Day 3

So let me start off today's blog by admiring our accommodations here in Haiti. Operation Blessing (OBI) is hosting us. This building used to be a bed & breakfast at some point and OBI bought it about a year ago. I am lucky to have my own room. We have air conditioning in our rooms so it is quite comfortable. All of our meals are prepared at the house. There are some lovely Haitian women who fix our meals and wash our scrubs. I tried some type of new root vegetable last night, I think it's called chayote (mirliton). It had a potato-like consistency but it tasted like corn. It might be my new favorite vegetable. Obviously, we have access to wireless Internet. The house is protected by armed guards and there is barbed wire lining the top of the cement wall. We have a driver who takes us back and forth to the hospital.

I am so impressed with the Haitian people. They are so warm and welcoming. The staff at the hospital and most people in the streets are dressed immaculately. This is astonishing to me since I know that many of them are living in tents.

We were told that Mondays are typically very busy in the ER/ICU area, but it really seemed like yesterday was busier. There was a nurse working in the wound clinic so I did not have to do any dressing changes. Early in the shift, there was a 50-year-old woman who was brought in for unresponsiveness. We were fairly certain she had a stroke overnight. Low and behold, her blood glucose was 26. After some D50, she perked right up. We are not sure why she was hypoglycemic...her potassium was elevated and she was anemic. She left after eating some lunch. I am not certain she will have any followup.

The main trauma patient of the day was a man who was wheeled in with a bleeding foot. When I saw the lateral aspect of his left foot I saw why. Apparently he was on a motorcycle and hit by a truck, his foot was caught up in this somehow. The sole of his foot was hanging down. I could see his 5th metatarsal bone sticking out but all the tissues were completely macerated. Was he yelling in pain? No, he was just quietly holding his leg. After getting an IV and wound dressing he was transferred elsewhere.

One of the patients on the ICU side was an elderly lady who had back pain. This was all I remembered from her history...a little bit later I saw her in a squatting position waddling/walking to the bathroom area. At this point I tried to ask Evan (our PM&R doc) without smirking, "Can you remind me what's going on with that patient?" He replied, "Well, she can't extend her right leg at all. I guess that's how she gets around. We probably didn't need to get that hip x-ray." It turns out this lady sustained a back injury during the earthquake and has been ambulating like this ever since. I feel like this is a good example for US patients with back pain. When they say I can't walk with this pain, we can say "nonsense, let me tell you about this creative patient in Haiti."

Well, I need to get to bed. More to come tomorrow...