Joe Kim’s Update from Haiti

“The quakes keep rolling. Well they are more like little tremors that shiver more than shake, but the reaction everyone has is a reminder of how traumatic the memories are. Last nights’ late shift was fortunately calm without incident. That was in strong contrast to the earlier night shift in which we had 4 codes and so much of the group was pushed to emotional and physical limits. So far a more systematic approach to patient care and rounding has led to earlier identification of sicker patients, and the leadership is working hard to address some of the resource limitations that prevented us from being able to save lives earlier.

In other news, our little global village compound has been quite the press joint today, the Hope Channel was here. About half way through the day, a large convoy of trucks complete with VIP blinkers and bodyguards on foot made their way into the hospital and an American and French ambassador stepped out with a small press corp. Apparently we have all been working so well with the French that it has been reminiscent of those old guys, Lafayette and Washington. I don’t want to start any rumors, but we might be getting back together after that whole Iraq quarrel thing. I’ve already started calling freedom fries French fries again in anticipation.

I ended up sleeping away the afternoon after the late shift, but the exciting word for the collaborative operations is that a tent went up for the clinic at the Refugee camp at the University and the set-up for the satellite clinic is complete. There are big plans to continue the outreach spreading out from the hospital, and while there seems to be a steady flux of medical personnel to staff the hospital, with the expanding vision, new places to plug into the patient care are always coming into need. Just the other day as I was helping the team from Texas set up the clinic across from the hospital, we went out to spread the word and found that there were over 50 patients waiting at a refugee camp being seen by a few local nurses who were not capable of handling the suturing, and diagnosis necessary to treat the large gathering crowd. There is definitely a sense of excitement in being able to directly fill a clear need, and the opportunity to do that has only been growing with what to this point has been a great collaboration between Loma Linda, ACTS, the French Pompiers, the hospital administration, and the number of many other sincere volunteers who have been coming to the hospital. I can’t wait to see how our class will fit into this growing aid work, and am sure that we can make a contribution that will have a lasting impact.”