Our time in the clinic is over. Its hard to see that we made a difference with the masses of people who still need medical care. But we were able to help a few and perhaps ease some pain, whether physical or emotional. The clinic we helped to staff was started by Youth With A Mission. It was started the day after the quake, literally under a tree with one non-medical missionary putting bandages on injured Haitians. In the past 29 days it has grown to a fully functioning clinic with triage/ER, acute care clinic, dentistry, OB/GYN, surgical room, pediatrics and pharmacy. It is very rough and rugged but it works. It’s staffed by physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, EMTs, paramedics, translators, “runners”, security personnel, and several administrators from Haiti, Dominican Republic, and the United States representing various mission sending organizations. Some of the medical personnel come for two or three days, some for a week, some have been here since a few days after the quake. The clinic sees 400-500 patients a day. If someone needs surgery or longer term care, they are transferred to the University Hospital which is just a few blocks away. The hospital has learned to accept patients that are transferred from the YWAM clinic immediately because they recognize that they are not coming unless it is medical necessary.

Yesterday I was again in the general clinic area. I treated wounds, broken bones, lots of stomach pain, headaches, respiratory problems cause by dust in the air. Pediatrics got really backed up so in the afternoon we started seeing children and babies. That was way out of my league! Thankfully we had a family nurse practitioner and two pediatric nurses who gave excellent support for those of us who didn’t know peds. The one case that touched me more than any other yesterday was the 13 year old boy who came in late in the afternoon complaining of stomach pain and headache. In questioning him about his complaints we determined that he hadn’t eaten since the day before. We also learned that his mother had been killed in the quake and he was living with his twenty year old sister. Thankfully yesterday we were able to send patients out with a sack of food. We added extra to his sack before he left. All I could think of was, if I were Haitian, this could have been Ben, living with Megan. It broke my heart!

In about an hour we will start the nine-hour trip back to the Dominican Republic. I think the most dangerous thing we have done in the last week is travelling in Port-au-Prince and back and forth to Dominican Republic. We will fly out of Santo Domingo tomorrow afternoon. As a group we have learned on this trip that we needed Haiti more than Haiti needed us!