BACKGROUND ON MISSION WORK FOR THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE

Numerous articles and stories have chronicled the heroic activities of medical professionals who volunteered their time and expertise to go to Haiti and assist with the enormous job of medical care for the victims of the January 12, 2010, earthquake. Teams of physicians, nurses, medical therapists, and many other specialists arrived in Haiti to assist with immediate needs, and the effort has continued over the months since, gradually changing as the needs of the people and country have changed. The most fascinating and intense stories obviously surround the initial response effort—which involved hundreds and even thousands of crush injuries, amputations, and other acute trauma cared for in a makeshift setting with tent hospitals or with field surgeries performed with head lamps and without anesthesia.

As the acute care needs tapered down, Haiti has slowly returned to its usual state, which is extreme poverty with little to no access to medical care, poor nutrition, and little community or governmental support. Port au Prince is a city in ruins, with most buildings leveled by the earthquake (Figure ​(Figure11). Diary of a Medical Mission Essay. People continue to live in tent cities or other crudely constructed shelters, often right outside the front door of the destroyed house or building where they previously lived. The median of the main highway through the middle of the city is home to many of these tents and shacks (Figure ​(Figure22). Some people are too afraid to sleep indoors, and most simply have nowhere else to live. Streets are crowded with people milling around, most without jobs, many without family.

Immediately following the earthquake, organizations such as International Medical Corps, Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, Hope for Haiti, Red Cross, and Cure International provided medical assistance. My flight to Port au Prince was at least 90% filled with volunteers, many of whom worked with the previously mentioned organizations. The others were Haitians returning home or going to see family. In addition to those involved with the relief organizations mentioned above, a large percentage of volunteers are affiliated with various Christian organizations and churches. These volunteers include medical personnel who join with other relief organizations, medical mission teams who bring their own supplies and provide free medical clinics, and many others who are willing and able to help in any way they can. I met several teams intending to help with clean-up efforts and others functioning as construction and building crews. Diary of a Medical Mission Essay.

MY TRIP

I joined a medical team from Tennessee that was affiliated with Baptist Global Response of the International Mission Board division of the Southern Baptist Convention. The medical mission trip needed to be fully equipped by those participating, since nearly no supplies and support were available in Haiti. The team from Tennessee had no difficulty filling their suitcases with generous donations from friends, family, and church members. I also received a surplus from numerous sources, including a children’s mission class from First Baptist Church in Wills Point, Texas. Most medications were generously donated by Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas with the help of Faith in Action Director Don Sewell. Contributions in the form of supplies and medications were given by several other BHCS physicians and staff, including Dr. Louis Sloan, Dr. Amy Anderson, Dr. Paul Neubach, Dr. Katherine Little, Dena and Dr. Charlie Risinger and the staff of Baylor Family Medical Center at Terrell, and Ronnie Rose from Baylor Ellis County, just to name a few. Additionally, my partners in American Radiology Associates were very helpful, providing the necessary work coverage on short notice.

On the plane ride over from Miami, I sat with a man named Stephen from central Kansas. His church has had a decade-long relationship with several churches in Haiti.Diary of a Medical Mission Essay.  He was currently going to Haiti with a large team of other church members to help rebuild their sister church, which was destroyed in the earthquake. He had been to Haiti several times before the earthquake but had not been since.

On the flight, we were talking about the various needs of the people, mostly about their needs for shelter, nutrition, and medical care. He told me about an orthopedic surgeon friend of his who had served in the first few weeks following the earthquake. One particular patient was a 12-year-old girl who had been badly burned over her entire right arm. The surgeon had seen her in the field hospital a few days after the earthquake and had thoroughly cleaned and bandaged her wounds. The girl had stayed in the hospital for a few days to be stabilized. When the orthopedic surgeon returned to Haiti 2 weeks later, this same young girl came to the hospital for treatment, except this time she had a serious systemic infection originating from her initial burn wound. Her family had been convinced by the local voodoo “doctor” or “priest” that the foreign doctors were trying to harm her. The voodoo doctor had removed all the bandages and in some bizarre ritual had smeared goat dung over the burn wounds. The orthopedic surgeon had left the girl 2 weeks earlier, no doubt joyful that he had participated in helping this young girl, only to return and find her septic and near death because of her environment. Often the local obstacles are passively related to a lack of resources and access to medical care; at other times missionaries are fighting against local customs, religions or belief systems that actively work against their best efforts.

Stephen and I talked for most of the flight about what each of us would be doing over the next week. I saw him and his family again as I was leaving the country a week later and we shared stories and photos. He and his team from Kansas had rebuilt the church from the ground up in 1 week and had a church service that Sunday before leaving. Diary of a Medical Mission Essay.

ASSOCIATES AND TEAM MEMBERS

I was picked up from the airport by Sam and Delores York and Parker Hall. Very quickly in our initial introductions (as we had never communicated, even by e-mail), we realized that we were all Texans. Sam and Delores York, from San Angelo, are career missionaries who have been stationed in Haiti for 8 years. They have lived most of the time in the mountains ministering to the locals in various ways. Since the earthquake, they have moved into Port au Prince into the Haitian Baptist Convention property. The property has a two-bedroom shack with occasional running water and electricity powered by a gasoline generator right outside the kitchen window. The rest of the half-acre cinderblock–walled-in property has seven heavy-duty tents erected for the teams of volunteers who rotate through. The move to downtown Port au Prince from the countryside has allowed them to help with the relief effort personally as well as host the many teams of volunteers that have come into the country in affiliation with Baptist Global Response. In the brief amount of time that I got to spend with this wonderful couple, I was able to see their gentleness of spirit and the toughness that allows them to serve in this way.

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Parker Hall, originally from Mesquite, Texas, is a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately following graduation, he joined the Journeyman program, a group of young college graduates who serve as Baptist missionaries for 2 years in remote locations around the globe.Diary of a Medical Mission Essay.  Parker’s first assignment was in urban Lima, Peru, ministering to the city’s large population of prostitutes. After 9 months in that setting, and as a direct result of the need created by the earthquake, he was asked to consider relocating to Haiti. Parker’s enthusiasm for the language and culture and his constant smile and laughter make him a magnet for both children and adults.

I stayed with the Yorks and Parker and accompanied them to church on Sunday morning. Their current church is an open-air temporary structure standing next door to the original church building that was leveled in the earthquake (Figure ​(Figure33). The temporary church was constructed using cinderblocks, tarps, and anything else that helped provide structure and cover. The church pastor is an older gentleman, who, along with his three sons and their families, also operates an orphanage. The pastor and his family have taken in at least 12 earthquake orphans and personally assumed responsibility for their care and education (Figure ​(Figure44). Currently, many of the earthquake orphans live in tents that were donated and erected at the pastor’s home. Sam York built a water well for the family in their yard and taught them how to dig and construct the well, so they could help their neighbors do the same (Figure ​(Figure55). That Sunday morning at church, the orphans sang several of the worship songs, which were usually about Bible stories and were sung in Creole French with typical Creole melodies and rhythms. Watching these men and their families care for, mentor, instruct, and educate these young children was one of the highlights of my trip and gave me a glimpse of the future of Haiti. Diary of a Medical Mission Essay.