Every day brings new adventures

This morning started with readying three patients for medical evacuation to Philly. Hours of coordination went into this: locating an accepting hospital and physician, applying for and actually obtaining humanitarian parole to allow the patients and one family member to travel to the US for treatment, arranging the actual transportation and host families in the US, and trying to work around the weather! By the time you read this, all three patients and families should be in Philly, and the patients from the other day should be there also.

Every day brings hundreds of patients to the out-patient area seeking medical treatment. There are only a few treatment/exam areas, and patients and families are literally everywhere. We are still seeing patients with injuries from the quake who are just now seeking medical care. We have discussed working with other local teams to send mobile clinics to remote areas.Today we took care of a 2 year old with a leg injury from the quake.

Late afternoon we had a baby born in the clinic. I was not there, but I was privileged to meet mom and daughter when baby was 30 minutes old. There were four women in the room, and I honestly could not tell who mom was; I had to ask before I took the picture!

Many of our team are leaving tomorrow and Saturday, so there are lots of transitions this weekend.

We struggle with things like electricity from the generator. Without it we have no lights in the OR. We can't get an xray ( we can only get simple ones in the clinic) or use any electrically powered equipment like monitors or our anesthesia machine. In the OR we all have our head lamps and we don't even miss a beat when the generator goes off. Surgery goes on by flashlight.

Many of the medical things we take for granted in the US don't exist here: charts, medical records, labs and xrays, and CT scans and MRIS. No ICU care or ERs or ambulances or ventilators. Many cell phones don't work here. AT&T works best here where we are. Those of us with iPhones are in the best shape, but we still struggle sometimes. You can't call the Dominican Republic from here, and you can't call a Haitian number. I brought two old cell phones from home and finally found someone to unlock them so I can use them to call local numbers.

New adventures tomorrow! I am making rounds on all of the patients starting at 6 am tomorrow, so that I can make sure I know the medical plan for all of them. By late Friday or Saturday, I will be the only physician here who has been here for the last week and will be responsible for the medical operation.