Out of the factory, into the heat
May 8, 2010
Emily Mathieu
STAFF REPORTER
For Nathan Kelly, it’s been trial by fire.
The 34-year-old recent nursing grad from Brock University in St. Catharines arrived in Haiti on April 20 to work in a field hospital outside Port-au-Prince. It’s his first practical experience as a registered nurse.
“The disaster down here is immense,” says Kelly, speaking on a satellite phone near the Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT) field hospital in Pétionville. “The Haitians were in need before this; now they are in greater need. It is heartbreaking to see this kind of thing.”
CMAT moved its temporary hospital to the former golf course on March 15, after working in Léogâne for several weeks immediately after the massive quake.
It’s been quite a transition for Kelly. Before deciding to become a nurse, he was working in a steel drum manufacturing factory. As a self-described “people person,” the drums were less than fulfilling, so he went back to school in 2005.
“It is a complete turnaround of my life,” he says, admitting that starting his career in Haiti has been a challenge.
He is drinking about eight or nine litres of water a day. There are no trees to block the sun beating down on the hospital, and they are “lucky to get a breeze.”
Most patients are suffering from fever and diarrhea and respiratory infections, he says. There are also a lot of new moms, with 82 babies delivered at the hospital so far.
With the rainy season approaching, the top concern is to move ill patients. “We are moving them, about 500 a day for the past week, week and a half,” he says. “We are doing the best we can with what we have.”
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