Healthcare in Haiti

Spent another day at the clinic today.  Steve and Gene have continued to work on the missionary's house down the road.  The clinic starts its day with a chapel service for the patients led by one of the staff.  Dr. Tom preached the gospel through his wonderful storytelling about Paul and Silas; a great story with an earthquake tie-in when the jailor professed his faith.  Couldn't get away with that kind of thing in the US!
Saw more interesting cases including scabies, possible TB, pyloric stenosis in an infant (required immediate transport to Doctors Without Borders to pursue surgery), and a gentleman with congestive heart failure.  Dr. Tom did a thoracocentesis (sorry, non-medical folks!) which is basically inserting a large needle into the lung space to drain out fluid.  He collected a liter of fluid!  Not exactly a sterile environment either-out in the open with a drain running to a basin on the cement block floor.  He was in full view of all the other patients and staff, many of whom were curiously looking on.  Did the trick though and he was breathing easier.
I did  a PT consult on a lady with a foot drop.  No ankle foot orthosis (ankle brace) was available so I created one using Ace wrap and tried to teach her how to do it at home.  I then tried to show her how to use a crutch since she was having knee pain.  She seemed to get it but then when she went to leave, she picked up the crutch turned it horizontally and carried it out under her arm!  Obviously something may have been lost in translation...
I am amazed by how people are content to wait for long periods of time for their care and everyone proceeds in an orderly manner.  They carry their own medical record along with them for every visit.  A handwritten script is given to take to the cement block Pharmacy building and they get their pills.  A lot less red tape than the US medical system and no litagation worries or HIPAA!  However I am also realizing how blessed we are in the US to receive the medical care we do.  Even fairly routine treatments, such as the pyloric stenosis in the infant could be easily treated with a simple surgery.  The same condition here could result in death. Many cases we saw in the past two days would have resulted in hospitalization but here they were treated and told to come back in a few weeks or a month... I also saw a few women with breast cancer.  This is not the country to have that diagnosis.  The only treatment is a complete radical mastectomy which means all the nodes get taken too.  No chemo or radiation is available.  The only thing they have is Tamoxifen which is not appropriate in every type of breast cancer and can't address the advanced cancers.  Yet another reason to praise God for the extensive treatment I received..
There is a real need for specialists such as diabetic educations, sonogram techs  , pediatric specialists and pharmacists to educate the Haitian staff here.  Education of the local people here is really the key to effective ministry here.  Please pray for the right people to feel called to come here and teach.
There is lots of good work going on here to be encouraged about and hope for the future but much more remains to be done...