Clinic stuff…
A man came in with his hand barely dangling together by a bit of sinew-his renter had apparently got mad at him and tried to cut his hand off, but hadn’t entirely succeeded. The helicopter would have come to pick him up but there were too many clouds right then so, the ambulance went down instead in a hurry with him. I was sure they would simply cut the hand completely off once he arrived in Port because it’s usually the kind of thing that happens, but the man, of course didn’t want that, so I kept kicking myself all day that I hadn’t tried at least to find those tendons that were rebounded into his hand and wrist and sew them back together. The chances seemed slim but if they cut his hand off…it was a chance. The awesome news is that he came in a week later with a hand! The doctor had sewed it back together and pinned it beautifully. Today the man has his hand, and not only that but he also told us that he had let the offender go free. He is a Christian, he said, and had forgiven him, didn’t want to press any charges. Wow.
Treated a 7 month old baby with a nasty rat bite. Oooh…the dad said it attacked the baby while it was sleeping. Basically antibiotics, pain killer and tetanus vaccine was all that could be done.
One Sunday morning we had a call out during church-Se Ivon’s young son was in a sweat, unconscious. Malaria negative, blood sugar normal. What then? Vital signs were normal, only a high fever presented. Yes, he had had a raging fever and headache the mom said. So we started IV fluids and decided to treat him for meningitis. He soon started coming around, much to the mom’s relief, and after 3 days of IM antibiotics, he appeared perfectly normal.
We saw tiny malnourished babies with weak squeaky noises for cries. Bony chest, sunken eyes and wispy red hair were their trademarks. The mom doesn’t have milk they say, so they buy little carton milk containers from the market that doesn’t have to be refrigerated, and give it crackers or sugar water. These are very difficult situations for me to deal with, but I try and educate them about what the baby is missing and how vitally important proper nutrition is for a tiny infant and its development. The baby also usually has yellow diarrhea, it’s not really processing the small amount of nutrition it is getting. Now there is an inpatient center for babies that are malnourished an hour down the road, so that is wonderful. If they still don’t qualify, we do what we can and give a little formula, or encourage the mom to find a “wet nurse”. The MSPP International Medical Corps program we host every Tuesday for malnourished children 6 months to 5 years of age is working reasonably well, and many local children are finding relief from hunger and malnutrition with the medicated nutritional peanut butter found within the program.
Giving a consultation to the witch doctor that came into the clinic…he was about 100 or 200 years old. Hard to know, but he appeared to be many many years old. Big bushy beard and long eye brows hanging down over his saggy eyes. I had been eyeing him for a while as he waited in line, had heard him speaking in his low rumbling voice and suspected him to be what he was, an ounga. Many people who were nearby were respecting him with a kiss on the cheek and addressing him as “Papa.” Before he entered my room our secretary pulled me aside and told me to be sure to give him some words of evangelism. So a quick prayer and I let him in. He was very old and sick and shaky, and it all kind of gave me a strange feeling, imaging where his life must have taken him all these years and how he must be feeling now to know it was soon coming to an end. I asked him if he knew where he was going when he died. He said he didn’t know. Then Se Papi asked if he had repented and he said no. He just kept saying God knows, Gods knows, then went on to explain how he had been in the church choir when he was a young man and had known his Bible frontwards and backwards. He seemed hopeless, like he knew he would die soon, without God in his life, like he felt he had gone too far to find him yet. I felt sorry for him, but tried to encourage him and told him I wanted to see him in heaven. Two of his much younger wives were waiting for him outside and he left then. I’m hoping to get a chance yet to check up on him at his house sometime. And pray he will look to Jesus for forgiveness and hope before it is too late.
