Bridge crossing Cap Haitien, Haiti, Feb. 2010

Cap Haitien, Haiti, taken by Jennifer on her medical mission there in Feb. 2010. This is SHADA, the poorest area in Cap. This was taken on Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent (Ash Wednesday) began. Note that Carnival was cancelled for obvious reasons … instead, the marchers in the procession all wore white, carrying rosaries marching from the Cap Haitien Airport through town in honor of those that had died in the earthquake. Jen held a small camera out the window to get the look-and-feel of the people in this town, which is located on the North Coast. While not directly hit with by the earthquake, it is now full of refugees, some the saddest of cases.

Although there is garbage in the streets, the people are spirited and proud. Jen noted that you will never see a Haitian in this area without the cleanest of clothing, always bleached and fully pressed. This clip gives a good feel of the people walking the streets.

 

Local doctor strives to improve life for his people

Story and photos by Samantha Oester

CAP HAITIEN, HAITI – Born in the northern region of Haiti, Dr. Maklin Eugene grew up without access to medical care. The son of farmers in a remote village, he decided at a young age that he wanted to make a difference in his home country. “Luckily, I’m not a person that gets very sick,” he said on the way to the EBAC orphanage in Cap Haitien Saturday. “But so many people here, they desperately need care, and don’t have any way to get it. I wanted to help Haitians live.”

Dr. Maklin Eugene travels to various clinics, orphanages and hospitals in the Cap Haitien area, helping the region’s residents gain access to medical care, as well as treating earthquake refugees. Here, he stands outside of the clinic in Jacquesyl Thursday.

Eugene works at various clinics, hospitals and orphanages in the Cap Haitien area, including the clinics in Tovar, Cotelette and Jacquesyl, St. Anthony’s Clinic and the orphanage in Kayang, making a total of
about $9,000 USD per year. Every day this week, locals stopped him on the street to ask for money to buy medications and bus fare to get to medical facilities, which he pulls from his own pocket. “They know how to do it,” he said. “They show me proof of what they need, like a prescription, and I help with what I can.” The young doctor has also been assisting the staff at Milot and Justinien Hospitals, to aid in the treatment of earthquake victims. The mayor of Cap Haitien, Michel St. Croix, along with Eugene, arranged for buses to pick up refugees from Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns and bring them to Cap Haitien for treatment. “We’re now overwhelmed with people, and people that need medical care,” Eugene stated. “But they have no place else to go. We couldn’t leave them in Port-au-Prince to die.” Many earthquake refugees are coming from Port-au-Prince with amputations, from body parts being cut off in order to pull them from the rubble, sometimes with rusty saws and other tools found on the street. “Being disabled here is so different,” Eugene said. “They don’t have any one to care for them, and their families are gone. There’s no programs for them here like in the United States. They may starve just from not being able to move.”

Dr. Maklin Eugene, a member of the Cap Haitien Health Network, stands outside of the new maternity wing of the Haiti Hospital Appeal, currently under construction.

The country’s only medical schools, including the one Eugene attended, were located in or near Port-au-Prince and are no longer operable, with many students perishing in the disaster. In dire need of more health professionals, Haiti is in “serious trouble” without the students who were attending medical schools and universities when the Jan. 12 earthquake hit, according to Eugene. “Because of help and
supplies from the U.S. and other countries, medical care here was starting to get better,” he explained. “But now, a lot of people have lost hope. We need doctors and nurses so bad. We need schools. They might not get rebuilt for a long, long time.” Tent cities have been erected to give refugees a place to go, but it is a temporary fix. “The mayor in Cap Haitien is feeding them and trying to keep them alive,” Eugene said. “But no help is coming from the national government. Haiti was so bad before. It’s going to be even worse for a while.”

Dr. Maklin Eugene after an exhausting day treating patients in the remote village of Pillette Monday. Eugene has been treating patients and helping people around-the-clock since the earthquake.

With the current president of Haiti, Rene Preval, having a year left in office, many people have lost hope. “They are discouraged,” Eugene said. “It’s going to be hard to get people to even show up to vote in the next election. They feel like it doesn’t make a difference.” But optimism had been found in people like Eugene – Haitians working to make their country a better place for its people. In addition to his clinic schedule, and offering around-the-clock consultations and help with medications, he has established two businesses to help local women. He started a co-op to give women two-percent interest loans, with low monthly payments, to institute their own businesses. His other venture, Hands of Haiti, employs women to make medical scrub shirts, with a portion of the proceeds going to treat earthquake refugees. Soon to be sold on a website based in Virginia, Eugene hopes the scrub company will take off, and he will be able to expand and hire a lot more women from the Cap Haitien area. For Haiti’s future, Eugene said general education and health education is the key. A majority of Haiti’s population do not have access even to elementary schools. According to Eugene, not only would increasing the number of educated people in Haiti change the economy, but it would make the country generally healthier. “It’s very hard sometimes to explain to people who have never been to any kind of school how to take care of themselves,” he said. “They just don’t understand preventative care. And many times they leave the clinics without really understanding how to take their medicines or follow the instructions the doctor gives them.”

Haiti’s schools, however, are not currently managed by the government. Schools are built and ran privately, by organizations and individuals who want to see Haiti have a brighter future. “The people of Haiti are not like the bad things that you hear about the government,” Eugene said. “I want everyone to know that Haiti’s people are great, great people. They want to learn. They are so eager to go to school. They just can’t. If people here had more opportunities, Haiti would be a very different place.”

