On The Ground:Reports and Updates from Haiti

AMHE (Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad)
Medical Relief Mission Report:
Dr Mildred Olivier: the Ophthalmology Group

01/26/10 - Over the last two days we have been submerged by administrative duties because the hospital resources got overwhelmed. We decided to let other physicians provide clinical care while we concentrated on human resources, medical staff support, and a whole range of other tasks ranging from welcoming new arriving groups to trying to dispose of dead bodies in the courtyard.

The amount of details is staggering and constant challenge to two physicians who have to come up with instant answers to the problems. There is often a backlog of patients who have been operated on and need to move outside for further wound care or discharge. There are patients who are discharged and no longer have homes to go to.

There aren’t enough tents to house everyone, including the staff. The medical staff is now sleeping on the roof, hoping that it won’t rain.

We are managing groups from Korea, Jamaica, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary, Dominican Republic, Virgin Island, France and the United States. There are also Haitian physicians who came from the Dominican Republic and local residents who have volunteered to help. There was even a lawyer who was the main Operating Room technician before the international groups arrived to relieve the Haitian physicians.

Now that things have been slowed down, there is more time for conflict resolution. In the process we learned of other NGO’S who are supporting Haiti from different cities in the US.

This afternoon we had a large contingent of individuals from Michigan lead by Haitian podiatrist Dr. Mary Soledad Nelson, an old friend of Serge. To our surprise our own Roland Balan, chiropractor in Chicago (AMHE member) was also in the delegation rendering her services to the hospital today. Their trip showed the difficulties.

They flew into the Dominican Republic and tried to find transportation to Haiti. On their way to Haiti, the leader of the group found out that her husband had a massive MI and died. She flew back home while the group went on to Port-au-Prince. They went to two health centers where they delivered medical supplies and arrived to the HCH. We were able to offer some members of their group to stay and try to organize the supply room.

We knew we needed RN’s so we were happy to have them. They had a different modality of delivering their care. We did notice that most of the decisions being made at the higher level, did not integrate the local medical and nursing staff. This is a complex issue since the visiting staff felt that the local staff was either absent or not willing to fully participate in the effort. On the other side, the local staff felt that they were involved in the first line of defense and now that they were returning, they were being pushed out of the decision making process.

The complexity of the issue is obvious to us who understand the need for visiting staff to speak the same language and share their common experiences and skills to get the job done. At the same time, we also understand the necessity for the local staff and administration to be included at all levels so that they can learn develop new organizational skills, and medical and surgical skills as to other approaches of treating a particular problem.

Finally, the local staff has sustained emotional trauma as well and needs time to heal so that they can increase their ability to get back to somewhat of a normal life. The hospital is providing crisis management for the staff.

Dictated by Dr. Serge Pierre Louis.