Once again we take to the skies in a well worn American Airlines 767 with a petulant flight crew and
crowded cabin. We lift above the grinding poverty of PAP. Sitting beside me is a Haitian man on his
first trip to America and first
time on an airplane. The flight
attendant serves him a cold drink and he looks at me with a smile on his face
and says “I think I have left Haiti”.
I wonder - will life be easier? More comfortable? Happier?
As we touch down in the United States I contemplate these questions even
more as we look out at the flags flying half mast - thankful to be blessed with
a belief system that makes me feel humbled, privileged to serve and rich in
peace. This is why we go…
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| Chadme in recovery room |
Chadme is a 17 year old girl who had such severe knock knees
(genu valgum) that she has been forced to walk on all fours most of her
life. This was caused by rickets a
problem related to vitamin D deficiency.
Last year Dr. John Herzenberg an internationally renowned limb deformity
surgeon from Baltimore performed two separate
reconstructive operations at Haiti Adventist
Hospital to correct her
leg deformities. On this trip we had the
privilege of removing her last fixator.
In the recovery room she was tearful and called me down to give me a hug
and thank us for changing her life. She
can now go to school for the first time and learn how to read. This is why we go…
On my trip home I gave a presentation at the AAOS Disaster
Relief Course in South Florida. One of the other lecturers spoke about the
phases of disaster response which concludes with the exit phase. In many ways this is the most difficult phase
– how do you shut down a hospital full of people? I felt thankful that in the Haiti disaster
response we have not had to answer that question nor do we intend to. Speakers raised questions about how patients
get follow up care after having major orthopaedic operations in a disaster –
another difficult question for many. We
did not stop to ask that question in Haiti, we just keep working. It was a privilege to represent Loma Linda
University at this
course, a school founded more than 100 years ago for the explicit purpose of
training physicians to work in underserved and austere environments. And even though big challenges remain in Haiti I am
grateful for the institutional support as well as the generous support of
donors and volunteers that have made this continued effort a reality. These successes do not come without
significant sacrifice. Especially
sacrifices by people such as Terry and Jeannie Dietrich who really helped
stabilize this program by giving a year of their time, as well as Dr. Francel
Alexis the current chief of orthopaedics at HAH who makes short term trips and
complex operations a reality for those of us who cannot be there full time.
Sometimes the challenges seem overwhelming, but after seeing
the results of bringing world class surgeons such as John Herzenberg into the
lives of patients like Chadme, the joy and blessings brought on by this effort
are even more overwhelming. This past week
we treated another patient with a similar deformity hardly able to walk, we did
a hip fusion in a man with an untreated, painful acetabular fracture who raised
his hands in joy as we scheduled his operation, we treated a man transferred
from Albert Schweitzer hospital with a cervical spine facet dislocation who
will continue to have full use of both arms and legs, we straightened knee
contractures and operated on clubfeet.
The list goes on… Without this
hospital the majority of these patients would have no other options, leaving
them with lives of disability. It was a
privilege to have Dr. Rob Quigley a 3rd year resident and Dr. Joseph
Hahn a 4th year resident accompany me on this trip. Many cases presented that they had never
before seen in their training. Not only
are these operations life changing for the patients but these experiences are
defining moments in the careers of many of us involved. These are sacred events helping us to become
better surgeons and better people.
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| Fanfan - a new patient with rickets similar to Chadme |
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| After placing external fixators to perform a gradual correction |
May the Lord Bless you in this holiday season.
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