 

Faces of Haiti: Day 6‏

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Day 6: EBAC Orphanage and Goodbyes

Column and photos by Samantha Oester

It’s Saturday, our last day seeing patients in Haiti. Tomorrow we begin the long journey home. We piled on the bus again with all of our supplies, along with VOSH, now used to our morning routine. Our destination today was EBAC, an orphanage in Morne Rouge managed by Kathy Gouker and Alice Wise, Penns. natives who have been in Haiti for about 30 years. We set up a mini clinic in a pavilion near the orphanage’s school, including eye and medical exams. The orphanage currently serves about 100 children, increasing their capacity by 25 percent to care for children orphaned by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Nurse Paige Chamlis take the blood pressure of a young girlat the EBAC orphanage in Morne Rouge.

First we saw the orphans, most of whom spoke English learned at the school, where Gouker and Wise also serve as teachers. Well-mannered and ever-so loving, the children of all ages were excited to be cared for. They continued surrounding the pavilion, curious about us and craving our attention, as we opened our services to the general public. Familiar with EBAC and visiting doctors, everyone was very respectful and calm as they waited to be seen in Morne Rouge. It’s apparent Gouker and Wise have made quite an impression on the community in their several years there. “People know us, and know we’re help to help,” Wise explained. “We don’t have too many issues.” For several hours, we treated people under tiny watchful eyes. Near the end of the day, a young boy approached me. “My name is Reginald,” he said. “Will you take my picture and show it people where you live. Maybe they will write to me.” I took his photo and he wrote his name on a tiny strip of paper, very proud of his cursive. “I can write in English and curly English,” he said.

When asked how many children are adopted from EBAC each year, Gouker replied that in the many years she’s been there, there have been zero adoptions. “Being an orphan in Haiti is very different from the U.S.,” she explained. “Adoptions out of any orphanage in Haiti are extremely rare. Children go to an orphanage expecting that to be their forever home. They would be thrilled, and it would be a miracle, to get a home. But they know the reality of it, and they don’t expect it.”

Dr. Maklin Eugene, a Haitian physician who has been workingwith us throughout the week, consults with a young patient at EBAC.

According to Gouker, it is very difficult for people outside of Haiti to adopt Haitian children, especially in the U.S. But, on the rare occasion, it has been done. “It takes a very long time, and there’s a lot of red tape,” she said. “I’ve heard of people trying to go through the adoption process for years, only for some small thing to cause it to not be approved. It’s very discouraging.” As we packed up to go, we got pulled this way and that by children wanting to share their lives with us. “Even the littlest attention from people who they think are caring and loving means so much to them,” Gouker said. “They hold onto those memories. They just want to love and be loved.”

Unable to refuse, we were directed to the schoolhouse, as more and more youngsters added to the crowd, placing their hands in mine, hanging onto my pants and wrapping their arms around my waist. “I love you, and you are my friend,” I heard a little girl say to Paige Chamlis. They showed us the classrooms, and their “offices,” tiny desks side by side where each child keeps a small corkboard and schoolwork. “Those little desks are the only place in the entire world they can call their own,” Wise said. A few corkboards contained holiday cards and letters from doctors who had visited the orphanage before. “They are my family,” Ann, a young teenager said. “I have my orphanage family, and my American family. Maybe someday, I can see them again.”

Nurse Kristen Rumcik measures a little girl at EBAC.

A 17-year old named Eve stopped us to hear her sing. Known at the orphanage as the “Haitian Beyonce,” she had the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard from a completely untrained background. “In the U.S., she’d be on American Idol. Here, she’s an orphan,” Chamlis said. “Yeah, it breaks your heart,” Kristen Rumcik replied. As we walked to the bus, I was handed several tiny strips of paper with names. “Reginald said you would find someone in America to write to him,” a young girl said. “Can you find someone for us to?” I told them that I was sure people would love to write and send photos. “It’s so happy when we get a letter,” she said.

Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Schmidt treats a young boy at EBAC.

Back at our hotel in Cap Haitien, Mont Joli, a celebration was waiting. As a way to thank us for the work we, and the other medical teams staying there, had done that week, some of the staff and other people we’d met had a party for Jennifer Schmidt’s birthday. “There’s so much to be sad about, but there’s also things we have to be thankful for,” said Ralph, an interpreter from Cap Haitien who had been helping us all week. “Sometimes we need to take a break from the tragedy and celebrate what we have.” Cakes and wine were brought out and shared with everyone at the hotel. (Several other medical teams from the United States, working in various areas, had arrived at the Mont Joli throughout the week.) People, of all races and walks of life, danced and drank, as I slipped away. I called my husband, and he talked to me while I cried myself to sleep.

*Note: The EBAC orphanage accepts orphan sponsorships. To sponsor an orphan, helping to better their care and gaining a friend for life, go to http://www.heartsforthehungry.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=62.

Reginald, an orphan at EBAC in Morne Rouge, poses for a photo.

 

Day 5: More faces of Haiti

 

Day 5: Jacquesyl and Ferrier

Column and photos by Samantha Oester

We woke up at the Center for Formation commune early to the sounds of roosters and turkeys just outside our window. After breakfast, we walked back up the muddy path to meet the bus, and journeyed back to Jacquesyl. Everything was set up as the day before, but the people gathered at the church were even more anxious than the previous day. Possibly aware that we would not be returning the following day, the group waiting to have their eyes checked grew louder and louder as the morning went on. Throughout the week, I had learned the Creole pronunciations for the letters and numbers on the eye chart, so I sent Ralph, the interpreter working with me, to attempt to calm everyone and instill some kind of order. He yelled something in Creole, which worked for a few minutes until a fight broke out. A few men from the crowd volunteered to help. They sent some people outside, and served as security until it was their turn to be seen.

Dr. Matt Green checks the blood pressure a woman who stopped him outside of the Center for Formation in Jacquesyl.

