Summer and I arrived at Haiti Adventist Hospital yesterday afternoon and put ourselves right to work. Along with Summer's dad Terry another prominent MD named Scott Nelson was working at the hospital this week. Dr. Nelson was one of the first MDs to Haiti after the quake and has been responsible for much of the work done here at HAH in the last year. He has experience in a large variety of orthopedic procedures so when he is at the hospital they try to fit in as many cases as possible. True to form we arrived at the hospital around 2 and they had been working all day. Normally cases stop around dinner, last night we didn't finish until 4 am. The hospital has had a few issues with recovering patients post from the OR so just this week they created a post-op recovery room where each patient goes for at least 3 hours, with our last case ending at 4am that means that I didn't finish until about 7am, after our red eye flight the night before I had been up for about 40 hours before I went to bed. I slept until lunch the next afternoon and according to Summer I was comatose the whole time. I guess there was a lot of loud noises that morning but I wouldn't have heard a semi truck crashing into the building.
Unfortunately the Haitian nurses stop working around 7pm, so one way Summer and I have contributed so far is to be the recovery nurses. Last night we recovered 6 patients from the OR ranging from a cute 7 month old to a 40 year old girl. Being that I work at the Veterans hospital with the average patient being a 75 year old male, taking care of 7 month old girls with bilateral leg surgeries immediate post op is a new twist to nursing. I am used to seeing heart rates in the 60's and blood pressures in the 175/100 range, (high for most of us but normal for non-compliant veterans). A baby, however generally has a rapid heart rate and a low BP, so seeing a heart rate of 130 and a blood pressure of 80/45 is not that uncommon post surgery. But we learn to adapt and enjoy the work. Summer and I fell in love with the 7 month old girl above, she had her legs casted from club foot, a condition that's pretty rare in the states but is common in Haiti.
Summer's mom has not been feeling well this week however today she was up and moving so Summer and her went into town and bought some groceries. Tomorrow we both plan to head into town and see what there is to see. Terry just got his own car last week and tomorrow will be its maiden voyage. The driving in Haiti consists of a two lane road usually about 4-5 cars wide traveling at speeds ranging from 10mph to 70, driving on both sides of the road, dodging holes, garbage, people and the occasional livestock. I'm thankful I wont be driving tomorrow.
I have been pretty busy so I haven't uploaded any pictures, however yesterday I took some great photos for the Haiti Book. One chapter in the book is on a particular type of surgery called the Taylor-Spatial Frame. This procedure is very advanced even by American Orthopedic standards however at HAH they do them weekly. It is a method to lengthen and rotate warped bones, Scott did a fellowship on the procedure after medical school and he started doing them post quake. We only had a few pictures for the book on this procedure but yesterday I was able to photograph an entire procedure start to finish.
The case was an amazing 7 year old boy, he really exemplifies what we hope to doing with the Indigent Haitian Fund here in Haiti. When he was 2 years old he had a large burn on his right leg around the knee. He developed a lot of scar tissue which inhibited his knee joint, he has not been able to extend his knee past 90 degrees since and has never been able to walk on that leg. Along with the burn some nerves were injured that inhibited normal growth of his leg so it was a little short and his foot was rotated about 75 degrees laterally. So he had three big issues, contracted (locked) knee, short leg and rotated foot. They did 3 procedures on him at once, releasing the contracture, then adding a Taylor Spatial frame to lengthen the leg a small amount and rotate the foot back into position. He will probably never walk normally but hopefully he can walk with a crutch. For the past 5 years he has hooped on 1 foot everywhere he goes.
A further interesting thing about this boy and the impact of the fund is heartwarming. For 5 years this boy hooped along the roads to get everywhere in life. He and his brother are orphans so they could not afford to get his leg fixed. Turns out he hooped right in front of the hospital everyday on his way to town. Trouble is, until the earthquake and subsequently Terry's creation of the Indigent Fund Haiti Adventist Hospital did not do surgery on the poor so they just passed by the place that would one day fix his injured body. However because the fund is now in place Terry welcomed the boy to the hospital and his surgery was done for free, he is just one of thousands of patients who have similar needs. His brother has been by his side every day. He checks on him about every 10 minutes then smiles at us and says "I'll be back to check on him later" (albeit in Creole but we get the picture with the included hand gestures). He usually is not gone from his brothers side for more than 5-10 minutes. It motivates Summer and I even more to keep doing all we can for the less fortunate.
More later,
Tim and Summer
