On being "Fluid"

The word for today was “fluid”, as in “go with the flow”!! Our plans for today changed twice last night and once this morning. First we were to go to church and not do clinic, then we were to not do church and do clinic. When we got to the clinic this morning we were told that it was closed and we couldn’t see patients. So then we were sent to the Hopital Universitaire Etat d’Haiti - the University Hospital of Haiti. Once there we had to get permission from the hospital administration in order to help in their medical units. It took quite a while to locate the right people and gain their permission. I worked with our OB/GYN in the labor and delivery tent.

Yesterday as we arrived at clinic we found a lady in labor who needed transferring to the hospital to have her baby delivered. Our OB/GYN asked that I go with her and the lady because I speak French. We rode to the hospital in an “ambulance” that had no equipment. The patient was loaded in the back of the ambulance on a garden type lounge chair. When we arrived at the hospital and found the labor/delivery unit housed in a tent since the building had been damaged in the quake. The unit had five labor/delivery tables and six stable beds. There were no curtains and no privacy for any of the patients. People seemed to come and go at will in and out of the tent. It was hot! There were no medications for labor pains, no monitoring of mom or baby, very few supplies. The Haitian nurses were cutting up paper gowns to use to wrap up the newborns, there were no diapers or blankets. The moms labored in the clothes they worn in to the hospital. In spite of all this our new mom delivered a healthy 7 pound baby girl. They went home with family members about three hours after the birth. And we were able to assist in two more deliveries and one Cesarean section that our doctor preformed with assistance of two Haitian medical residents.

So since I was now a Labor/Delivery nurse (with one day of experience to rely on), today I was back there with Meridith, our OB/GYN who handled all this like it was business as usual. We assisted in two more births. And I have to say I’ll be very glad to get back to cardiac nursing at home!! This is stretching me way outside of my comfort zone!