Earthquake Reflections 2-Last week Triage

The last week we stayed at Ti Goave the clinic started to taper down in preparations to move to a new site just over 4 miles away. Each day of the week fewer adults received numbers to be seen by the medical personal. Children under 12, pregnant ladies, the elderly and the very sick continued to be seen.

We did a couple of things to help ease tensions from those who did not receive a ticket. First we started to offer blood pressure checks. Without a ticket a person could enter and have their blood pressure checked. Then I would review the result and advise as necessary.

• Great! You don't have blood pressure problems. Recheck in a 1-2 years.
• Your blood pressure isn't high enough to be seen today. Cut back on the salt, try to loose some weight [if needed], exercise and have your pressure checked again in 3-4 weeks.
• Here is a card. Please wait for you number to be called and you'll be seen.
• And the lady who's pressure was 280's/160. Please come with me and be seen NOW!

A second change that smoothed things over for many people with non-serious complaints occurred when we found a boxes and boxes of multi symptom cold medications-both for daytime and nighttime. Many people complained of minor colds, muscle pains and inability to sleep.

These people in developed countries would of gone to the store and purchased an over the counter medication for their problems. But over the counter medications in Haiti can be hard to find and even at this time would not of been free. So armed with our two types of cold medications and some prepac

kage bags of Ibuprofen we added medication distribution to the triage line.

Hundreds of people received medications after a simple consultation with me up at the line but never received a ticket. Each person not receiving a ticket I reminded that the local hospital's clinic remained an option for care should they need additional treatment. "But I need to see a doctor" received [most of the time] a nice smile from me while pointing out on my name tag that they had seen a doctor, and they were free to go.

The last few days Pastor Eric from Michigan lead singing and a short devotions before the triage started. I believed this greatly helped the positive attitude of the crowds as well.