“It’s a really rowdy bunch today,” said New Hampshire resident and optometrist Mike Gordon, a member of VOSH. “They’re excited and nervous and afraid they won’t get to participate,” Ralph said to me. “Will we be back here tomorrow? They might calm down if I can tell them when they can be seen again.” I told him we weren’t coming back tomorrow – we were headed to an orphanage in another town. “I’ll just tell them I don’t know,” Ralph said. “I don’t want to make it even worse.”We continued trying to work while the crowd grew louder and more impatient. Eye exams were continued, and people were treated eye injuries and infections, including an entire family with trachoma, an infectious eye disease that causes blindness.

Optometrist Paul Halpern examines the eyes of an elderly woman in Jacquesyl.

“It’s so sad when we see people with things like cataracts,” said Dave McPhillips, an optometrist from Pennsylvania. “A 10-minute surgery in the U.S. would get rid of it, but here, they don’t have access to it, so they’re just blind in one eye.” VOSH/DelVal is currently working with Haitian ophthalmologists to open an eye clinic in the Cap Haitien area that will perform routine eye exams, as well as eye treatments and surgeries. “It’s needed so bad in Haiti,” McPhillips said. VOSH/DelValis is a chapter of VOSH International, a group of eye experts partnered with the World Health Organization and World Council of Optometry. They work to help eliminate causes of preventable blindness, especially in third-world countries. “Here, they just think that since they’re grandparents couldn’t see at 40, and their parents couldn’t see at 40, that they just won’t be able to see at 40,” Gordon explained. “They have no idea it can be prevented and corrected. Simple surgeries would make a world of difference.”

Optometrist Dave McPhillips uses an autorefractor to check awoman's eyes in Jacquesyl.

As noon approached, our group gathered at the bus, coming together from the church and nearby medical clinic, where members of our medical team had been seeing patients throughout the morning. The boy from yesterday, who lost his family in Port-au-Prince and wanted to go to school, approached us and handed Paige Chamlis a letter he wrote in broken English, so we wouldn’t forget about him. She turned to me with tears in her eyes. We were leaving for a few hours, so I told her to tell him to meet us here in the afternoon, when he saw the bus coming back. We would have a plan for him.

Optometrist Mike Gordon examines a man's eyes in Jacquesyl.

We left Haiti Marycare and VOSH in Jacquesyl and travelled to an orphanage in Ferrier. The orphanage had received children from Port-au-Prince who might need medical care, and Dr. Matt Green, a physician from Virginia, sponsors a little boy there, Wisley. Green and his wife have sponsored the five-year old for 18 months, sending money for clothes, school and medical care, and writing to him. We were welcomed with open arms, and soon, two little boys and a young girl approached us, holding hands. The other two children, Lukinson and Francesca, are sponsored by Green’s mother and sister. As Green held Wisley for the first time, a woman who helps run the orphanage, Sylvia, said, “You are his godfather. We talk to him about you a lot.” We went to see where the children sleep, play and go to school, as the four – Green, Wisley, Lukinson and Francesca – walked hand in hand. The children were examined and were determined to be overall healthy, with some common ailments in Haiti treated.

Optician Linda Voss tries a pair of glasses on a young man in Jacquesyl.

“This is one of the best orphanages I’ve seen in Haiti,” Jennifer Schmidt said of the modest facilities. “You can tell they really care for the children here.” The orphanage made a meal, “so they can eat together, as a family,” the Sylvia said. After a tearful goodbye, we went back to Jacquesyl to pick up VOSH and the medical supplies we left at the clinic. As Green exited the clinic, he noticed a young boy standing outside, dripping with sweat and ready to collapse. The doctor rushed him inside, and the boy went limp. After an examination by Jim Morgan and Mary Lou Larkin, it was determined that the boy had pneumonia. He was quickly treated.

Dr. Matt Green with Wisley, an orphan he and his wife sponsor, at the orphanage in Ferrier.

As we piled on the bus, the boy desperate to go to school returned, as we had told him. Paige Chamlis and I each talked to Sherman Malone, a social worker with Haiti Marycare who is fluent in Creole and familiar with the residents of the small fishing village of Jacquesyl. Everyone exchanged contact information, and Malone assured us we would find away to send him to school. Exhausted, physically and emotionally, we prepared for the long ride back to Cap Haitien.

Left ro right: Wisley, Lukinson and Francesca. Dr. Matt Green, along with his mother and sister, sponsor these orphans in Ferrier.

 

Returning home to help rescue and recover

Story and photo by Samantha Oester

CAP HAITIEN, HAITI – Pediatric Nurse Elizabeth Kaplan has been volunteering at Hopital Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Hospital) in Milot, Haiti, since the Jan. 12 earthquake. Located in the northern region of Haiti, near Cap Haitien, the hospital has been steadily receiving refugees from Port-au-Prince. “Even without this disaster, the state of Haiti was very sad,” she said Monday, on the way to the Haiti Hospital Appeal. “It’s even more terrible now.” The hospital in Milotis overwhelmed, according to Kaplan, but has been able to treat thousands of patients. “They’ve set up several military tents outside, and that’s where the post-surgery patients stay,” she explained. “They’ve tried to adapt as best they can to the situation.”

Kaplan, originally from Port-au-Prince, has been returning to Haiti for yearsto help medical facilities, and this is her third trip since the earthquake. “They need so much help,” she stated, shaking her head.“ There are so, so many amputees from Port-au-Prince. I’m just worried that after the earthquake aid stops, no one will think of the ongoing care that’s needed for them, like rehabilitation.”

Elizabeth Kaplan, a pediatric nurse in Florida, is originally from Port-au-Prince. She and husband Ted, founders of the Cap Haitien Health Network, are currently in Haiti aiding earthquake refugees and helping clinics in the Cap Haitien area.

