Haiti, Part 1

I decided to separate my posts about Haiti into a few different postings. There is altogether too much to include in just one post. In this post, I will be addressing the clinic.

The clinic is made up of 6 exam rooms and a pharmacy, plus a few rooms for storage of books and a few charts and things like that. I am actually working in my own room (it's not a room, really, just part of a larger room separated by the others by curtains which I don't always close) and I have a lot of autonomy when it comes to treating the patients. The doctors from Chile are wonderful and they speak very good English. The two practitioners are Jorge and Leonardo and the dentist is Pia. In the mornings, Jorge and Leo and I do triage for the 200 or so people who show up outside the doors to this compound. Both doctors have about 40 numbers they hand out to the most needy patients and I work with them to help treat problems that come up. I also work alongside a nun, one of whom is a nurse, and we see our own patients, mostly children with the flu or who are dehydrated or malnourished.

Some of the patients I saw: a young boy with partial-thickness burns over the entire back of his left hand, a woman with an asthma attack, helping Dr. Leo lance an abscess above a boy's eye, an infected wound on a girl's forehead. Not a lot of really serious cases, but there are so many people who cannot come to the doctor right away, they may live hours away (one woman traveled four hours to this clinic by tap tap - a sort of taxi/city bus - just to get her blood pressure taken). We are lucky at the clinic to be so close to the UN troops, they are stationed in Croix-des-Bouquets so they can remain close to the airport. They recently donated 7 tons of dry milk to the clinic and we are giving it away to children who are malnourished or have diarrhea.

I did triage this morning, only my second day at the clinic, and it was absolutely mad. The doctors asked everyone to line up according to their needs, one line for children and one line for adults. We then just went down the line to see what was the matter with each person. I need badly to learn Creole and I will be working on it and Spanish while I am here. I am so glad I can speak French, though, because it makes it easier for me to understand Creole. Anyway, triage lasts about 30 minutes, 7:30-8am, then the doctors start calling numbers. During triage, Sister LuzMarina also gives out numbers for nursing care, mostly for the kids and sometimes for adults who need their blood pressure taken.

The entire day at the clinic only lasts from 7:30a to 1:00p or so and then the afternoon is free for us to do what we like. That means there's about 6 hours of free time until dinner. I'm trying to figure out what to do with all that time and I'm usually reading or taking a nap. I am also thoroughly enjoying the meals here, so I'll probably dedicate the next post to the food. I have a lot to say about it.

My thoughts are a little scattered and not very linear, but that's because I'm a little exhausted and the heat is curdling my brains. Can't always think in a linear way. Will post more soon, hopefully with pictures!