The beautiful baby girl about 2 months old that Matt, Todd and I worked on for about 2 hours at the clinic… She had a big hard distended abdomen to the point it was hindering her breathing. She hadn’t had a bowl movement in I’m not sure how many days, several. We tried decompressing her little belly from both above and below with very few results. Even cathed her. What a brave little child…how well she endured all the uncomfortable treatment. Apparently the baby had a type of intestinal block that we couldn’t do anything about. Finally, we were obliged to give up and with prayers and best wishes gave them a little money. They were wanting to now take the child to the Dominican. If they could just find a surgeon to operate on the baby I was pretty sure she would have a big chance. About a week later we got an after-hours emergency call back to the clinic for a man who had been in an accident. I was too surprised to recognize the man as the dad of the baby! He had been on his way back from the Dominican and had gashed his leg open in an accident. Oh…not him, with more difficulties! I anxiously asked him about the little baby whom he had loved and cared about so much. She died, he told me sadly. My heart dropped. The doctors in DR had said it needed an operation but hadn’t been able to find enough blood. Really?? Maybe there were more reasons, I don’t know. Right away I started wondering about if he believed it was a type of mystic someone had cast on him, all that he was experiencing, but he readily confirmed that he was a Christian and he didn’t believe any of the persecution he was experiencing was coming from the devil, that the devil couldn’t do anything but that it was God who is in control of all things and him who had given him strength to endure. He was just so thankful he hadn’t been hurt worse in the accident. It was a beautiful testimony that I was blessed and relieved to hear.
One day a 46-year old lady in labor, suddenly died outside the gate before we got there. We arrived to people throwing their arms up in the air and wailing… Still, we had them bring her inside. Maybe the baby could be saved, but how? All of our efforts, however, were useless. She must have had some complication that would have been over our heads had she and us both arrived earlier. Later that afternoon we packed up some meds and a few snacks and headed out on a long amazing journey to Boi Negras which I wrote about and will post separately here.
There were various severely ill babies, children and even a few adults that we dealt with over the wet cold months that had basically gone into respiratory distress. Oxygen, breathing treatments, and IV or IM antibiotics were highly utilized, as well as even overnighters at times in the little house.
One day a lady came into the clinic saying she had been pregnant for 4 years. Matt happened to be around and available so after a negative pregnancy test and after taking note that her belly did indeed have an usually hard round mass in it, Matt performed sonography on her abdomen. She said she had been carrying the baby for nine months and had undergone sonography twice while carrying the baby to ensure everything was normal, but had never delivered the baby. About the time of delivery she had drunk some unknown concoction given to her by the local herb doctor and explained how her belly had just got smaller and smaller afterwards and the baby was never born. Matt and I were perfectly astonished at what we saw-the obvious outline of the spine of a fetus, apparently calcified and adhered to the abdominal tissues, meanwhile causing practically no complications. No, she said it really didn’t hurt her or cause a problem. Once more, I realized, I never ever will have “seen it all.” …strange….
There was a 11 year old boy who had been cooking patti for his younger siblings and thought the white powder he was putting in the dough was baking powder when actually it was rat poison! We had been having a rather quiet afternoon in Matts yard and suddenly it was full of people. There were five children ages 1-11 that had eaten the patti, and having symptoms. Basically we didn’t expect it to get worse because it had already been three hours ago that the stuff had been eaten, and most of them had already thrown up and were still throwing up. They didn’t seem too sick, just a little drunk, and there wasn’t much we could do at that point but push fluids down them. The baby was hit the hardest and we gave him half a liter of IV fluids right there on Matt’s back porch. Even he seemed more alert and with it after an hour and fairly stable. It had been quite a spectacle, all the little tykes sitting huddled together in a row on the rock ledge in their Sunday best that their parents had put on them before sending them over, periodically throwing up and holding big jugs of pedialyte in their hands. After about an hour we loaded them all up in the ambulance and took them back home over rugged slippery muddy 4 wheel drive paths across the ravine. Recently I saw the mom of the children in the clinic and she said they are all doing fine.
So thankful we have seen almost no cholera patients this rain season. What a miracle…praise God.
Saw a baby that was born with a tooth. A reasonably normal happening yet old ideas amongst some would have suggested that the baby was a devil baby and they would actually not allow it to live. How absolutely terrible…thankfully these parents did not believe in that and seem to really love the child, only the tooth is making a sore on the bottom of its tongue making its feeding difficult.
Mobile clinic to Bois Negres. The whole clinic shut down for a day and everyone went. Chaotic but reasonably successful. There was lots and lots of dewormer given and more needs than we could address, but we did what we could.