On her current visit, Kaplan was only supposed to stay for about a week, but has now been here for three with her 10-month old son, working a lot with paraplegics. “Bus loads of people were still coming from Port-au-Prince to Milot, and there’s such a need,” she said. “I couldn’t leave. They need so much help, especially nurses.”Kaplan said she’s had a hard time seeing fellow Haitians suffering, especially after a disaster. “On my first day in Haiti after the earthquake, a 12 year-old boy died in front of me,” she sighed. “But there have been some miracle stories too.” One in particular concerns a woman at Milot who was paralyzed and refused to talk. She had been at the hospital for some time, and it was unknown if she was even able to speak. “When I got to her, she was lying in her own feces,” Kaplansaid. “And I cleaned her up and cared for her and treated her, and a few days later, she called out to me.” The woman thanked Kaplan for saving her life, and explained her choice to be mute until she met the respectful and caring nurse. “She lost her husband, her house, her ability to move, everything in the earthquake,” Kaplan explained. “And she has no idea where her kids are, dead or alive. She used to be a very independent woman, and now she’s alone, upset and dependant on the hospital.” Kaplan says stories like that remind her of why she’s here, and the importance of her help. “It makes my presence and my work worthwhile.”

According to Kaplan, the help coming from the U.S. and other countries has been “incredible,” but there remain needs not being met. “Honestly, there are a lot of people that would be dead without the help of volunteers and organizations from outside the country,” she said. “But there’s just so much to be done.”Now living in Florida, Kaplan and husband Ted, a pediatrician, founded the Cap Haitien Health Network, helping to fund and connect various groups in Haiti. “We want to treat and educate Haiti,” she said. “The network not only includes medical groups, but also groups that want to help make other aspects of their lives better, which also helps them medically. For instance, we work with people who are making natural methane gas out of feces and with people who help clean up the area and build housing.”

At a meeting of the network Wednesday, the need for continuing to help all Haitians, including those unaffected by the earthquake, and for the various groups providing aid to stay connected. “We can get a lot more done if we come together,” Kaplan’s husband said to the group of approximately 60 at the meeting. The plan for Haiti needs to include several aspects, like rebuilding “sound buildings,” medical care and education. “Education is so, so important,” she emphasized. “Health education, like family planning, and more schools. Children ask to go to school. They want to go to school.” Many of the country’s few schools and universities were located in Port-au-Prince, and are now gone or inoperable. “Young people here have a thirst for knowledge, but there are no resources,” she said. “If more schools were built, and if these eager and intelligent young people could go, Haiti would have a much brighter future.”

 

Day 4: Jacquesyl Clinic

Ralph, an interpreter from Cap Haitien, assists an eye exam.

Column and photos by Samantha Oester

We piled on the bus early this morning, along with Haiti Marycare and VOSH International, and started toward Jacquesyl. The clinic in the Jacquesyl countryside, frequently visited by Haiti Marycare, is a working clinic that regularly sees patients. The medical team in our group planned to set up shop there, increasing the number of patients that could be seen that day, and offering any new treatments the staff physicians may want to learn.

Optometrist Dave McPhillips, from Pennsylvania, examines ayoung girl's eyes in Jacquesyl.

I headed to a nearby church with the VOSH team and Kris Beckman, a dental hygienist from Connecticut, along with her aid-for-the day Certified Medical Assistant Louise Ligas. As we approached the church, people swarmed to the bus. Eye and dental care are even rarer than medical care, and our presence filled the atmosphere with anticipation. Men from the crowd immediately helped carry the large bags of eye equipment and glasses inside, where we were greeted with hundreds of expectant eyes. Soon, the mini clinic was up and running, as more people rushed in.

Jennifer Schmidt, a nurse practitioner from Virginia,consults with a young patient and her mother at the clinic inJacquesyl.

Poor vision and eye injuries and diseases were diagnosed and treated, while infected and decayed teeth were extracted across the room. So eager to have their eyes checked, the multitude of patients gathered closer and closer, pushing and shoving, sometimes causing an uproar, as people feared they would not be seen. At several times in the day, Ralph, an interpreter from Cap Haitien, assisting the eye exams, had to break up fights over seating. “No one wants to be left out,” Ralph explained. “They don’t usually get to have something like this.”

While he was settling a group of people down, enraged over a woman cutting in line, I stopped a second to think. Something as simple as an eye exam was so precious here, it caused brawls inside the church. I couldn’t imagine going my whole life being terribly nearsighted, and waiting in line to see the world for the first time.

Certified Medical Assistant Louise Ligas, of Virginia, helpsConnecticut resident and Dental Hygienist Kris Beckman extract awoman's infected tooth in Jecquesyl.

At the back of the church, Beckman was preparing a syringe of anesthetic to pull a decayed tooth from a local woman. “You know how much a toothache hurts,” Ligas lamented. “Imagine having completely decayed teeth for months, or years. It hurts to get it out, but you can tell they are so relieved when it’s done.”

I walked outside for a moment, after watching the tooth removed, and met a young man. He spoke a little English, and told me he was from Port-au-Prince. His family died in the earthquake, and he made it to Jacquesyl to stay with his grandmother. “My school in Port-au-Prince, it went down,” he said. “I really want to go to school in Cap Haitien, but I can’t.” I then learned that he had been treated at the clinic by our group, Jennifer Schmidt and Paige Chamlis. “We’ll be back tomorrow,” I said. “We’ll talk.” As the day came to an end, we announced we would be returning the next day, and made our way to the bus. We headed for a commune nearby, the Center for Formation, so we could start early the next day. As we drove off, smiling faces chased us, and people wearing their new sunglasses and glasses stood on their porches, waving.

