May 2010
Disaster relief, 15 medical personnel, 500 patients
This group of 15 medical relief workers came most specifically to assist in the disaster relief effort, although most of us were not prepared for what we would encounter on this first trip to Port au Prince. The physical damage from the earthquake looked so fresh, despite 4 months of clean-up underway. We worked at the General Hospital in Port au Prince and at HCM, completing 10 successful general surgeries in the week. One of the highlights came in treating a volunteer from another MN mission group who had contracted Typhoid Fever. In 8 days of work, we saw about 500 clinic patients for various ailments in 3 rural villages. Cholera and other water-born GI illnesses were most common as we distributed thousands of oral re-hydration salt packets throughout the week, gave intravenous fluids to more critical patients, and provided antibiotics and other classes of medicines, based on conditions; hypertension, diabetes and infections were common encounters.