Haiti Christmas Mission 2008

By Alexandros Coutsoumpos

With sirens blazing our ambulance roared down the bumpy roads of Port-Au-Prince weaving in and out of both directions of traffic. My two classmates and I waited in the back of the ambulance hoping to arrive at the airport in time for our imminent return to the United States. It was at this unusual moment that I began reviewing the experiences that had occurred during a week-long trip over our Christmas vacation to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. It had been a week of surprises, joy, sadness, frustration, and hope.

That very morning, as we were preparing to head out to the airport, we were told by the ER staff that a young man had arrived with a large laceration on his head. As we hurried into the ER, we were surprised to see a trail of blood leading from the entrance into one of the examination rooms. As we entered the room, we found a teenaged boy with a very large laceration at the level of his right temple. We questioned the boy about what had occurred and found out that he had been hit in the head with glass bottle in an altercation earlier in the morning. His family had then walked him into the ER. After retrieving the remaining glass and thoroughly cleaning the wound, the hospital staff sutured the laceration closed. After hearing words of appreciation from this young man for the care that had been provided, we ran to our ambulance for our aforementioned journey towards the airport.

Earlier in the week we had had an opportunity to provide some basic health screenings in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Porte-Au-Prince, near a Seventh-day Adventist church that was under construction. As was made known to my two classmates and I that morning, several health workers for the hospital had gone out in this neighborhood advertising that three American “Doctors” would be providing health screenings for the community. The realization that we, three medical students, were those American “Doctors” set in and left the three of us rather wary of the responsibility set before us. I remembered that initial sense of apprehension as I realized that many of these people had never seen a physician before and that we would probably be the only physicians that they would see for many years to come. Our team consisting of Dr. Archer an OB/GYN physician who also is one of the hospital administrators, several Adventist youth, and us medical students gathered to have a word of prayer. A sense of peace fell over all of us as we began seeing patients. The day flew by as we saw a variety of different cases from pediatrics to geriatrics, basic health screenings to pre-operative candidates. As patients shared their stories with us, we were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of needs that existed among these people.

One of the first tasks that we undertook when we arrived at Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti was to unload and distribute equipment and supplies that we had brought with us from Loma Linda. As a result of generous donations from Loma Linda University we were able to equip the hospital with badly needed equipment such as pulse oximeters, a cautery machine, defibrillator, and many other supplies. I distinctly remember the smiles that I saw on the faces of the hospital administrators and staff as they saw the equipment being unloaded. Some of the equipment that we brought were so badly needed that, the hospital, prior to these new arrivals, were having to rent the equipment from other medical institutions. After unloading, we set out throughout the hospital to distribute the supplies to their respective places. One could almost feel the joy exuding from the hospital staff in the different hospital wards as they saw the much-needed supplies being brought in.

These and many other experiences from this particular trip traveled through my mind both during our ride to the airport and now upon retrospection. Though these experiences carried with them many different emotions and ideas, the most enduring is Hope. Hope for the future of Hopital Adventist d’Haiti and for the people of Haiti. Hope that through the work of dedicated Loma Linda University students, staff and alumni small steps are taken to improve not only this sister hospital but the lives of many suffering Haitians.