 

Day 4: Even more faces of Haiti

 

Hope in the Heart of a Haitian Woman

By Sam Oester

CAP HAITIEN, HAITI – Gerda Birchell grew up in a very different Haiti than is known to the world today. Born in Port-au-Prince, she recalled the Haiti she once knew on the way to a makeshift clinic in Pillette Monday, to serve as an interpreter and nursing aid. “When I was 18, I remember, it was so beautiful,” she thoughtfully explained. “People came from all over to visit Haiti. Cruise ships came every day, and celebrities visited. The famous people, they had private residences here and even got married and had their honeymoons here.”

Now in her 70s, Birchell lives in Florida and is a certified nursing assistant and educator. She travels back to Haiti with her niece, Elizabeth Kaplan, a registered nurse also born in Port-au-Prince. Birchell comes to Haiti to interpret for, educate and assist those in need. Since the Jan. 12 earthquake, an “already broken Haiti is even worse,” she said. According to Birchell, much of Haiti has been in a state of devastation for many years, and the quake immensely increased the needs of the tiny Caribbean country. “It makes my heart bleed,” she said clutching her chest. “It’s very, very, very sad now. This is not the Haiti I knew.”

Gerda Birchell grew up in a very different Haiti than is known to the world today.

But Birchell has hope. Although she believes it will take “a very long time,” good changes can be made and progress instilled. “Education is the key,” she said. “We need to build more schools, so the young people can be educated and help make a difference in their own country. That was already happening a little, but it needs to increase.” Birchell says that education not only informs new generations, but increases their self-esteem and shows them how they can be effective in helping others. Only about 20 percent of the population in Haiti gets the opportunity to go to school. “They just need to be shown, and they will rise to the need,” she said.

She added that help from people from other countries, like the United States and England, is making a huge difference, and will be an important factor in rebuilding Port-au-Prince and the rest of the country. “It will be hard work and it will be long work, but I know, in my heart, that it will happen,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I will get my Haiti back.”

 

Day 3: More faces of Haiti

Again, all photos by Sam Oester

 

Day 3: St. Anthony’s Clinic and the Cap Haitien Health Network

Column by Samantha Oester

This morning we were joined by a group of volunteer eye doctors, known as the VOSH group, and a group from Haiti Marycare, led by Mary Lou Larkin, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Connecticut. We packed more medical supplies, along with eye exam equipment and boxes of glasses, and headed back to St. Anthony’s. Tomorrow, we would be heading to another clinic, so the goal was to help as many people today as possible in Prolonge’.

Optometrist Paul Halpern, a Pennsylvania resident, examines the eyes of a Haitian woman at St. Anthony's Clinic.

The rain had been steady last night, so our walk was longer, wetter and muddier than the day before, and we now carried more supplies. As we approached the clinic, faces from the day before surrounded us, expectant. The VOSH group set up their equipment in the building next door and immediately began examining patients for everything from eye injuries to those that simply needed glasses. Some men and women had lived their whole lives until today, unable to see, terribly nearsighted, and were elated to now be able to see the world. “He wants to thank you,” an interpreter from Haiti working with us, Emmanuel, told me, standing next to teary-eyed man wearing new glasses. I had helped the man with his vision test. “He can see now. He can work now. He can make more money for his family. They will eat well tomorrow.”

Chris Wurst, a volunteer from Pennsyvlania, hands glasses to a teenager from Prolonge at St. Anthony's Clinic.

In the clinic, the crowd was slightly less chaotic than the day before, now used to our presence. We hired men from Cap Haitien who spoke English and needed work to serve as crowd control, explaining what was happening inside. Patients from all over Haiti were seen for injuries and illness, some close to not making through the day. A baby girl, who had waited hours with her mother to be seen, was just such a patient. After being seen by Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Schmidt, it was apparent her life was in jeopardy. The Haiti Hospital appeal, which runs an ambulance, was called, and Nurse Paige Chamlis ran the baby out of the clinic and to a local man with a motorcycle to take the infant across the muddy and flooded road to meet it.

Registered Nurse Paige Chamlis, of Virginia, attempts to rehydrate a baby girl at St. Anthony's Clinic.

“A lot of times, patients who would be sent to the hospital in the U.S. we have to send on their way from the clinic, helping them the best we can,” explained Louise Ligas, a certified medical assistant. “So, if this baby had to be rushed somewhere, it was most definitely serious.” After the clinic day, the group attended a meeting of the Cap Haitien Health Network. Started by Florida-resident Dr. Ted Kaplan and wife Elizabeth, a nurse originally from Port-au-Prince, the Cap Haitien Health Network aims to make the most of medical and other groups in the area by connecting them, as well as doing their own Haiti aid. About 60 people were in attendance from groups like Clean the World, Meds and Food for Kids and Milot Hospital, as well as Food for the Poor, Haiti Hospital Appeal and VOSH. Of concern was maintaining the aid for Haitians not affected by the earthquake while also helping those that were affected. Seriously injured earthquake refugees were still pouring into the area from Port-au-Prince, adding the needy that were already here. “We need to keep everyone in mind,” Kaplan said. “There are so many more that need help, and need help now. We need to keep coming together to be the most effective.”

Kristen Rumcik, a registered nurse from Virginia, gives reconstituted hydration salts to a little boy at St. Anthony's Clinic.

 

Day 2: More faces of Haiti

All pics by Sam Oester.

 

Day 2: St. Anthony’s Clinic and Justinien Hospital

Column and photos by Samantha Oester

Early Tuesday morning, we pooled our money together to see what medications we could purchase from a pharmacy before heading to St. Anthony’s Clinic in the Prolonge area of Cap Haitien. St. Anthony’s Clinic, built in 2008 under the donation of Virginia residents Bonnie and Mike DelBalzo, had been receiving an influx of patients from Port-au-Prince since the Jan. 12 earthquake. A large crowd was awaiting our arrival outside the small building, and an uproar ensued upon seeing us muddy and wet, carrying medical supplies.

