Author Archives: Children's Surgery International

The understatement of the trip is that we’re wet. Really, really wet. Evidently it’s the rainy season in Haiti, and only Scott, the anesthesiologist on the trip brought an umbrella, which he made a conscious decision to leave in the compound when we went to Mama Rafael’s down the road this evening. Not that the umbrella would have helped.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the type of rain we had in Haiti this evening would have caused every news station in the twin cities metro area to interrupt your regular broadcasting to show you the latest picture of a flash flood carrying cars and garages down the street. Torrential is an understatement.

Mama Rafael’s is about 1/4 mile from the hospital, and we waded through knee-high rains along the road most of the way back to the hospital. We did finally all make it back safe to find the power strips in our tents floating in 3 inches of water. I’m sure your first thought was, “huh, I always wondered if those floated.” Well, now you know.

We did actually see children today and have a productive day of screening and set-up. We screened 20 patients, most of whom are candidates for surgery and will be seen either Tuesday or Wednesday. The interpreters are excellent, and a few of us know French (and a little Creole!) which is helpful.

We had a little time in the afternoon to spend on a few of the wards. Many went to the NICU to see the babies, others visited the “fish room” which is what they “named” (they use pictures rather than words) the room where they put children abandoned while in the hospital. These little ones are so starved for attention and it’s hard not to spend the entire afternoon with them.

We have 10 surgeries lined up for tomorrow, and the plan is to start around 8:30. The trick for the day, however, will be keeping the schedule moving while screening new patients which will require Dr. Trish (our pediatric surgeon) and Dr. Pete (our pediatrician) to bounce between clinic and OR/ PACU to screen and approve new cases, but our well-rested (albeit water-logged) team will surely make it look like a walk in the park.

They promised us today that if it rained again we could sleep in the houses reserved for long-term volunteers instead of our canvas abodes. Of course, that was all they had to say to keep the rain away. At least we’re dry!

Day 1 of surgery went very well. As expected, the trick was to both screen in new patients and get through the 10 surgeries we had on the schedule. Since both Dr. Pete and Dr. Trish have to see each new screen, this meant a full day of musical doctors. The good news is we did both; 10 successful surgeries and 21 new patients screened. The better news is that our team is now ranked in the International Musical Doctors League. Rah rah!

Tomorrow promises to be busy as well; with 11 surgeries scheduled for the day it very well may be another late night. We also expect around 10 new patients for screening, but since we have the musical doctor things down pretty well that should go smoothly.

Surgeon Eric Moore joins us tomorrow; he is coming down to perform the cleft surgeries and should arrive at the hospital around 4 p.m. He won’t start cases until Thursday however. We will continue to fix hernias Thursday and Friday in addition to the cleft patients; right now the schedule is set-up for half and half both days which will be a nice break for Dr. Trish (who has actually given up chewing to save time between cases).

We are all really excited by the work being done, and are eager to keep the momentum going into the rest of the week. This trip is a learning experience on so many levels and is opening eyes and doors to so many different aspects of our mission as a whole.

The Fall 2011 mission to Haiti is officially underway!
Our team of 11 team members met at MSP this morning bright and early at 4:30 a.m. to catch our 6 a.m. flight to Miami. One layover, one additional hour delay, and a slight baggage snag post-boarding and we were off to Haiti.

This is CSI’s fourth mission to Haiti, and our third time to this specific location. St. Damien’s Hospital is located in Tabarre, which is a district of Port au Prince. This is the first mission to this location however, that we will be doing cleft surgeries. Past missions have focused on other types of semi-elective surgeries such as hernias and other analogous cases.

The St. Damiens campus is very well kept and well guarded so we feel safe within the compound. The set-up is the same as on previous missions; MASH style tents and a common grub area will be our home away from home for the next week.

We arrived at the hospital around 5 p.m., greeted by Sister Judy, and were given the “run-down” for the living quarters, a tour of the hospital and brief of other logistical considerations. After dinner and a quick team meeting, team members started winding down for the day in preparation for a full day of screening and set-up.

Our days will begin at 8:30 a.m. Tomorrow (Monday) morning, we will be screening and setting up the PACU, floor and OR. Tuesday through Friday will be our surgery days. Wednesday we will be joined by ENT surgeon Eric Moore who will perform the cleft lip cases.

We’re all VERY thankful for internet access, and hope it will stay up for the week. No promises but if it’s up, expect an update!

St. Damien’s is the only pediatric hospital in Haiti and going from the chaos and disarray outside through the gate is profound.  We were met by Sister Judy and given a tour of these beautiful grounds and facility so we could see everything – there is a large ER, an OR and even a neonatal ICU here – these are overly full with lots of children, some of whom are weak and very ill, others who are on the mend and will do just fine.

The team worked together to unpack supplies and match them to where they would be used.  We reviewed our surgery list and readied the team to screen kids in the morning to begin surgery on Sunday.  George, the chief of logistics in charge of making sure the medical teams can do their jobs well, spoke with Sister Judy to get updates as to how many kids we might expect on this mission. We will see at least 30 children to determine who will be taken in for surgery.

St. Damien’s happens to be directly next to where the UN has set up camp and we see the large operation as we headed off the grounds to go to the grocery store – it was filled with dozens of UN soldiers from Brazil, Nepal, Italy and Jordan so we squeezed our way through the aisles for our supplies and returned back to the hospital grounds.  There is a lot of multiculturalism in Haiti now – we hear the calls for prayer from the Jordanian camp several times on our first day.  We’re also told that they start at 4:30 AM – that could end up being some kind of wakeup given our long flight to Port Au Prince.

Our first day ended with us having an amazing chicken dinner at Mama Rafael’s, on the hospital grounds, and then hitting the showers – they are cold but felt very good.