A Message from Gressier, Haiti: "This morning the second parking lot baby was born"
There is a lot of advice going around about what people can do to help in Haiti. The conventional advice is don't give anything except money. This is good advice—unless you have a helicopter. If you have a helicopter or know of someone who has access to a helicopter, perhaps you can do something for one physician, one physician's assistant and one optometrist cut off from assistance as they operate a makeshift operating room set up in a church in Gressier, about ten miles west of Port-au-Prince.
The trapped medical professionals are with Haiti Health Ministries. They live in the nation year-round providing clinic services for those Haitians with no other care options (which means, basically, everyone). This includes everything from pain management to labor and delivery care to "dental day," which, as I've been told, is the day when they just pull teeth dawn until dusk. Two of those there are a couple with an infant daughter.
Contact with them is intermittent—but is never without the plea for supplies. Just a couple of the messages they have managed to get out:
A little before 5:00 yesterday the roar started. Something like a tornado, except the trees weren't blowing – they were moving. And so was our truck and the ground and me. My reaction was something like – what was that? Earthquake! I'm glad everything is okay. I'll put the groceries up now.
About then David ran up shouting "Is everybody okay?" and I realized I should be doing the same. I found Eleanor, she was just across the way and I could see her the whole time. Teresa had gone to the clinic so Dave and I took off running to check on people there. We found the Eye Clinic apartments had collapsed and were still collapsing. Jim and Sandy made it outside, if only barely, and dazed. I found Teresa and we shared a hug and some incredulity. We shouted for Nannie and she appeared from the new HHM building which was in ruins. Then we saw the school.
The high school had folded in half and was still cracking and spewing dust and glass. We ran over and shouted for survivors, but it looked the school had already completely emptied. We found some abandoned sandals, a bicycle thrown to the side in haste and a notebook computer face in the dust with its optical tray extended. Doug and I went back to the school later that night, but it was too dangerous to enter and the rooms looked empty.
I should have seen what was coming next, but for some reason none of us understood that the first injured person that showed up at the gate was just the beginning of steady stream that would continue into today. We gathered supplies from any structure we thought was safe and piled them in the grass parking area. Someone started separating the injured from the merely scared. We found and started a gas generator and powered two large fluorescent floodlights to illuminate our makeshift OR. We started cleaning, suturing and splinting and didn't stop until 5:30 in the morning when we all lay down under the stars for the briefest of naps. Young and old were injured from head to toe and two dead were delivered to our gate. I held one lady's head as she delivered at our gate. A little baby boy that Teresa and Amy massaged into life. This morning the second parking lot baby was born at the end of my driveway as we finished cleaning up my house. Teresa had about 10 minutes of sleep and is going full throttle today.
Thanks for all your prayers. People continue to show up, increasingly outside of our limits of care and we will soon run out of supplies. Many have asked how they can help. It would be difficult and daring to try to run to Haiti right now. Houses were not all that collapsed. It appears communications and infrastructure are crippled too. We believe that international relief organizations will appear soon and giving through them may be the best early option. Above all pray for God to hear the cries and answers. He is the only one big enough to hear all the suffering.
And:
i’m ok, and so is Ryan and Nora [Eleanor]. our house sustained damage (cracks, flooding, everything off the shelves) but didn’t fall down. J. and S.’s house (where i used to live) fell down. so did part of the clinic, the eye clinic, and all of the schools. the guesthouse is still standing, as well as our house and David’s house. everyone else lost their house. we worked all night trying to help people, and are still working today. it’s like being in hell… people dying on your doorstep, limbs falling off, gashes and paralysis and everything you’d see in war. all the missionaries here are ok, only a few bumps and bruises as they scrambled to get out of their houses. Ryan and Nora and i were outside when it happened, so we were ok. that’s all the update i can give you for now, because i’ve got to go back to more chaos. thank the Lord E. is here to take care of Nora while Ryan and i work.
Now they are running out of supplies and with Monday's untreated, non-life-threatening injuries becoming tomorrow's mortal infections, their work is only starting.
Christian non-profit organization Agape has gathered supplies and has a plane and has agreed to fly to Port-au-Prince with supplies specifically for the makeshift OR in Gressier. But without a helicopter to get the supplies the few more miles from Port to Gressier, the stuff might as well be sitting in Poughkeepsie.
As of now, nobody knows they are there—not the Red Cross, not World Vision, not the incoming U.S. military—only a handful of Haitians and Americans, including the physician assistant's sister in Minneapolis, who is calling anyone who might be able to help.
So: can you help? Probably not. But if you know anyone who knows anyone who might be able to help, please do what you can—and drop us a line.
Did someone say Helicopters? -Harold Ford Jr.
Damn!
Paging Harold Ford Jr.!!!
"limbs falling off"
UPDATE from the physician's assistant: "Jim performed some amputations."