Carrying medical supplies to St. Anthony's Clinic in Prolonge.

We immediately set up and tried to instill some level of organization, but sick and injured children and adults, desperate for care to stay alive, pushed their way through, pleading and clawing at me. I and another volunteer kept the crowd away from the tiny rooms, so patients could be treated. Children clung to my legs crying, pointing at their mouths and stomachs as I fought back my own tears, arms outstretched to block the doors. Among the chaos, Nurse Paige Chamlis was trying to fight the crowd to check everyone’s temperature, blood pressure and injuries, so the sickest would be immediately seen. “This girl has to be seen now!” she shouted above the crowd, as I held out my arm, pulling the girl through the human blockade of patients. An elderly woman, who had been standing in front of me with her granddaughter, slapped me for letting the girl through. I tried to explain to no avail – the interpreters were all busy with the doctors and nurse practitioners, where they were needed most.

Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Schmidt, who helped found St. Anthony's Clinic, checks a young patient for intestinal parasites.

A teenager, Peter, came through the crowd with his niece to help. He spoke English very well, and told the women pulling at me that the girl was very sick and needed immediate attention. “They love America, I don’t want you to think they are angry,” Peter said. “But they are worried about their families. We have seen so many people die.” I told him that I understood. Wouldn’t I do the same to save my child’s life? And I’ve been made well aware of their love and respect for the U.S. – I am approached several times a day by people wanting me to know that they love the United States. They are so appreciative of the care and donations they receive, and normally very peaceful. This continued for the rest of the day – the sick and the injured pulling at my arms and legs crying while I blocked them from the medical care they needed and ran from room to room with medications. I kept telling myself this was necessary to save lives, but I couldn’t help feeling like the evil gatekeeper, holding back the ill from their medicine.

At the end of the clinic, it was estimated that the two doctors and one nurse practitioner, being aided by nurses, had seen 150 patients. The tiny “clinic” served as a hospital – many patients, had they showed up to a doctor’s office in the U.S., would have been taken straight to a hospital’s intensive care unit. But all they had was the clinic and us.

We packed up and trudged back through the mud to our transportation. Our next stop was Justinien Hospital.

Nurse Paige Chamlis takes the temperature of a young girl.

According to Dr. Maklin Eugene, a Haitian physician who works at various clinics and hospitals throughout Cap Haitien, the hospital was also receiving a lot of patients from Port-au-Prince, some of them walking the entire 80 miles to receive care after the earthquake. Many nurses in our group, their first time on a medical trip outside the U.S., became sullen. They had put on a strong face through the chaos all day, but this hospital was too much. Injured babies in rusty cribs, limbs hanging by a thread being held together with tape and ace bandages, broken bones splinted with cardboard, surgeries being performed sometimes with little or no anesthetic. “I am trying to make it better here, but it is very hard,” Eugene explained. Just before we left the hospital, Dr. Matt Green, traveling with us from Virginia, unloaded the rest the casting supplies, splints and lidocaine he had carried with him and handed them to the nurse in the surgical center. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, thrilled with glassy eyes. We left the hospital, exhausted and emotional.

A mother using a nebulizer breathing treatment on her little girl under the care of Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Schmidt at St. Anthony's Clinic.

A baby being treated at Justinien Hospital in Cap Haitien.

A boy with a severely injured arm from Port-au-Prince being treated at Justinien Hospital.

A baby with a head injury from Port-au-Prince at Justinien Hospital.

A premature infant born at Justinien Hospital.

 

Day 1: Setting up in Pillette

By Sam Oester

Registered Nurse Paige Chamlis, of Virginia, performs a malaria test on a man in Pillette.

We awoke early to start our journey, unsure of what the day would bring. Many in our group had not done medical volunteer work outside the U.S. before, and the morning was filled with expectant conversations. Our first stop was at the Haiti Hospital Appeal in Cap Haitien. Started in 2006 by a couple from the U.K., the hospital was originally set up as an OBGYN and pediatric facility. Since the earthquake, however, the area has been receiving a lot of refugees from Port-Au-Prince, and the hospital opened its doors to anyone in need.

Carrying supplies on the journey to the makeshift clinic in Pillette

As we arrived, the clinic building was about to start its day, as a crowd pushed its way to the front door, hoping to be lucky enough to get a ticket to be seen today. As heartbreaking as it is, the reality is that not everyone can be seen. “We see about 250 to 350 people a day,” said one of the nurses, volunteering at the clinic through FaithCare. “Because of supplies and staff and everything, we just can’t see everyone. I try not to think about it, so I can help the ones I can.”

Doctors and nurses in our group were taken around to see patients, only to observe the kind of care needed in the area, many with them returning with sullen faces. “If we weren’t ready before, we are now. These people need us,” said Paige Chamlis, a nurse travelling with us from Virginia.  Our destination today was Pillette, a remote area in Cap Haitien. The area does not have a medical facility, and many people there need care. We travelled through mud rooms into a jungle-like countryside until our transportation could no longer make it through. We carried backpacks and suitcases filled with medical supplies through the mud, rivers and streams, listening to baby screams from tiny broken houses, and occasionally being greeted by hopeful faces. “Does anyone even know to come here?” asked Chamlis, concerning our plan to set up a makeshift clinic in a small empty building at the end of the path. “If we can save the lives of a few people, it will be worth it,” commented Kristen Rumcik, another nurse travelling with our group from Virginia.

Nurse Practicioner Jennifer Schmidt, of Virginia, examines a young girl in Pillette.

