted me, and that's something. Pray for them for sure.
I spent about 8 hours there, with most of it pretty much seeing the kids. They did make me lunch, and brought out some chicken legs, cooked carrots, and french fries -- and kept bringing me sprite and water all during the day. I almost felt bad eating it cause I was like, um do the kids need food? But I know they are well taken care of there, and they will definitely not starve in the Salvation Army's hands. The Major was able to translate for me btw, in case you're wondering how I talked to them. A couple of the kids spoke a few words of English, and they were happy to say "hello," "I am fine," "Thank you," and so one. Otherwise I pretty much just asked if they had any pain, any cuts/rashes/bites, any thing they wanted help with -- aside from headaches, some cuts, some bites, and a few other minor things, they all reported they felt fine.....so I just did the basic check-up, wrote a note on them, and sent them on their way. I was able to leave a couple hundred band-aids with a thing of neosporin and cortisone, along with some applicators and some cleansing wipes to clean wounds. I instructed the major to clean any cuts, use the neosporin and place a band-aid, and use the cortisone for any bug bites that aren't healing. She was grateful, though I wish I had more.
I am glad I brought the supplies down that I did. Thanks to those of you who donated, everything was very much needed....especially all the gauze/wound care stuff I had -- gloves especially cause theirs didn't fit me lol. I am going to leave the remaining gauze (lots of it), gloves, sterile gloves, tape, stethoscopes, band-aids, masks, alcohol swabs, ace bandages, IV tubing, etc down here for the hospital staff to use as they need it. But really glad I had it all here with me cause there were many times in the ER that as we were waiting for people to go buy their supplies I was able to at least stop some bleeding and clean wounds with the gauze and supplies that I had.
There were only a couple of patients here with Cholera....seems like they have a much better handle on that now. The government has some programs to help them with clean water from wells, and most people are pretty good about buying bottled or 5 gallon Culligan filtered water. Some people still get Cholera though, so they have a separate part of the hospital where they keep them. Basically, it's a cot where the patient lies, with a small hole cut around their butt with a bucket underneath to collect the pretty much constant flow out of them. So they lie there, draining fluids and we pump them full of fluids via IV and force them to drink water/gatorade type drinks constantly. Aaaaaaand they wait it out. We wash our hands with bleach -- only thing that really kills it I guess, hand sanitizer does nothing) -- and yeah, that's about it. But I only saw two people with it. As far as TB, I didn't really see anyone in the TB ward this time around....they have a couple nurses who administer the drugs to the TB ward patients, who live there for about 6 months -- but most of them were already there and receiving their treatment. We did have the one patient with peritoneal TB that we drained, but that was in the main hospital and she didn't have any respiratory problems.
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