| By American standards, it might seem insignificant —18 successful surgeries and procedures and 350 patients seen in the clinic setting in about 10 days time. But for the citizens of Gonaives, Haiti, for whom medical care is practically nonexistent, it was a godsend. Take a look at the images of the mission.
February 21, 2007 ended a two-week medical mission by 20 St. Mary-Corwin physicians, staff and medical personnel from other facilities. The trip advanced St. Mary-Corwin’s long-term commitment to improve healthcare in the remote, impoverished Haitian city. Part of a three-year $150,000 Catholic Health Initiatives grant helped fund the trip; volunteers covered approximately $11,000 in costs out of their own pockets. This was the seventh St. Mary-Corwin medical rotation to the 300,000-populated Gonaives in roughly as many years. A partnership with MedShare International, an Atlanta, GA company that donates used medical equipment, enabled advance shipment of two 40-foot trailers of medical supplies, one a year ago and one this February. Volunteers also took duffle bags full of medicines, which proved vital when the larger shipment got stuck in port until the day before they left Gonaives. With more than a century of political unrest and violence, economic instability and the brutal effects of hurricanes further decimating an almost completely deforested landscape, Haiti struggles to feed, clothe, shelter and medically care for its population. Missions to Haiti provide essential services to the desperately needy. However, most missionaries are so overwhelmed by the dire conditions that they never return. |
There is only one hospital in Gonaives and it is barely functional since Hurricane Jeanne struck in 2004. With minimal equipment and personnel, only intermittent power and unreliable government funding, Providence Hospital has mainly served only those who can pay— typically less than 20 percent of the population. The hospital includes deteriorating, crude cement block buildings, few beds and no modern sanitation. Patients’ families must provide their own medicines and dressings as well.
According to St. Mary-Corwin surgeon Dr. Jim Smith, February’s trip focused on helping Providence improve its barebones surgical capacity, actually performing surgeries, and setting the stage to construct a free primary care clinic. “Providence hadn’t had general anesthesia for more than three years,” Smith said. “We wanted to correct that, although it took some doing.” As things turned out, St. Mary-Corwin anesthesiologist Dr. Ben Massey had to side-trek to Port au Prince to locate and purchase regulators to connect newly shipped anesthesia machines with Providence’s existing oxygen bottles.
St. Mary-Corwin ER nurse Lisa Drew, RN, noted that the primitive conditions and the group’s vulnerability could not be overstated.
“I fell asleep each night to the sound of gunfire,” she said. “We quickly learned to always wear something easily identifying us as medical personnel.”
Nonetheless, Drew added, providing what Americans consider routine care was immensely humbling. She and others ran clinics at a local school and later in an outlying village.
“People walked for miles and miles to see us. The smiles on the children’s faces were more gratitude than we could have asked for. One day, we heard singing outside — villagers were offering us a hymn of thanks. I don’t think there was a dry eye among us.”