Worries were soon replaced with a sense of urgency as we approached the building, greeted by hundreds of people who needed medical care. Some had walked several miles and waited for hours for our arrival with the now muddy suitcases. We immediately ran in and set up shop. Some locals brought in a few benches and chairs from a nearby church, and we got to work. Doctors and nurses separated into different areas of the building, as I helped set up the “pharmacy” and “lab” – medications and testing supplies laid out on two benches. This room also served as the dentist – a small broken chair and a tiny table where a dental hygienist from Connecticut, Kris Beckman, had set up shop for the day. Hot hours flew by as patient after patient was seen by one of the eight doctors and nurse practitioners, while nurses ran back and forth, getting baggies of antibiotics and first aid supplies. The day seemed filled with infected tooth extractions, intestinal parasites and malaria. “You just have to focus on work, and not let yourself think about what happens when we leave,” Chamlis said.

Dr. Matt Green, of Virginia, consults with a patient in Pillette.

Dental Hygenist Kris Beckman, of Connecticut, scrapes bacteria out of a man's dentures in Pillette.

Near the end of the day, the small amount of order that had existed vanished. Children and adults desperate to be seen began pushing through and appealing to me in Creole. Keeping the tears back, I had an interpreter explain the situation. We would see as many as possible before it was time to leave, but some people, who didn’t seem to have serious injuries or illnesses, would have to be turned away. Even as we walked away from the “clinic,” back down the mud path, medications were being pulled from backpacks and people outside quickly treated. This building would hopefully soon become an operating clinic, we were told on the trek back to our transportation, and I held on to that, trying to be comforted.

Certified Nursing Assistant Louise Ligas, of Virginia, takes a woman's blood pressure in Pillette.

 

Pics of the faces of Haiti

I woke up this morning to find these pictures in my inbox. Photographer and writer Samantha Oester is travelling with Jen and the rest of the group, and she took these yesterday on their visit to Pillette. I don’t have captions yet, but they show you the look and feel of that rural location and the simple clinic they set up yesterday:

 

The team has made it to Cap Haitien safe and sound

I just wanted to pass on that the team made it to Cap yesterday and are safe and sound. Jen called me via international cel and gave me a rundown of the first day. After taking a small aircraft from Ft. Lauderdale, they made it into the town and checked into the hotel Montjole’. Today they trekked to the remote town of Pillette to the new clinic. According to Jen, she and Dr. Matt Greene both saw “about 40 patients.” In fact, she told me that she saw her first case of the mumps in her career.

I don’t want to steal her story, as they are going to send me pics and a write-up tomorrow, but she said that Pillette was very, very remote. The bus they were taking got stuck, and they had to drag their equipment and medicine “for miles,” even crossing “three raging rivers.” They were escorted by anyone who saw them … men with machetes cutting the path in front of them and children following and laughing. She said that the area was full of wild horses and donkeys.

The team is back from the remote area and safe and sound at the hotel as I type this.

- Andy

 

Key people involved with Saint Anthony’s Clinic

I want to very clear that Saint Anthony’s is not our clinic. Rather, it is a facility that we have worked with a handful of others to build, with everyone playing crucial roles. Without any of the following, there would be no Saint Anthony’s:

• Bonnie and Mike DelBalzo — When Jen decided that she wanted to build Saint Anthony’s, she didn’t really know where to start. She simply had a dream and a small amount of seed money. After putting out the word to the members of Church of the Nativity of Burke, Va., our parish priest, Father Richard Martin, Food for the Poor and Operation Starfish, she was contacted by Bonnie and Mike, members of St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Inwood, W.Va. They generously donated the money to build the building itself, and Bonnie traveled to see it dedicated in 2008. Without Bonnie and Mike, there would simply be no Saint Anthony’s, as it allowed for Jen and I to use our funds to start up an operational budget.
• Father Duken Augustin — Father Duken is the parish priest in the area of Saint Anthony’s. Father Duken is involved in countless community activities, going above and beyond the role of even the most hardworking men of God. Without his blessing, none of this would be possible. He was vital in building the Nativity III Village in the first place, and he unfortunately has had to deal with the aftermath of countless disasters in the community, including the terrible floods of 2009. Our parish priest Father Richard Martin calls Father Duken his hero, and that says it all.
• Our good friends with Food for the Poor — Jim McDaniel (fellow Nativity parishoner), Delane Bailey-Herd, and Bambi Ziadie allowed for Jen’s dream to come true, as Food for the Poor handles the day-to-day management of the facility and the associated annuity. This allows for all donations to be tax-free. They have always been there for us at a moment’s notice, smoothing out the many bumps in the road that we have had.
• Dr. Maklin Eugene — Dr. Eugene works at Saint Anthony’s clinic one day a week seeing patients. He is our man on the ground. He is a good man and a great friend, and we are blessed to know him.

Jennifer Schmidt with Dr. Maklin Eugene. Bonnie DelBalzo can be seen on the right.

 

Some video clips of Saint Anthony’s and the surrounding areas

This is a video of the truck ride into the village, Nativity Village 2. It was amazing to see the children running after the truck. They put a beautiful banner welcoming her to the village.

Jen entered Prolonge and saw a sign put up for her. A place of hope, but look at the dog. It’s a tough place to find calories.

This was another part of Jen’s October 2008 journey to our clinic in Prolonge, Haiti. This is a great clip for showing the look and feel of the streets there …

 

Hello family and friends!

[The following was sent to our family and friends on May 16, 2009]

I hope you are all doing well and that you are finally getting a chance to enjoy spring. I wanted to drop you a line to let you know how things are going with the clinic that we helped to build in Cap Haitien, Haiti, almost two years ago.