The earthquake hit about 20 minutes after we drove into our driveway (we had arrived in port that same day and went grocery shopping before heading home). I was walking in the road on my way to the clinic when the earthquake began. Ryan was outside in our driveway, and Eleanor was outside in the hands of Connie Nichols. We all struggled to keep our balance during the quake, which seemed to last forever. When the tremors subsided, I saw that the first floor of the apartments of Jim, Sandy and Jen (the apartment complex where I used to live) had collapsed. I ran to the clinic to see if they were there, then ran back when we realized they were inside. As I came back, I saw Jim and Sandy in the road, covered with dust. They had escaped through a new hole in the side of their house. Jen was safe also. Ryan came running up, and we walked back to find Nora together. At this point we had no idea of the magnitude of what was happening. We heard that there was a person at the guesthouse who was injured. I had some supplies in my bag from donations that Sherry Donovan had given me stateside, so I pulled those out and began working on the patient. I foolishly thought that she might be the only one injured. Soon after we began working on her, a steady stream of people began flowing into the yard. Some were injured and others were just homeless and scared. We separated the groups and began working on the injured. A group of people went back to the clinic and braved the gases and dust and cracks in the wall to get a truckload of supplies and bring them to our triage area near the guesthouse. Others set up lights, because darkness was fast falling. As we looked through the crowd and began treating wounds, the extent of the injuries astounded us. As soon as we thought we saw the worst case, another patient even more injured would come along. Many had severed and mangled limbs, many had serious head wounds, one woman was paralyzed from the waist down, the majority of the people who came had at least one broken limb. One woman was in labor and delivered in the driveway. Two other women came the next day and delivered their babies without complications. Several people were dead on arrival, and many more were so severely injured that we were confident they would die within a few days. Jim and I felt helpless at times in the face of such grave injuries and such limited supplies. We worked until about 5 am, and then tried to sleep for about half an hour. Then the injured came again, en masse.
We set up shop at the church, which was still standing, although it had some concerning cracks in its outer walls. Sandy and Nannie triaged the masses of people who came to the church for help, choosing about 40 of them. The rest were left to find help elsewhere, if possible. Jim and I, with the help of the team, sutured people and splinted fractures. Jim performed some amputations. Jen delivered a baby in a pew. A woman died of blood loss as she was lying in front of the altar. Almost everyone had a story of a loved one that was lost. Evelyn and Connie watched Nora for me so I could work. Ryan was busy attending to our house, which suffered flood damage. Throughout the day, small tremors kept our nerves on end, and as we were finishing up our last few patients, a large tremor rocked the building and sent us all running out the door. The building stood, but we finished up our last patients in the yard.
Today was a day of regrouping for the missionaries. We are basically out of medical supplies, so opening up a clinic today was useless. We focused on contacting loved ones, taking pictures, getting possessions out of destroyed houses. The eye clinic is not able to be opened because of stuctural unsoundness, so we don't know the extent of the damage there. The medical clinic is not too stable as it is. Our house is livable. None of us are sleeping inside at this point. There are too many tremors still. We have our mattresses in the open air, and Nora is comfortable in her pack n play with her mosquito net.
We learned of the death of our housekeeper, Daphne, this morning. She was only in her early 20s. We haven't heard from any of our other haitian friends in Port or Seguin. The Jacmel boys are safe.
God is good. We have heard of many people who want to come help, and at this point we are strongly urging no one to come. We don't have access to enough food or fuel to support more people here. If you would like to help, please send donations to Community Christian Church, 10001 W. Commercial Blvd, Tamarac, FL 33351 and designate it for "Earthquake".
Thank you for your prayers. Please pray for no rain at night, since everyone in this part of the country is sleeping outside.
Photos from the Americans treating wounded there outside Port au Prince.
The high school folded in half
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yKQqN5xlSDI/S1EVKzOTBlI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/0v_VqIrQ_B4/s1600-h/high+school.jpg
beds where all now sleep outdoors
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yKQqN5xlSDI/S1EVsU6UuNI/AAAAAAAAAHA/GZW7T3V–Yw/s1600-h/missionaries+sleep+outside.jpg
The rest of these photos are EXTREMELY graphic. I cannot stress this enough VERY GRAPHIC but, from what has been sent, fairly representative of he kinds of injuries there:
side laceration
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yKQqN5xlSDI/S1EVs83xJSI/AAAAAAAAAHI/CcElPDnJvnE/s1600-h/Side+laceration.jpg
leg laceration
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yKQqN5xlSDI/S1EVsU6UuNI/AAAAAAAAAHA/GZW7T3V–Yw/s1600-h/missionaries+sleep+outside.jpg
ankle fracture / amputation
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yKQqN5xlSDI/S1EVr2NpokI/AAAAAAAAAGw/ApuU9Sc3Sec/s1600-h/Bilat+open+fx+of+ankles.jpg
A coast guard helicopter finally did land today with some medical supplies. They will come back to take the severely wounded out in 3-person flights over the next few days. Also the Americans who were there volunteering and caught a little out of heir element.