A 30-second catastrophe - working in the Haiti earthquake zone

I am a registered nurse working mainly in an emergency department, (ED) with a midwifery, neonatal intensive care, NHS Direct, management and education background. I was working a night shift in ED when the news came through about the earthquake and its after shocks. I just knew instantly that I wanted to go and help. I contacted Haiti Hospital Appeal and was part of their first medical team to go out there.

Patients were everywhere. In hospitals, clinics, tents, hospital ships. They had lost brothers, sisters, children, babies, mothers, fathers, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, their home, their health, money, food, clothing… everything. Wiped out in only 30 seconds.

I worked in Port Au Prince for a week as part of the HHA Medical Team, at L’Hopital Communite D’Haitienne, in one of the suburbs close to the Palace and Cathedral. The wards were  totally overfull, with only enough room to squeeze by each bed, stretcher and/or mattress on the floor. The corridors were lined with patients too; the smell of wound infections was overpowering. Patients with amputations, externally fixed fractures, paraplegics, everywhere. It was chaos. Oh, and women were in labour too. No air conditioning. Hot and humid – great for bugs…

A global team

There were many nationalities of nurses and doctors, who all seemed to be on the same page, which created an enthusiastic and energetic team environment. Some had just arrived, some just going; a very transient bunch of professionals. It was brilliant. Good communication. Everyone helping each other; No unnecessary arrogance. The operating rooms were used all day and into the early morning hours. I ran the Intensive Care Unit with two of my HHA colleagues. The other two of our HHA team members co-ordinated the Wound Care Team for the hospital – we were in at the deep end.

The hospital had been sent medical supplies from all over the world; Korean medication was complicated to read needless to say! Locals came in as volunteers and interpreters, stretcher bearers and gofers. Without them, our job would have been impossible. They were invaluable and were paid with a meal or water if it was available. The patients had food and water brought in by their families. There were no kitchens. And as for the toilets…

We slept on the floor in a nearby deserted school, which had been checked structurally after the earthquake and taken over by an American organisation called Crisis Relief International. They were a well organised group who helped us with food, safe water, transport and a safe place to stay with guards.

The Haiti nurses were very different to the UK and USA nursing staff. I put down their lack of compassion as due to their own suffering caused by the earthquake. The patients did not want to be looked after by them though and  only wanted to be looked after by the ‘Blans’, (pronounced ‘blanc’) - creole for foreigners. I did not see any Haitian doctors in there. I was told that they did not go to the hospital as they were not getting paid.

Palaces reduced to rubble

I then returned to Cap Haitian with my colleague Liz, in the back of an opened back food aid truck, to help set up and manage a hospital for injured refugees. The smell driving past the mass graves was not pleasant.  Rubble and dust everywhere in the affected areas. The once grand Palace and Cathedral were a sorry sight. The countryside was an eye opener; paddy fields, bananas, 98% de-forestation, mud huts, emaciated animals, adults and children patting their bellies when we passed them. There was no area where there were not people in view. I guess they were drawn to the roads, as being closer to food and water.

The HHA had been asked to help relocate earthquake victims. Patients had been flown up to Milo Hospital from PAP and it was full to the brim. As well as the hospital wards, there were 8 huge tents that took 100 patients in each. A rough count on one day there were 122 adult amputees, 27 children who had lost arms and or legs, 75 paraplegics, 2 quadraplegics. The others had terrible wounds, fractures etc. And this was just one hospital 9 hours drive north of PAP.

The HHA had been building a local hospital  for women and children along side their busy clinic, which was due to be completed later in the year. Following the earthquake the operating room was rapidly finished and used by a visiting USA medical team for orthopaedic surgery.  Since I have been here the workers have been working,  literally, from dawn to dusk - in complete contrast to ‘Haiti time’ -and we are planning to  increase from 15 to have 50 patients.

Our patients are all paraplegic and have had quite a journey in the last month. From their normal everyday lives to  the sudden collapse of surrounding walls and ceilings, being rescued from beneath the rubble, going to a (field) hospital, then USA hospital ship, then a helicopter ride to Milo Hospital. where they were again in tents holding 100 patients in each one. From there, they became our patients, under the joint care of  the Haiti Hospital Appeal and L’Hopital Convention Baptiste just outside Cap Haitian.  

Sad stories

Every person has a sad story to tell. For example, one woman has lost her husband and baby, 5 siblings, her mother and father. No-one wants to be inside a building. They would all prefer to be in a tent just in case another earthquake occurs. Children were pulled out from under 4 or 5 dead bodies. Below the rubble. yesterday a man turned up at the hospital from PAP, looking for 4 members of his family. They were not here.

My time has been spent creating a ward, nursing the patients and their families, educating the Haitian nurses, obtaining supplies (not easy in a 3^rd world country – especially the basics such as food and water), organising laundry facilities, cleaning, cooking etc, etc… A great challenge but attainable with the brilliant support of Carwyn Hill and his wonderful local and british HHA team, Dr Pravil Director of Milo Hospital and Elisabeth Caplin, Haiti Health Professionals.

Next step is to create a village next to the hospital, Haitian style, for the families of our patients, as they will be with us for a very long time. They have all lost their homes and livelihood.

The impact can be seen through the local artists eye too. Instead of oil pintings of bananas and mud huts, palm trees and beaches, they are now painting hospitals with hovering helicopters, people in scrubs, ambulances and stretchers.

Already a third world country, Haiti has endured a battering of natural, political and corruption-induced disasters over the years. Maybe out of bad will come good and the country will develop positively with the help of other wealthier countries. These people need an enormous amount of help to start to rebuild their lives. I cannot begin to express how much help they need.

I love it here. Life is a simple one. Learning Creole as I go along, staying at a children’s orphanage, working hard, sleeping well until the cockerel crows, and am eating the staple diet of rice and beans – bang goes the low carb diet!

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