Jessica's Blog

Thanksgiving in Haiti

11/21/2010 12:31:00

Hi All,
In preparation for my next trip to Haiti (leaving this Wednesday) I thought I would give you a little info about what's happening in Haiti this week.
Rampantly unfolding cholera epidemic, wildly underreported. Dead bodies in the streets for days, people too terrified of catching cholera to move them. Children, elderly, pregnant women, men... dying in untold numbers. Clinics overflowing, the fortunate ones get beds with the ass cut out and a bucket underneath, the rest lay in puddles of their own waste on the ground. The first elections since the earthquake.They were rescheduled in the wake of the quake. Given the current situation in Haiti- millions living in tent cities with no electricity or running water while everyone around them is shitting themselves to death- It's safe to say that the peeps are PISSED. Should be interesting.
Riots and protests directed at UN peacekeepers (and certain international aid groups) for suspicions that they brought cholera to Haiti (A position espoused by some of the leading political candidates). It is these same UN peacekeepers that will be responsible for policing the polling stations and overseeing the legitimacy of the election.
Seismologists reporting another earthquake in Haiti "sooner rather than later," following a series of tremors this week offshore.

We'll be bringing suitcases full of IV start kits, gloves, IV tubing, IV fluids, rehydration salts and the like. We will be be providing patient care in rubber boots. For ourselves we will also be bringing six liters of IV fluids each- in case we need some TLC ourselves. We have the Chief of Police in Port au Prince on speed dial. Most of our translators will be packing heat (like usual). We will be going to where the greatest need is: Cite Soliel (the poorest and most violent ghetto in the Western Hemisphere and probably top five in the world). Basically, it's gonna be a shit show. I'm ready.

So give THANKS this Thanksgiving. And give MONEY this Thanksgiving. Check out these two websites:
http://mmrcglobal.org/ We work with these guys in the trenches everytime we go. We'll be staying at their house this time, probably in tents on the roof. Big Paul and Little Paul. Read about them on the site. Extreme Humanitarians, they're the real thing.
http://www.raisinghaiti.com Under the "contact us" link you can find out who's who.

Liz

help us get down there and help

11/11/2010 17:20:00

we are working around the clock right now trying to get a plane together full of supplies to treat cholera and get back to Haiti. Anyone interested in helping please contact us immediately

Lina

11/09/2010 22:33:00

Lina is getting really bad. Today she is in a lot of pain, tachycardic, I think she needs blood, but none available; needs u/s...not hopeful. She needs to get to the states!!!! Someone please help us help her...we keep hitting walls. We have an accepting doc and hospital, but the government is holding us up.

Lina has been granted her medical visa. We have brought Lina to the states where she is receiving appropriate care for her cancer. Unfortunately we were a bit too late...Linas care is now palliative, we will bring her back to Haiti soon to be with her family. Please help us provide Lina and her family a roof over their head, we do not want her last days to be spent in a tent. Thank you

Lina returned to Haiti and was cared for by her sister and her family.

She lost her battle to cancer Summer 2010

March 10th, 2010.

11/09/2010 22:31:00

March 10th-Took care of Lina three weeks ago. 37 female cervical cancer. Requires treatment unavailable in Haiti. Have been working to get her in the states. The holdup is at the US embassy in DC. I found Lina in the mountains yesterday...septic. Brought back to hospital, no MD available. We did what we could. She is now septic, starving, and dying of cervical cancer. Please help us bring Lina to the states...call the embassy...do whatever you can. Time is crucial for this womans survival!!!!

January 2010 - a few days post earthquake

11/09/2010 22:27:00

We arrived in the Dominican Republic three days after the earthquake, and navigated our way into Port au Prince. We were fortunate enough to be traveling with a Haitian/American physician...without his guidance this trip would not have been possible.

We managed to get a ride to the bus station, a ride from a Haitian and his Dominican friend. He had just arrived from the states, he was traveling to Haiti to pick up his four year old daughter, his wife had been killed when their house collapsed. Another man sat next to us with a bag full of rope, gloves, and a knife. He was going to Haiti to find his mother. Apparently the only access to her home required travel over a bridge, that bridge had collapsed.

We ended up working at the Haitian Community Hospital, a private hospital that had opened its doors to all patients free of charge after the earthquake. We slept on the roof in tents, took cold showers and ate pop tarts for ten days.

Day 2-I woke up to a woman screaming, I ran down stairs and she grabbed my arm. She brought me to a car that her sister lie dead in the back of, I began CPR, she was pronounced dead shortly after. Five minutes later a baby was born in another area.

After that the days seemed to blend, but aside from the morning of the 6.1 aftershock, not a day went by that we were not awakened by screaming. Once a woman screaming because her baby was dying of tetanus...there were no tetanus shots or appropriate antibiotics available.

On the last day of the trip we had coffee on the curb with a Haitian woman who had lost her leg, her home, and her entire family. When we cleaned out our backpacks she insisted on getting up...on her crutches...and throwing our garbage away for us. She thanked us for coming to help her country.

We returned to Haiti two weeks after that trip, again to volunteer at the Haitian Community Hospital.

We will be traveling back March 8th, for one month and hope to have a constant influx of volunteers during that time.

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