Earthquake Reflections-TiGoave Vehicle Calls

As I already shared most of my days consisted of crowd control, sorting patients to specific waiting benches, answering questions, and translating.

My mind at this point did not complain. Hours of Creole tires and slows my thought processes so not having to deal with guessing children weights for drug doses was a good thing.

I did have some firsts. One day before breakfast I walked over to a local Red Cross vehicle as requested to asses a critical case. Slumped in the back seat, a large Haitian man lay still. Touching his cold hand I immediately suspected the worse. Fixed and dilated pupils, no respirations, no pain response all confirmed the death. I expressed my condolences as those around confirmed that they already knew the news.

I slowly walked past a lady sitting in a second vehicle. She lifted tear filled eyes to ask me if he was dead. I don't know how she was related but she started to wail. Soon the vehicle left-another loss.

The day ended with a second vehicle consult. A truck drove up with a young lady who delivered earlier but had continued to bleed. As the OB went for gloves I found the history, palpated a firm uterus and checked her conjunctiva. Soon the specialists took over and brought her up to the procedure room. Later they took her home- thankful I assume to have received the care they sought.

I made other vehicle calls throughout the week. One lady had a femur fracture and thankfully I consulted her before they lifted her out of the truck bed. As we didn't have the means to deal with this case we advised them to continue down the road.

Early in the week a young man paralyzed from the waist down waited overnight in the village for a ride to the Diquini hospital on our truck that brought additional team members to TiGoave. Before the truck arrived we had a second passenger to go to Diquini a young lady likely with a broken back as well but not yet paralyzed. While we regret that no treatment was available at our location-we know the family was thankful for the ride to the hospital.