Mission

Kurt’s Haiti Journal – Day 1

By TNC ⋅ February 8, 2010 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Tomorrow is the day that I leave with Medical Team 6 of the North Carolina Baptist Men’s mission to support Haiti from a medical standpoint (www.ncmissions.org). We have two orthopods (Ken Thomas from Erie, PA is the other – pray he can make it out of his home with the snowfall they’ve had), along with generalist doctor, 6 nurses, one nurse anesthetist, two handymen (“men” in the generic sense since one is a woman), and the trip leader. We leave from a combination of places: RDU for 4 of us, Charlotte for most of the rest, and Philadelphia for Ken. Then, we will meet up in Miami for the flight to Santo Domingo. We’ll be staying at a Baptist church there, apparently on mattresses on the floor, for the night, then a bus ride described as long and painful, anywhere from 6 to 10 hours, to get to Port-au-Prince. We’re staying at a compound of houses and dorms that Global Outreach has set up north of PAP and will be bused back and forth to the hospitals we’ll be working at.

I’ve got two check-in duffels full of medical supplies that the orthopods on the ground say they need, primarily dressings for the constant wound dressing changes and the surgeries they are doing. I had to pick up screwdrivers that are used to place plates and screws in bone today from my friend, Isaac Murdock. Isaac is the area representative for Synthes, the most well-known trauma company in the world and a great supporter of orthopaedics in the third world. It is amazing how much I’ve learned about the situation down there since I found out about this trip just 10 days ago. And how much stuff I’ve had to collect/buy/borrow – personal and professional. The great folks at CarolinaEast in New Bern provided almost all the dressing supplies I’m bringing, with no complaint and very quickly. The president of Rex Hospital has offered his complete support. My former group, Triangle Orthopaedics, had 4 boxes of stuff for me to take today, but I only had room for a small amount of it. In short, I am astonished at the heart of the medical community in NC.

I’m excited, certainly, but I know I’m nervous as well – I can tell by my poor sleep pattern. The unknown is always a challenge for me. When I went to Nicaragua for the first time, I was even more nervous as I’d never worked in a non-US facility at that point. My partner, Bob Caudle, has just returned from PAP last week and he assures me that having been to Nicaragua (the other country besides Haiti that just can’t get a break) is a huge benefit. We certainly learned to work with little there, making decisions based on limited resources. But things are improving, orthopaedically at least, daily in the hospital I’m going to. I’m anxious to get started.

Keep us in your prayers, folks. I hope to be able to send some pictures along with of our team and Haiti.

Kurt