Brace yourself...this is a long one.
I was in a fog. It was early November, 2012 and I had just
seen the tragic aftermath of a brutal attack on a Haitian. However, this
fog was physical. Having finally completed the primary objective of the
last week of my month-long journey I now found myself standing among the clouds.
Rachel and I spent the entire morning climbing #MountainBeyondMountain
with Dr. Leo and our "bodyguard" to reach La Fite (pronounced
LA-feet). La Fite is an extremely remote village in Northeastern Haiti,
near the Dominican border. Dr. Leo had actually seen an eclamptic lady
from the La Fite area in the Gran Bois clinic days earlier. Her family
and friends had taken shifts during the 5 hour hike carrying her seizing body
on top of an old mattress .
My body was sore, out of breath, and muddy but I couldn't help and
take peace in the scene I found myself in. It truly seemed like something
out of a Lord of the Rings movie. Everything was green. I was on
top of a mountain with scattered wooden homes dotting the landscape. We
were greeted by an overweight gentleman who claimed to be in charge of the
"mission." He was passionate about his community and about
trying to secure a commitment out of the blan to help. He formed a
committee of local leaders to develop a plan to secure community access to healthcare. Word carried across the mountains to Dr. Leo
and while he tried mightily to make the hike monthly he realized that he was
not properly equipped to handle this remote clinic by himself. ServeHaiti is our older sister in the Haitian
NGO game and the sponsor of Dr. Leo’s clinic.
The leadership discussed this need for La Fite and decided to involve
their younger sister, Community Health Initiative to see if they could manage
semiannual clinics.
After a tour of the clinic building he showed us to a gathering of
Haitian villagers who had come to receive medical care.
Rachel and I were not alone at this place. There was a small
group of blan there working on their own projects. A small group of
Canadian men were doing carpentry on the clinic building and there were two
South American nurses holding clinic in the church. Now, I will never say
a bad thing about a nurse. I have had my ass saved innumerable times
already in my young medical career and I know that I will continue to have my
ass saved by nurses as I continue to practice medicine. However, these
two very well-meaning ladies were in over their heads with this clinic.
They had few medicines and the ones they did have were being completely
misused. As an example, they were prescribing a form of Benadryl as both
an antibiotic and a prenatal vitamin to different patients. Granted the
"Treat What You Can" mantra often leads to diagnosis bias, but that
isn't anywhere close to being appropriate.
We quickly set up shop to help in seeing patients. We have
one translator between the two of us and he isn't used to being a medical
translator. Needless to say I believe that Rachel and I were also guilty
of providing sub-standard care. You can get the gist by key words,
"Gripe" means cold. Cough, runny nose, fever, etc. Same
illness in Haiti as in the U.S. Listen to the kids' lungs and depending
on nutrition status you might lean a little closer to treating with antibiotics
than in the U.S. And just like our normal CHI clinics, everyone got real vitamins
and albendazole. Dr. Leo recognized early that we didn't have the
infrastructure in place to provide proper care to the patients, though Rachel
and I felt bad about throwing in the towel. As soon as you start thinking
about the alternatives for these patients you recognize how important this
clinic visit is to them.
These villages have no clinic near them. The closest clinic
is the Gran Bois site that we left from that morning. The path to reach
this oasis was not easy. We departed after a satisfying breakfast, one
probably never experienced by a Haitian in those parts. We launched with
a vigor as I knew that we would be making a return trip that same evening.
The path was a combination of climbing the Mega Crag in #GUTS and
completing the #PhysicalChallenge in #DoubleDare...times a million. We
climbed three mountains, forded two rivers and traveled over five hours...each
way (for realsies, all those tall tales by parents about commuting “uphill both
ways” were becoming all too real). There were narrow paths that had turned
to mud in the mountain rains with soda can sized stones for stepping. One
false step on the slippery rocks could mean a nasty spill into a mud and animal
excrement mixture #TwoThumbsPointingAtThisGuy. Incline grades easily
topped 60% in places. It was a struggle made even worse when you realized
that the villagers out here do it on the reg #HaitiFit.
It became painfully obvious that the only reasonable solution for
providing healthcare to the upwards of 15,000 Haitians living in La Fite and
nearby villages was to have medical teams come to them at regular intervals.
#Duh. This was something Dr. Leo
already knew. He had been trying. But
monthly trips were increasingly difficult for him to do as the patient load at
his clinic grew and his resources stretched thin.
CHI has knack for providing healthcare for rural Haiti. The
quarterly clinic model has been successful as far as initial data reports can
tell, and is something that can work in most places given enough resources.
Both human and material. CHI has a body
of volunteers from across the country who drop their lives for a week to come
work as a clinic team. People with backgrounds ranging from cosmetology to
cardiology, all with willing hands and able bodies. Each volunteer pays their own way, and
donates $1,200 to contribute to the costs of purchasing medicines, translators,
meals, etc. We are very fortunate to
have this financial support, so we never have to use outdated medicines, share
interpreters, or have understaffed clinics similar to what we saw in La Fite. Seeing such disparities is extremely
frustrating when we know that there are feasible solutions on the table.
Before we departed
on our trek back, we reached an agreement with the community committee. They
provide a roof, treated water, and one hot meal a day and we do what we do
best: pull together a team of medical volunteers and use our talents to provide
standard of care. We made a promise to
go back, and now Rachel and I are honored to making the return trip with an
enthusiastic team of volunteers, Dr. Leo, Cindy the mule, medicine to treat
pain, infection, worms, hypertension, diabetes, etc…and most importantly show
these people of La Fite that humanity hasn’t forgotten them.
While we have been
blessed with many eager volunteers to come, we understand it is not feasible
for everyone to up and leave their lives, and come up with the money. More than bodies, it takes cash to make this
operation run. I’m not big on hitting up
people for donations, but if you are reading this, and feel compelled to
contribute to the cause, 100% of your dollar will go towards financing this clinic. The details are below. Just $10 can buy a bottle of antibiotics to
treat a dozen kids for pneumonia. I cannot thank you enough for reading my
blogs and giving us support for our work with CHI. I have already seen many positive
changes within the country, and simple demonstrations of love and caring, in
the form of medicine, money, or just time, will make all the difference in
Haiti’s recovery, so again, thank you.
To donate: please visit www.chihaiti.com. When donating via Paypal please put "La
Fite" in the comments section or when writing a check do the same.
That way we know that the donation is for this trip. This
population has already done so much to accommodate us that we would hate to not
fulfill this medical void.