One evening at 9:45 PM a clinic call came for a 7 month pregnant lady having some issues… they let me sleep and Chrystelle and Matt and Sherry went. It ended up being a very memorable night for those who went. Somehow the problem she had was unclear, but obviously she had been struggling to breath and was literally drowning in her own saliva. They frantically went to work and suctioned out a whole canister of saliva, put on 02 and took every other measure possible to preserve her life. Of course no fetal heart tones were found at all on the baby by that time. Finally, ready to give up, Sherry took Chrystelle home and Matt would have driven the family and patient home as that is what they had wanted, but the ambulance hadn’t arrived back yet from a previous trip down the mountain. So Matt had stayed yet a little longer into the night with the patient while she was continuing to show all the typical signs that her body was shutting down. Then, as Matt explained it, after seeing 02 levels of 50% for some time, the unresponsive patient suddenly sat up and hollered out like she was fighting something, and her vital signs started to turn around along with her an increased level of consciousness from that point on. Matt stayed with her that whole night, and by morning she was a functioning coherent human being, though still somewhat dazed. Matt and Sherry then took her down to a hospital in Port where they delivered the baby, and gave her more supportive care for a short time. When she came back into the clinic a week or so later she couldn’t express her thankfulness, and one could sense the depth of her comprehension and awe over the miracle that God had performed in saving her life. We couldn’t help but remind her again about the grand purpose God must have for her life and how he loved her. When we asked about her experience and coming back around, she didn’t very much want to talk about it, but said she had been headed in a place she hadn’t wanted to go, and God had brought her back. Praise God for her mercy!
Then there was the lady who asked if we couldn’t please just give her a pill to cough up the ball of blood in her throat from where her husband had hit her the night before… Tet chaje!
One Thursday when we were just finishing work I saw my last patient-a very sick, sad, small 20 year girl from Oriani. She had very swollen lymph nodes and was breathing rather rapidly. I was kind of stumped as to what could be eating her body like that, and so I tried to do a very thorough assessment, especially asked her lots of questions. She seemed scared, and so sick, and worse yet, alone. I asked her where her mom was and she replied that she had died when she was five, and her dad she never knew. She now lived with an aunt, she said. Rather heartbreaking. Hope is what she desperately needed. I talked to her about Jesus and the power and hope in him. Finally treated her with an antibiotic and told her to come back the next morning. She wasn’t much better the next day so I then started her in on some pretty strong injectable antibiotics the following Monday. A few weeks later she showed up again, even more emaciated and in poorer condition. Matt suggested we send her down for TB testing, and while she turned out negative for TB they found her positive for HIV. How very sad… somehow it had never occurred to me to test this innocent girl for that disease. She is still battling life with her body-I saw her the other day, they carried her in because she was too weak to walk. I gave her a liter of IV fluids with vitamins and told them they had to get back down to the TB/HIV clinic the next day, then watched as her cousin, a lady, loaded her up on her own back and carried her home across the field. They had agreed they would go down with her the next day. I haven’t heard more since about her condition, but a situation that needs prayers…the girl is a victim of unfortunate circumstances, and she needs Jesus.
Another day a tiny infant was brought in by its aunt who said the baby couldn’t have a bowel movement. It was a preemie and only 3 days old, and, indeed, it didn’t have a rectal outlet. It’s little abdomen was grossly distended, and death was imminent if a surgeon couldn’t be found to give the small baby relief in time. After checking with Haiti Air Ambulance and them telling us the weather was too bad again to come, Matts packed up and decided to take the baby and it’s dad down themselves. They found a receiving hospital in Port and some American/Canadian staff on board who took the baby in right away. A little ostomy has been placed and the baby is doing reasonably well today. The doctor plans to reverse the ostomy some later date when deemed safe. Wow, so wonderful that this little life actually found the excellent care and help it needed just in time.
