So Many Patients, So Little Time

The front of the line waiting to get into the clinic

With church today, it's hard to believe that we only have one more day of clinic here.  I could easily stay for at least another week before I start to wish to come home, and it feels like we could stay for a month before we actually start to help the population of 2000 here.  (The population in Haiti is 9 million.  With about 20 people in hour group, it's easy to see how Haiti's resources have been completely overwealmed for health care alone.)



Back of the line.  Willham is walking up.



When we open, the line for people puts the Star Wars episode 1 lines to shame.  Often, the people will start  waiting the night before to get into the clinic.  Siblings bring siblings, mothers nurse in line, they wait in the sun.  All to see a health care provider for five minutes and get a few pills.  Some people have aches, stomach problems (gastroreflux from worms, generally) and others have things that are much more serious.  We ask people to come back the next day to wait in line, some can, some can't.  We see as many people as we can and still turn away people at the end of the day.  It makes me never want to leave.

Julie giving stiches

(Sidenote: I have decided not to go to church.  I have already sat through many church services in other languages and I really did not want to go to this one.  When we found out that the truck was not available, and would have to walk there and back in dresses and nice shoes, That did me in.  Sorry.)

I was back in the lab today, but I did see a few people that came in for pretty serious stuff.  We had one kid that was seen who needed stitches in his scalp.  Julie, the pathologist, sewed him up and gave him some antibiotics.  He had fallen while traveling up some stairs.  (In the picture you can see that the boys have a school uniform with a plaid design on the shirt, the girls wear blue skirts and suspenders, looking sort of like "The Wiz" version of Dorothy.  I hate school uniforms  It is a plot to confuses the hell out of exapts.  Anyone who has been overseas and had to deal with them knows what I mean.)

Linda's holding a little one with an extra finger removed

We also had a little one who had an "extra finger".  I don't have a picture of the before picture, but here are the after ones.  Although mary Kay (the pediatritian) said that it was indeed an extra finger, it looked more like a skin tag.  She just got some sterile scissors and cut the thing off.

After the surgery

The waiting room.  Linda, the trip leader, is in the back

Once the people get into the clinic, they are "triaged" with their weight, pulse and blood pressure taken.  If they are pregnant, have hypertension, or are a kid they are triaged to the lab.  Otherwise, they see a doctor.  It's kind of crazy trying to explain to people where and how they should sit and we try really hard to not have any confused patients wander out after they have gotten their lab work and see that they are done.  We are also able to give them eye exams and have a full pharmacy.  For such a small clinic and a smaller number of workers, we do a good job.  There are 23 of us.  Four are providers, four are nurses, and the rest are non-medical personnel.  (Some of them have medical backgrounds, such as working in a medical office.)

Pharmacy

The eye examination room

Yes, even speech therepy!!

One of the volunteers, Glen, is a speech pathologist with a specialty in stuttering.  It turns out that one of the interpreters, JM, has as stutter.  It's hard to tell, as the pauses when he is speaking English and generally attributed to his grasp of the language.  Glen has been working with him during lunch breaks, teaching him a few techniques that he can use to treat this.  It really is a miracle that of all the people in Haiti, there happened to be a person with a stutter and a speech pathologist in the same place.  So Glen feels like he also has a special place here in Haiti.

Who is happier, Kristin or the baby?

On the way home, we ran into one of the familes that we helped, and we were able to get them a ride home.  Kristen had started to walk and decided to stop one of our trucks when the rain started, and that truck stopped to pick up the family.  They handed over the baby for her to hold, and as she said, she was in heaven.

Hopefully today we will go to Port-au-Price to look around, then we will have one more day at the clinic.