Wednesday, April 21, 2010
I received an email from Joe today. It's actually a copy of email correspondence he's had with the Texas doctor who asked him to bring a transition team to Pierre Payen, but that works for me.
 
What I can glean from in and around the medical conversation is that they jumped into Monday with a 15 hour day that included 5 operating room cases and a child with pneumonia. He mentions patients he met last January, "M. and S. were seen and are walking with walkers ... E. and L. were both here and their arms look great. We are working on the wrist drops," and adds, "The team is awesome and group dynamics are great. The physical therapists have really added to patient satisfaction." I recognize the patient "M"; last January he came to the hospital with a badly crushed ankle/foot and Joe told me the trauma docs said they thought there was only a  5% chance they could save his foot, but they would try. The Haitian doctors had cautioned them to NOT do amputations because people would refuse to come to Pierre Payen if they thought limbs would be amputated. Joe knew "M" was on the docket to be seen Monday; I can only imagine how pleased he was to see "M", and a thousand times more how happy "M" must be to have his foot.
 
During some down time, they are doing more cleaning and organizing. Sunday night, he said the OR was covered with inches of dust and dirt since it hasn't been used since the last trauma team left April 1. It is still very hot, very dry and very dusty. Highway 1, Haiti's main road which carries everything from trucks to cars to tap-taps (public transportation) to donkeys and dogs to people on foot, cuts through the middle of the hospital compound.
 
In the last part of Joe's email he writes, "The main auto clave broke and the one in the old OR leaves everything wet (not good per surgical tech and general surgeon). The anaesthesia machine broke. It must have a tube or fitting that broke because in the middle of a case we heard a loud ssssssssssss. I can tell the general area where it is coming from, but without tools to disassemble it, I cannot get to the exact area. If we had a technologist on a team, it might be helpful. Could fix, if possible, some equipment. Tommy is going to look at the scope equipment today. The PT's have continued to reorganize like things together in down time."
 
They will leave Port au Prince late Saturday afternoon and arrive in Omaha 22 hours later. 

Monday, April 19, 2010
Joe and nine others are in Haiti for a week of medical work. He was asked by the doctors in Texas who are connected to the hospital in Pierre Payen, Haiti, if he would put together a "transition team" of medical people to go for a week in April. The Texas people had scheduled 11 weeks of trauma teams for this particular hospital and those 11 weeks ended April 1.
 
Joe called last evening via Skype on someone's computer and though he said he could hear me quite well, it was fuzzy on my end. He said they arrived in Port au Prince Sunday morning after spending Saturday night (midnight - 6 a.m.) in the Miami airport. They flew from Omaha Saturday, mid-afternoon, April 17. A pleasant surprise was that American Airlines waived ALL baggage fees for their 20 pieces of checked baggage which consisted of suitcases and rubbermaid bins filled with lots of medical supplies and well repair items. Bob Easton, of Water 4 Haiti, had brought the well supplies to our house last week. Thank you, American Airlines.
 
I could hear him clearly enough to learn that the group visited the Bon Samaritan Orphanage in Montrouis, met the children and went on to the hospital. They traveled in the box/ice truck that had been used as an ambulance following the earthquake as it transported patients in need of surgery from Port au Prince to Pierre Payen. He, and the two surgeons with him, met with the Haitian doctors to discuss communication and relational issues. Joe's very conscious that he and his group are visitors at the hospital and that they are working WITH the local doctors. The biggest potential problem appears to be a severe shortage of diesel all over Haiti. He's concerned there may not be enough to run the generators to allow them to use the operating room. He described the situation as both "political issues and fraud".
 
This transition team consists of people from all across Nebraska: Nurses - Merikay Gengenbach and Tracy Hale; Surgical Tech - Kim Jorgensen; Nurse Anesthetist - Stan Roethemeyer; Physical Therapists - Natalie Sass, Terry Nelson, Alice Johnson; General Surgeon - Dr. Tommy Lee; Orthopedist - Dr. Mike McCarty; and Joe, Family Physician. 

2/5/2010   Joe is sitting in the West Palm Beach airport this afternoon waiting for a 6:00 p.m. flight on American Airlines to take him to Omaha, via Dallas, arriving 11:00 tonight. The dog and I are soon leaving to pick him up. He missed his connecting 12:15 p.m. flight. The small jet he was on this morning had to refuel on an island (that's what he told me) after they left Port au Prince. He said he has been superbly impressed with the skill and dedication of the teams of doctors and nurses he's worked with these last 2 weeks. They were not able to transfer the young female patient to the USS Comfort. He told me her injuries will leave her paralyzed if she can't get the highly advanced help she needs. One little girl among many ... thousands ... hundreds of thousands ... but he knows her name and face. And that makes it very real.   

2/4/2010  Talked with Joe last night and received a short email from him as he's trying to figure out how to return to Nebraska this weekend. He said the pump at the hospital went out last night, then corrected himself by saying the pump is actually working, the problem is they are running out of water in the well. Not good at all. He thought he might be the one to accompany a young female spine patient, via helicopter, to the USS Comfort on Thursday. Evidently it involved making a lot of arrangements.