Jamie and I went on lots of walks during the three months she was here. Some of them are written about here…
A rare sight, a lady instead of a man working alone in her garden, probably a mother of 10 children already. I am amazed over and over again at the endless beauty all around, it just never grows old. Took an early day off from the clinic on a Friday to backpack meds out to a poorer community about 45 minutes out. Se Papi and Jamie came with. Found the old gentle mannered man that I had taken meds to once before, sitting alone with two other children. One of them was a very malnourished child sitting alone on the ground whom I recognized had come into the clinic once before for the peanut butter program. My heart immediately cried out to God to help this poor deserted child. I happened to have a package of crackers along and gave it to her which she immediately scarfed down. There were chickens about the same size as her that kept balking around trying to steal the crackers out of her hand but she expertly warded them off. I put my arm around her and she laid her head against my hand. I started asking the crippled old man about the baby. Her mom is dead, he said, and when the lady who takes care of her goes to work she drops the baby off with me. I can hold her, and when she goes to sleep I lay her down, he said. Oh God, my heart cried…how can two “babies” take care of each other. Please, please help her. A beautiful child. Help someone to love and take care of. If only someone would be able to just bring her to the clinic once a week we would be able to put her in the program for children who are malnourished. How oh how she needs it. Further down the ravine and we found an old grandma who said it must have been God who sent us as she had been having lots of pain. We gave her pain meds. Saw lots of children with coughs and colds and worms, and then finally, again, an older couple sitting together on a very small bench that were more than delighted we had come all that way and found them there. She was having reflux problems and he had severe toe fungus as well as neck pain. I happened to have all the meds for them we needed so treated them and left them alone again to call it a day.
One Saturday morning we took our diaries and hiked half way up the ridge to sit hidden away in some bushes and rocks and watch the people as they walked by on their way to market with their mules and bundles and parcels and basins and things on their heads. We sat there with the butterflies and birds swarming around us and took in the peace and quiet and cool of the forest while we got caught up on our diaries then got up and walked deeper into the forest on remote trails and paths, taking in amazing views from higher knolls and eating tiny wild tasty strawberries and blackberries we found along the way.
Once we were sitting watching the world go by in market when a couple of little boys came to be intrigued and talk to us. Finally after musing a bit one of them asked, how is it I’m black and you and white? He was especially intrigued with our feet and had to touch them and see how they felt. Then he couldn’t get over how we had the same dresses and sandals, even the same head coverings. When I said no to his request for my phone he asked why not, because I am ugly? No, I said, I wouldn’t give it to a person pretty or ugly. Then he explained that he was ugly because his mom had died. What a kid…
Another day while everyone was together for a picnic in the pine forest we hiked up deeper into the woods, discovering hidden meadows, paths made of grass, and lush flowering gardens of potatoes carrots and peas, all nestled in the middle of the big pine.
The long hike down to the bottom of Ravin Ge with Lacey, Jamie and Todds… A path where horses can’t be ridden, strewn with wild flowers and ferns and random green growing things crawling over rocks and roots. The family whom we went to visit living at the bottom of the big ravine were prepared-they had seen us winding our way down the path from way up high, and they treated us with honors. They had just the right amount of chairs set out for us and immediately came with a basin of water so we could wash our hands, then the towel so we could dry them. After that the small girl who was serving us brought us delicious hot soup made from various leaves and roots harvested from the man’s own gardens. Feeling refreshed, the man then took us around on a tour of his farm, the animals, and different projects he had going on. After that we watched him milk a cow to get the fresh milk for us he would later send up the ravine with one of his sons as a gift. Truly a self-sustaining operation, here was a happy hard-working family living off the land. Good thing too because getting in and out of the steep ravine was no small feat. Life seemed extra rich down there, so much breathing space and so much vegetation and life. He and his family shared the bottom of the ravine with 9 other families. Getting in and out was too difficult, not many chose to live there plus there were elemental dangers as well such as possible flooding or rock slides, so the strong and courageous had the little garden of Eden to themselves. Finally, one last quick sit down before the strenuous hike back up and once more they shared something to eat with us-fried sardines this time, actually quite tasty. We were just headed back when the man ran after us with some big leaves in his and said, here, take these serviettes and wipe your hands from after eating the sardines. Just see how they leave your hands completely clean! Sure enough, they were a special kind of leaf that work great for cleaning hands, he said, you won’t have any smell left on your hands. Wow, I left quite charmed, to be sure.
Company who came and left including but not limited to were Jamie’s parents and two brothers, and later her married brother Lane with wife Kristin and my brother Craig. Definitely a highlight. To explain this Haiti is difficult, but to have people you love come visit and see and experience it for a few days is a wonderful thing. Also Keith and Candace and Ketli came back for a short visit. Was good to have them back around-felt quite normal. While Phils were here there was a lady who came into the clinic 8 months pregnant with a 4 month old baby in her arms. It was a baby whose mom had deserted it, left it alone in a ravine, and was now in the care of this expectant mom who didn’t really want her either! She was adorable, with big knowing eyes…how could any of us not take her, give her a chance at least for a little while, how could we let her be? Our hearts went out to her. But after thinking about it and asking advice about it for some time we decided it wisest to let her be, as she seemed to be in fairly decent hands even though the expectant mom felt overloaded already. We told them to come back after one month for a check-up with the baby and to have the mother of the child come with it. We did see the baby again, a month later, but still not the mom.
