Update from Sarah Allen in Haiti: Day 3 and 4

I spent all afternoon treating vaginal infections. Let me tell you, even though I’m going into Ob/Gyn, doing the whiff test is still not my favorite activity. But these vaginal infections are a sign of what kind of conditions the people of Haiti are living in right now. I’m not sure how often they have a chance to bathe themselves, or where they would anyway. If they’re lucky, they’re living in a tent. If they’re lucky. If not, they’re outside, under a tree, by a wall, next to the road, or wherever they can find shelter from the rain. That’s why its impossible to discharge them sometimes, because here at the hospital they have shelter, safety, and food. Who would want to leave?

Martine is another woman we’ve been working with all week. She has one son who is 13 years old, but since then she’s had 5 other pregnancies that she’s lost. Now, at 29 weeks pregnant, she didn’t want to lose this baby again. But with chronic hypertension and superimposed preeclampsia, she was a difficult case. We started her on Magnesium and gave her betamethasone x 2 for fetal lung maturity, but unfortunately her blood pressures remained uncontrolled. This morning, at 5:30, she began to have severe abdominal pain with vaginal bleeding….her placenta was abrupting. She was taken to the OR for a c-section, and a beautiful baby boy was delivered with apgars of 1 and 5, but after bagging him for 2 hours, he was finally left to die at peace. It was an emotional day. We questioned ourselves, what we could have done differently. We questioned the system here, about why things happened the way they did. We organized teaching with the nurses on how to manage hypertension in pregnancy. But it still hurt to see Martine holding her limp baby boy in her arms, sobbing. Nothing we could do now would change that.

I made some friends with some of the young haitian girls today. They’ve kind of latched onto me, craving attention and care. They work here, helping to organize the gynecology clinic and translate. They work for free, it’s completely voluntary. But they do it because they feel safe here. Stephanie, an 18 year old girl, said she likes to come to the hospital because she can forget what it’s like off campus. She can laugh, enjoy her friends, be distracted from what has happened to her world outside. She’s living on the streets, with her mom and 3 younger siblings. She said she was fortunate that none of her family died in the earthquake, but she said it shook her personally so much that the sunday afterwards she gave her life back to God. These Haitians seem to have an amazing faith in God. Each morning, we can hear them singing outside. When the women are in labor, they’re singing songs. It’s like they’ve been through so much tragedy in their lives that God is the only constant thing. It was interesting, they were surprised to find out that I was Adventist, even though we’re working in an Adventist hospital. They thought that no white people were adventist. That might be because a lot of the relief workers here are from all over, very few are actually adventist. But I think it’s also because we have such a different culture. They’re very open about their spirituality, and their faith. I think I have a lot to learn from them.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a small orphanage nearby, and gave hundreds of tetanus and typhoid vaccines. The children lined up nervously, waiting to be shot. We rewarded them with stuffed animals after braving the two shots. After finishing with all of the orphans, people from the street started showing up, asking to receive vaccines. We gave out as many vaccines as we had syringes, but there were still more people waiting. We’re continuing the vaccine campaign each day.

Today at lunch I walked around the tent camps here on the hospital campus, taking pictures. At first I felt somewhat bad, because I didn’t want to just take pictures of their suffering. But these people were so joyful to have their pictures taken, I didn’t feel like I was documenting any suffering at all! One woman had just had surgery on her leg, and she laid on her bed with arms wide open and the biggest smile on her face. I can’t wait to post her picture up. Other amputees gladly had their picture taken. I saw countless young children running around very skillfully on crutches, with big smiles on their faces. Life here goes on, day by day.

I have so much to learn from the people here. I only hope I can give them back a piece of what they’re giving to me.