I apologize for slacking on the blog but the past couple of days have been really busy. I have gone to Port Au Prince every single day this week except for yesterday. This past week we have seen a lot of sick babies in the clinic. A 22 month old little girl weighing only 5.7kg and a 1 1 1/2 month old handsome little boy that weighed on 1.6kg. I have been to the General Hospital twice and to a pediatric hospital 3 times and all in PAP. We have sent 4 babies so far to Love a Child for nutritional support. We admitted a baby yesterday with fever and pneumonia, who is doing much better today.

Today we had a young gentleman carried into the clinic by some strangers and his cousin. The man whose name is Antoine was getting to a bus when a piece of luggage on top of the bus fell and hit him at the back of his neck. Antoine was unable to move his arms or legs but he could feel us touching him. He made a make-shift backboard using a wooden place and a C-collar by taping his head to the plank. We transported the patient to the University of Miami hospital only to find out that they had no x-ray machine when we arrived there. We got back in the car and drove for another 15 min to the General Hospital on very bumpy roads. The General Hospital had an x-ray machine but it could not used because there was water all over the floor in that building.

It has been just one thing after another this week. So as I was telling Antoine that we were leaving he looked at me and said "are you guys leaving me? Thank you for all you have done and please tell all the other people here that came thank you.....Pray for me and I will pray for you." As I was in the process of translating this to the other members of the team I broke down and started crying. I explained everything that was going on to his family and said good-bye to him one last time. I gave them my number and told them that we would be back to visit him on Saturday when we were in PAP.

The General Hospital where we left him, has no neurosurgeon on board and no neurologist. The American resident at the hospital told us that all they could do for this patient was give him steriods, a C- collar and time. So he has to wait, it just seems unfair.

Well things look the same in PAP. The government has not done one thing. Tent cities are all over the place. Not one piece of rubble has been cleared out, not even at the national palace.

I also will not be able to post any pictures because my camera has disappeared since Tuesday. I will ask other team members to post pictures to share with me and I will post them up at a later date.

Bienvenue a Haiti

Well I made it to Fonds Parisien safely around 6pm last night. My trip to say the least has been quiet interesting. I will start off with my experience at the Kansas City airport. I packed three bags full of medications all weighing under 50lbs of course. When I arrived at the airport I was told by the "polite" agent that Haiti currently has a bag embargo and I am not allowed to take more than two bags. So I was forced to leave medication behind that could have been used to help many people.

The flight to Haiti was a little bumpy. We ran into some turbulence and the plane dropped several feet a couple of times. All over the plane you can hear the Haitian people screaming " Jezi! Jezi! Jezi!" Then they started praying and singing Haitian songs. Let's just say there was a huge round of applause and cheering when the plane landed in PAP.

The airport was what I remembered it to be, hot and muggy with no sense of organization. When I made it past immigration, Edwens Prophete was standing there waiting for me and the other four individuals I meet at the PAP airport that were for Colorado. It took us about an hour to find our luggage on the carousel. Like any third world country money talks, so we were able to pay one of the agents $20 to bypass customs. We made it past the chaos outside the airport, people trying to grab your luggage and carry it so that they can charge you for carrying it. Two other guys from HCM were able to meet us outside and protect us from the craziness. PAP was a little more lively than what it was in January. Vendors were back on the streets selling items, music was blaring from the radio's and there was what seemed to be laughter in the streets.

Well I feel like I have written enough already about my day yesterday. I will post a blog about my day today, tomorrow. We were suppose to do mobile clinics starting tomorrow but the clinic we were going to couldn't host us so we will go on Wednesday.

Thank you for your support, I and the people of Haiti thank you.

P.S. We have a massage therapist on this trip and I think I will take advantage of her.

Sabine's Trip

Yesterday, I delivered about $1200 worth of meds to Sabine, as she is going back to Fonds this Sunday for a week.  She will also have funds to purchase food to distribute to the people that they are able to serve and to pay for food and interpreters.  I have re-invited her to author this blog  (it seems she forgot she was a blog author)  So hopefully she will be able to send updates and pictures (are you hearing me, Sabine?) from Haiti.
She will have to tell you who is making up the team, and what they are going to do.  We pray for the success of the team and their safety on this trip, and I wish I was going.

Sabine's Story

Sabine Dessieux is the younger sister of Guesly Dessieux.  She is a Nurse Practitioner living in Kansas City. She left Haiti when she was 5 and last visited when she was 12.  Since Guesly is like a brother to me , Sabine is my new sister, complete with the steady stream of sarcasm.  She also kept a blog for her church, which sponsored her trip, her blog can be found at http://www.leawoodumc.org/ under "Sabine's Story". 

Home

I am home now.  This is going to take some time to process and recover from both physically and emotionally, but I feel like I have benefitted from this experience immensely.  Both on the macro scale and on the personal scale, I have truly realized that no one person can make it alone.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we are all dependent on each other.  The people of Haiti have been knoocked down, and they need our help right now.  As a physician going into Haiti to help out, I was not a one man show.  We saw the one man show.  He talked a good game, ate the mission's food, changed a couple of dressings, and rode off into the sunset, barely leaving behind a footprint.  My show depended on Dr. Guesly Dessieux to arrange the trip, I depended on Etienne and Betty Prophete to give me a place to sleep, food to eat, interpreters to talk, and a clinic to work in.  I relied upon my felow team members to organize the pharmacy, to get patients ready to be seen.  I also relied on my "5 moms" on the trip who would get after me for being too skinny and make me eat, who would help me find my pens, stethescope, passport, bed, whatever I needed at any particular time.  (Full disclosure: like most men and even more doctors, I am not an excessively detail oriented person.)  I relied on my wife and family who suddenly had to deal with me being gone for 10 days. I depended on my employer Capital Region to let me go and also to supply me.  I never even asked, I just said I was going and I needed medicine and supplies and I needed it tomorrow.  I also depended on the generosity of countless donors and support people.  I will actually list everyone individually, but that will have to wait another day...I'm still sleep deprived. My point is that I have a lot of people telling me what a great thing it is that I have done, but I am only the smallest part of something much larger than myslef, and I alone would never have been able to accomplish anything.  This is what being part of the human race is about.
Our final tally was about 2300 patients seen in 8 days, not bad for a spa vacation.
Our task is not finished, though.  We will be returning to Haiti.  We will be continuing to raise money.  I think we have a good network in country and we will be able to see our money and efforts directly going to help haiti stand back up on her feet.  The needs will be great in the upcoming months for physical and occupational therapists and mental health professionals.  I will continue to keep everyone updated on our progress and plans.
Thank you,

Doug Boudreau