Inspiring singing services held at brothers and sister’s houses…
Sometimes we went because they were sick, sometimes they just asked for us to pray for them to help give them courage and strength. Sister Simolis’s amazing testimony-truly life amongst death. The discouraging circumstances of her own home that she rises above to meet Jesus who gives her power and strength to stand firm and strong… Beautiful convert meeting where several people shared their new birth experiences. Some were so clear…completely the work of God and the Holy Spirit. Such an inspiration to see how these dear people are delivered, pulled from the miry clay, rescued, and living with hope and light in their lives today. So wonderful…
Other stuff…
Haitian food…spaghetti, rice and beans, bean sauce, fried chicken or goat, beet salad, fried banans, pumpkin soup and fresh squeezed juice-corosol, passion fruit, mango, plum, or chadek…so refreshing.
One evening when we had come home after having been gone, we heard the frantic meowing of our baby kitten and soon realized to our dismay it had plunged down through the toilet to the bottom of the outhouse hole. I decided why not drop a bucket down to the bottom of the hole with a piece of chicken in it. Maybe it would hop in and we could pull it up by a string. But chicken it wasn’t the least interested in, and frantically went around the bucket. Oh boy, no chance for the dumb kitten, I thought. Just then Chrystelle came back with a stick that angled up, the perfect thing! Still not knowing if the cat would find it or be able to crawl up the skinny stick we decided to leave it while I rushed inside to shower and get some fresh air. Not five minutes later Chrystelle was shrieking that the kitten had climbed up on the stick, and it was rescued! That wasn’t even the first time I saw an animal rescued from the toilet hole. Our neighbor man’s baby goat fell in his too. It was rather humorous watching them put on face masks, shine lights down into the darkness and successful retrieve it with a rope noosed around its neck. Someone had left the toilet seat up. Phones have been known to get permanently lost as well.
Pieces of Haitian culture…
I went to see a friend one day who had just had a baby and she started telling me about the lougawoo (witch/wherewolf) that had been out roaming the streets at night. Haven’t you been hearing it? She asked. They say it’s looking for babies. What does it sound like I asked her. Well like this, she said, shouwish, shouwish… oh boy…how aweful to have a fear like that at night about your own little baby. Something I really can’t comprehend. I encouraged her to trust in God, that whatever she was hearing couldn’t do anything to the baby. Yes, she agreed, I know this is God’s child and the loogawoo can’t do anything to it. I believe God will take care of it, she said.
Once we stopped to watch a man doing a voodoo ceremony of burning the possessions of his deceased aged brother. When the fire would die down a little bit he’d take a mouthful of alcohol and spit it out on the fire between his teeth or just pour it directly on then drink a little himself. After that he did a funky little kilty dance around the fire and let it be, apparently satisfied his mission was accomplished.
Family times…
Trip to the DR and the beautiful beautiful drive there…
And then going by refugee camps where Haitians had been deported from DR. Their living conditions were the lowest of lows…small tents for houses low to the earth and made mostly of used clothing and pieces of cardboard. Difficult to believe and it seems so very unfair and wrong. But God knows…and cares. And loves them all the same. We took in the dashing waves of the Carribean, yummy fish and good shopping. Always complicated to understand the feelings that rise after coming back into Haiti from the DR. The vast differences…
So now life goes on, and I’m thinking of Solomon’s musings about life and how he finally commented in Ecclesiastes that the conclusion of the whole matter is to fear God and keep his commandments. I plan to go home in September and Charlotte Nightengale from Plainsview, KS will be taking my place. She is actually here right now visiting and doing some orientation so I am privileged to learn to know her a little. She has also spent time before in a couple of different places in Haiti, so she seems quite capable. In fact it is easier now to leave this place that has stole a piece of my heart, knowing that someone like her will be taking care of the needs of the people.
Thanks for your prayers and support, and please continue to pray for the people and the work, that God’s light can shine out bright and his work can be accomplished.
Written by nurse Kay Wedel