If you remember, I had a chance to go to Haiti for the first time in 2006 to see what Food for the Poor and our church, Church of the Nativity in Burke, VA, had accomplished there. Basically taking the poorest of the poor, people who had lived in an open garbage pit, and giving them homes to live in, clean water to drink, and jobs in the fishing and agricultural industries. It really changed me – it’s pretty sobering to see people living with total dignity after being given just a few of the comforts of life that we take for granted. And we made many friends – these are people who want to take care of their communities and have a future for their children.

St. Anthony’s medical clinic, Cap Haitien, Haiti

I was troubled that the people in this area – about 10,000 – still had zero access to health care. Working in pediatrics as a nurse practitioner, it was extremely difficult for me to see these children merely “surviving.” They were walking around day after day with the worst cases of malnutrition, ringworm, pink eye, scabies, upper respiratory infections, cuts that had become severely infected, etc. Just knowing that we in the U.S. could have cured these ailments with simple treatments that they did not have access to broke my heart! A simple cut on an arm could mean infection and a terrible outcome, because a simple disinfectant wasn’t available to them. These people, full of pride and a strong work ethic, had to fear broken bones and infections in a way that we never could imagine.

Haiti has an infant mortality rate of 64 deaths for every 1,000 births. The majority of women deliver their babies in the streets and lack both prenatal and post-delivery care, therefore making this devastating statistic: 670 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births, a nightmare reality. Something needed to be done to provide these people with healthcare, and I made it my mission to do something about it. We wanted to start small with basic healthcare and prevention and continue to expand throughout the years.

So we decided to do our best to open a simple medical clinic in this area to help all the people that we could. The point of Operation Starfish (the official name of our church’s Haiti mission) is the story of the man walking on the beach throwing washed-up starfish back into the ocean; when someone told him that he couldn’t save all of the thousands that had washed up, he replied that he could still save the ones that he could throw back into the water. He could make a difference in that one’s life. This has been our inspiration – while we can’t save every life, we can do our best to save many, who can later go to school in the village and hopefully someday improve their country in ways that we can only imagine.

We dedicated $10,000 to start a clinic-building fund and were quickly amazed by the generosity of people we had never even met who heard about the effort. A couple in Winchester, Va., donated $15,000 for the construction of the simple, three-room clinic, and ground was quickly broken and the structure completed in early 2008. We decided to dedicate our original donation to building a long-term annuity so that the money necessary to run the clinic would be available long after Andy and I are gone. It only costs about $6,000 a year for us to provide health care for about 10,000 people, which, two years into this project, is still difficult for me to wrap my mind around.

With the generosity of others, most of whom we have never met, the annuity is now above $30,000, and we believe that we are only a couple of years away from hitting our eventual goal of $120,000. When we hit this total, almost all of the operating expenses will come from the interest earned on the fund that we set up with the help of an accountant at our church (at no cost on our part). In fact, there is VERY little overhead to this effort – about 95+ percent of the money we have been able to raise has gone directly into the project, we are proud to say. The accounting and day-to-day operations of the facility are handled by Food for the Poor, the 2nd largest non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to helping the poorest of the poor. We are proud to be affiliated with them. They are also managing the annuity for us, which means that any donations to the fund are tax-free. http://www.foodforthepoor.org

Performing pediatric care on a young girl

I have gone on three trips to Haiti so far, and I organized our first medical mission trip last fall. We were able to treat more than 400 patients in five days. Almost every child that I saw had scabies, ringworm and intestinal parasites, which were easily treated from the medications we brought. The intestinal parasites rob these children of any nutrients they may get from the scarce food to which they have access. I hope to start a program where we can provide the children in the village with anti-parasite medication every six months and multi-vitamins daily, along with the feeding program in the village, in order to aid in improved growth and development. I plan to conduct these medical mission trips annually and if anyone (especially medical professionals) is interested, please let me know. Traveling there will change your life!

With our current money flow, we were able to hire an amazing  local doctor to work one day a week and have a nurse and medical assistant there throughout the week. It’s amazing how much impact there has been with just the effort of a few. And we were able to send a sea container there last year full of all of the necessary medical equipment, which we were able to gather from donations and from Medical Missionaries, Inc. in Manassas, Va.

Triaging patients in the waiting room

We know that everyone seems to be going through tough times these days, but if you are interested in making a tax-free donation to our fund, no matter how small or how large, we would greatly appreciate it!

Along with this letter, there is a donation envelope that will go directly toward St. Anthony’s Clinic. Food for the Poor, Inc. will send you a letter in the spring for tax purposes.

Even a very small donation will mean a lot to not only us, but most importantly to improving the health and well-being of our friends in Cap Haitien, Haiti.

May God bless you and your family!

Thank you for your friendship and support,

Adorable twin boys, Mackendi and Mackenzie

Jen and Andy
May 16, 2009

 

Welcome to our blog for Saint Anthony’s Medical Clinic!

Thank you for stopping by. We are Jennifer and Andrew Schmidt. In 2008, we helped to build a small health center in the Pro Longe’ area of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, with Miami-based Food for the Poor. The clinic now has a doctor staffed there one day a week and a nurse and medical technician who are there throughout the week. Jennifer takes a team of medical professionals there once a year (usually in February).

The clinic has been a success. However, the earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince earlier this month has changed everything. Refugees are migrating toward the north coast and into Saint Anthony’s Clinic at a steady rate. On Feb. 14, Jen is taking a team of six-person medical team composed of doctors, nurse pracitioners, and nurses to Cap-Haitien to work at Saint Anthony’s and other clinics in the north. This blog will attempt to document their experiences and travels.

Much, much more to follow. In the meantime, I will post our newsletter, which we sent to friends and family in May 2009.