Day 5

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Clinic day in Cap Hatien. Today we saw almost 600 people! The children were sent our way & we were happy to see them. We saw & managed a lot of children with malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, scabies, worms, fungal & bacterial skin infections, upper respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, & many families just needed basic education on feeding, nutrition & hygiene.

The line up for the pediatric section

Heather with some patients

Applying anti fungal cream to a child's head

Me listening to a child's lungs

Giving food & formula

Carissa assessing a child

The line up for the adult section

Vitals being taken by Carlie, a nursing student

Adult stations

This child had open infected sores on her head with flies feeding off the dead skin

So Carissa & Amy, another nurse, donned their makeshift gowns (made out of garbage bags) & washed the little girl's head & applied the appropriate skin creams & administered antibiotics for treatment

About 10 children received this treatment

There was also an interesting case where one woman had an abscess on her neck that was removed & sutured, while using a local anaesthetic. Please note that these photos may be disturbing to some due to their graphic nature. But if you think you can handle it, you can look at them here. Don't tell me I didn't warn you! ;)

John & Beth, two students who did

an amazing job organizing the pharmacy,

with student Alan, & nurse & also med student, Ryan

Finni! Thanks for all your help being our incredible runner!

Nelson, my interpreter. Like many of the interpreters, he would make sure that patients fully understood my instructions, wrote them down in Creole or French for them, & also made them repeat the instructions back to him. I was honoured to work with him

& all the locals who selflessly gave their

time & effort to help their own people.

Thank you Nelson!

A play section for the children was set up by teachers & students

Here children could do crafts...

Colour...

Play games...

& just be kids!

Thanks to those of you who had made donations! We literally saw your donations put to use directly towards those in need in Haiti. Thanks also to John Thomas & along with your donated money, we were also able to bring a young girl back with us to the main clinic as we were unable to fully help her with the limited supplies we had at the mobile clinic. Bringing her to the clinic in Port-Au-Prince would allow for more & better treatment options.

Thanks to your donations, we were able to bring this young girl with her mother back to the clinic with us for further

examination & treatment

When the clinic was finished, the interpreters enjoyed a well deserved game of soccer

At the end of the day, we all gathered inside the house where we were staying. It had been an amazing day, quite the opposite to what it was like the day before. You could feel the positive energy in the room with all the excitement. The clinic had left all of us with faces beaming & hearts glowing. Everyone felt great about what we had accomplished. It was an extremely rewarding experience & we were grateful to be a part of it & have the opportunity to help people.

With Solomon

With John Thomas

Celebrating the day with fresh young coconut

With our interpreters, Nelson & Samuel

With our runner, Finni

The entire group

During our group meeting, some of the interpreters thanked us in their own unique ways. We realized that we had stumbled upon quite a special group of people & we were so very honoured to be a part of it.

Today was quite the extraordinary day.

Chanson Haïtienne

Message transcribed here