I apologize that there have not been more updates on this blog.  While I was in Haiti we had very limited internet services and then the generator was not working, so there were few opportunities. 

Hopefully this blog with be a place to share the news of what is going on in the medical programs at Northwest, because there are really very few days where a life isn’t touched, healed, and changed.  Please continue to be patient and keep checking for stories.

"Holding Mama" photo by Andy Olsen, NWHCM

Saturday night the group that was here announced that they were going to go fly kites Sunday after church. They had brought around 50 kites and were going to head out to one of the mountain clearings and just start flying kites and play with the kids who ended up coming around. I thought that sounded like a great Sunday afternoon activity. Although of course I could imagine things going a bit crazy, I still thought I would try to go with them. Maybe part of the desire to do that was also a desire to not face my suitcases and work on unpacking them that afternoon.

Needless to say I did not go fly kites yesterday afternoon. But I would rather have done that, or about a million other activities other than what I ended up doing.

While eating lunch one of the nurses came to get me because there had been a baby brought to us in respiratory distress. The grandmother came with the baby because the mother had the baby on the road trying to come for a delivery here. By the time I saw the baby the nurses had put him on oxygen and he looked rather pink, but was struggling to breath. It was easy to tell that this little one was rather premature. I was thinking maybe at best 8 months along. Nirva, one of the nurses said that she thought he was dead when they brought him because of how dark his skin was. He had been almost completely blue. The problem was that this little guy just wasn’t ready to come into this world yet.

He wasn’t maintaining his temperature, so we used a solar shower bag and an overhead light to try to warm him up. (Our incubators don’t work, hopefully we have some on the way!!) His temperature started to come up to normal and really he was looking like he was struggling less to breath. Now where was his mother? She was still trying to get here. I mentioned to one of the interns here that this mom was trying to get here after having had her baby on the road and he right away wanted to go get her in a vehicle, so off they went, unsure of what her condition was going to be when the found her.

I waited, unsure of how severe this mom might be bleeding, unsure of all the things that come along with the difficult life here in Haiti. Vernot checked the baby’s temperature one more time, being sure we weren’t causing it to be too high. She called me over the crib and said, “umm, I don’t think his color is good at all.” It wasn’t. He wasn’t breathing. We tried to resuscitate him. There was no respiratory effort at all. But his heart kept beating. After about 4-5 minutes I took him in my arms, we kept the oxygen on him and just began to sing and pray. I was thinking how horrible it will be for this mother to arrive and have her baby be dead. He then started to take occasional gasps, then they started to come closer and closer. He started to pink up, his breathing became more normal. I was shocked. Then I heard the gator come through the gate with the mother.

She arrived and was able to hold her son. She told us she was 7 months along, confirming my suspicions that this little one probably didn’t have lungs that could survive on their own. Yet he continued to breath. Various people came to pray with the mother, all of us wanting a miracle of life for this little baby. Tears streamed down this young mothers face as she buried her face in her mother’s arms realizing that her little baby may not live. Yet her little son continued to breath. We all began to breath a little easier.

I was doing another delivery when I looked over and saw that this little baby boy was no longer the bright pink he had been, but was once again the ashen gray color. Nirva took over finishing the delivery I was working with and I listened with my stethoscope for any sign of life in this little ones body. There was none. Tears once again streamed down everyone’s faces as we grieved with this mother.

I wrapped the baby in clean blanket, put him in a box and gave him to the grandmother. A group member gave money so that she could get a taxi and return to their hometown of Bono to bury the infant.

I would have much rather just flown a kite that day. . . but I can’t imagine how difficult that day must have been for this mom.

(This post is used with permission of Melissa Curtice, NWHCM)

Currently in Haiti the price of every commodity is increasing at astronomical rates. It is one of the main things you hear people talking about: the price of rice, the price of beans, the price of renting a house, life in Haiti is hard. We are also seeing increases in the price of medicine and some are getting harder and harder to find. Unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in patients and many are even sicker due to the situation here in the country.

Every day in the clinic we treat over 100 patients. The Haitian doctors and nurses write prescriptions, but without medicine in our pharmacy those prescriptions are nothing more than a useless slip of paper reminding them that they are in need. For many the medicine written on the prescription is critical.

Even the most common everyday over the counter medications are lifesaving here in Haiti. Something as simple as children’s Tylenol can be the difference between life and death. An inexpensive tube of triple antibiotic ointment for skin sores could help prevent a life threatening skin infection. Perhaps this seems a bit dramatic, but I have been there with a child with a high fever and no Tylenol or a child with a horrible skin infection that could have been prevented. Make your suitcase count by packing some of the inexpensive yet crucial medicines we need for the pharmacy.

The summer is a time when we have a short supply of medicine because few medical teams come in the summer. With your help this could change. You could bring easily accessible over the counter medicines, medicines that could change someone’s life.

Below is a list of over the counter medicines that we need on a daily basis. Become creative!! Do collections at your church, school, small group etc. Fill up a suitcase with Tylenol, ibuprofen or antibiotic ointment, whatever you can!!

Tylenol (Adult, Children’s Chewable and liquid)

Ibuprofen (Adult and children’s liquid)

Antacids (Tums, Zantac)

Stool Softeners/Laxatives/Milk of Magnesia

Vitamins (prenatal, children’s, adult)

Cold Medicine

Triple Antibiotic Ointment

Hydrocortisone Cream

Anti-fungal Cream

Unopened Gauze

Gloves

Cotton Balls

Alcohol Swabs

Medical Tape

We are also in desperate need of prescription medications and medical supplies. If you are in the medical profession, please contact Melissa Curtice (lissarcurtice@yahoo.com) for how you could help us stock further our pharmacy…turning paper prescriptions into life-saving medications.

Welcome to the new medical blog for Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, in Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti. Check back often for our staff introductions and bio’s that are coming. We will also share stories of what is going on in our day to day programs and our short term teams.