Helping Haiti heal and rebuild
May 7, 2010
Emily Mathieu
STAFF REPORTER
Darkness was falling on Haiti as the medical team worked to set up a trauma centre among the ruined buildings of Léogâne.
The city of 130,000 was the closest to the epicentre of the January quake that devastated the country, and 80 to 90 per cent of its buildings were destroyed.
The group of registered nurses and doctors, part of Canadian Medical Assistance Teams, had arrived in Léogâne less than week after the disaster hit.
“We were unpacking as we were going and we got the call saying there was a mom (in labour),” recalls Toronto nurse and CMAT chair Valerie Rzepka.
The mother had not felt the infant move for several days, so the team prepared for a stillbirth. What they got instead was their first patient: a healthy baby boy.
“He was good-sized. All his fingers, all his toes,” says Rzepka. “To have a live, healthy birth and have a happy moment. . . It was quite a morale booster for our team.”
Haitians don't name their children for the first week, says Rzepka, so she doesn't know the name of the boy, one of two babies born at the clinic in the early weeks.
CMAT's mandate is to act as a neutral body to improve the health and welfare of families, both in Canada and in developing countries around the world during times of disaster or urgent need. The organization has a database of more than 1,000 medical professionals.
The Haitian quake was Rzepka's fifth disaster; she counts post-tsunami Thailand and post-quake Pakistan among her experiences.
She receives automatic emails and text notifications of any earthquake higher than 5.5 in the world. She was out to dinner when she heard about Haiti.
“Within an hour or so, I was on the phone with my colleagues and we decided almost immediately to mobilize.”
In 24 hours, the medical team was together. They flew though Miami and were in Port-au-Princeabout 72 hours after the disaster hit.
The day they arrived, it was dusk, the country was politically unstable and the plane had to wait for a window to land. “The first thing we saw was the terminal was in rough shape.”
They spent the first night in the UN reception centre nearPort-au-Prince, with more than 100 search-and-rescue personnel from around the world.
“Every nation was represented. It was almost as if the entire world met in Haiti that day.”
With aid workers already mobilizing in Port-au-Prince, the team decided to move to Léogâne. Their hospital was set up by day six, eventually with a staff of 16, including an orthopedic surgeon and anesthesiologist.
Their hospital was a tent, with support columns filled with air. Most of their cases were crushing injuries, many orthopedic, says Rzepka.
“Deciding to do an amputation is one of the hardest decisions,” she says. But in situations where sanitation is an issue and infections had set in it is often the decision between life and death.
The crew lived off ready-to-eat, military-style meals and drank bottled water. For washing, they boiled water from a local well.
For 27-year-old Toronto nurse Maida Mrakovic, Haiti was her second disaster zone. She was on the fifth team to rotate through Pakistan after the earthquake in 2005.
“In Haiti, we were team number 1. We had to implement everything and start from scratch,” she says.
Among the 200 to 300 people the team treated per day, she says the hardest was dealing with injured children, many with severe burns.
There was also the extreme heat. “No matter how thirsty you are and no matter how much you drink, you just can't hydrate yourself,” says Mrakovic.
They also couldn't share their food or water, to prevent disorder, which she says was extremely difficult.
“There were a lot of challenges but it was worth it in the end,” she says about treating the patients. “They don't have much to give you, but the hug or the smile on their faces that was the best.”
Both women returned to Canada after two weeks in Haiti, but both want to return.
>The team has sent Mrakovic photos showing how well patients she treated are healing.
Infection after treatment is a huge worry, she says. “When you see a good wound after, you are just so happy.”
She is amazed by the resilience of the Haitian people. “Take their leg away; that is fine, they are just happy they are alive.”
Rzepka says the team moved the hospital in mid-March to Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince and home to a refugee camp of 60,000 to 90,000.
Funding is crucial for CMAT to maintain a sustained presence in Haiti and be ready to mobilize for the next disaster, she says.
For Haitians, having sustained care is part of rebuilding.
“The people of Haiti had very little to begin with . . . They are able to see the future and realize they are in control of their own destiny.”
To donate or learn more about CMAT go to www.canadianmedicalteams.org.
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