Critical Patient Update

Please note the update I received from Sheila today. It's only been 5 days since we left, but it's still great news!

Greetings Mike,
Thankful you arrived home without a hitch.  Just a little update on the
hospital patients.  The twins are doing fine.  Getting a little darker and
content with being held by grandparents.  Baby David is also learning to
nurse his mother sleeping contently otherwise.  His mother is doing better
she smiled when I told her she had a fine boy baby.  Not sure about the
trauma patients.  I think they are doing as well as hoped for.

Still working on the hydro and the reservoir....began cleaning it yesterday.
Brother John Ruefner on the next team is and electrical engineer.  Guess I
will hold his passport until he has all of the problems figured out :).

So thankful for your team.  It was such a blessing for me. 
sheila

Safely Home

Joan & I left shortly after 6 am for the Cayes airport this morning. It was good to be able to spend a couple days with them. Again, we were one of the first ones to the terminal. I breezed right through and the flight was on time. Same thing in PAP, no problems anywhere even though Mardi Gras is tomorrow. I was even able to take my water bottle all the way through security and on to the plane in PAP? It was amazing to go through 7 check points in PAP airport alone! I sailed right through customs in Ft Lauderdale and wouldn't you know, I saw a mosquito on the plane when we landed in Florida. He's probably going to follow me home! I arrived in Detroit about 10 min ahead of schedule. Thankful to be home safe and a huge thank you to all who offered prayers on our teams behalf. May God reward you abundantly.

The only additional update I may include here is the condition of patients of interest when I find out.

Sunday

We were up early and left 7:20ish for church. Good thing Jill wasn't along. The loud speakers in Bonne Fin were just a warm up for the ones today. At least 4 of us were plugging our ears at times. After services we headed up to Fortresse des Platons. It's an old fort that overlooks the bay of Cayes and the valley. It was a 2 hr trip of which the second half was 4 wheel drive winding up the mountains with very steep and rocky roads. We didn't take it out of 1st gear very much. The views were incredible! Hard to capture. We took lunch with us and ate at the fort. Then we came back to Tim's and enjoyed some American chicken with ice cream in the evening.

Saturday afternoon

The last couple blogs are going to be mostly myself since I'm the only one left down here. From the airport, Sheila and I came back to my brother's. I arrived in time to get in on breakfast and then I took a 3 hr nap on the couch with the kids playing beside me. At least that made my 3 hr night a 6 hr one. Then I helped my brother install a water line and medicine cabinet for the new 3 bdrm apartment. They had a few over for the evening meal.

Oh the blessing of a warm shower!

The temps here are at least 10 deg warmer than Bonne Fin.

Saturday Morning

We were up early enough to finish packing, loading and on the road by 5:10. We didn't lose any luggage so Noah did a great job packing the top of the truck. Traveling early morning is a difficult time of day. There are lots of people and donkeys on the road and dark skin is hard to see in the dark; common sense. But Sheila did a great job getting us there safely and on time-Thanks Sheila! We briefly stopped by the MEBESH compound on the way to the Les Cayes airport. Fortunately we were the first ones to the "terminal", took a few group photos with our Haitian photographer (hopefully everyone is in the photo) and then checked in. Sheila and I waved the plane off - ON TIME! Hope everyone has a safe journey today. I'll be anxious to hear travel updates.

Picture Sampling

Friday (cont.)

Then about 9:30ish 3 more trauma patients came in via something. There was a bad motorcycle accident at a nearby market. I guess 2 motorcycles got together (probably head on). One young man died (has a young family) and 3 came here. One of the 3 (a young man) coded on them, he also lost his left eye (I think it's the same one?) and is a friend of one of our interpreters. So that kept the docs busier than Fridays normally are. They didn't get back to the house tonight till after 10 and Dr Rudolph had 2 more surgeries to go. Rudy said they did over 40 procedures this week.

Fortunately, incoming PT really slows up by the end of the week so Jennifer was able to help with the traumas. Today was more than they hoped for.

I started off by hooking up the generator in the guest house to turn the refrigerator on and then I took 2 of the maintenance guys and the swimmer back down to the reservoir to attempt the power restoration process. They rigged up a 25' piece of chain link fence rail with a pitch fork jammed in the end for our sea weed rake. Tossed it on top of the truck and off we were. They were not happy campers to be messing with this again, but they did because I was there. After about an hour of them dragging sea weed out, I hiked down to the hydro with the operator, and boy was that a hike! My grand canyon hike prepared me for this one (although this one was much shorter but more difficult). It's too bad the whole group wasn't able to go this afternoon because of the traumas that came in, since the scenery was awesome with huge white boulders in the valley. Unfortunately my camera broke yesterday :-( Anyway, the operator opened the main valve, threw the switch and walla, we had power. Not sure if the seaweed had anything to do with it or not, but it's on now.

Later in the afternoon some of the group played frisbee with a few of the staff/helpers in the courtyard. And I finally was able to put my cart of crutch parts away. Then around 5:45 we had some more fun outside in the courtyard. Hopefully the docs won't read this part, because we took 2 of the recovery patients and did a barrel race across the lawn. We had been trying to get them more active and outside all week for therapy. Somehow I don't think barrel racing is in the normal PT script. And I really hope they don't try that when we're gone...especially the one with the external fixator!

What do you know, but they didn't forget about my engagement testimony, so we did that after we ate. I guess I don't mind sharing it since one of my prayers was for a marriage of faith as a testimony to others. So I need to be willing now. Then the midwest girls and I went back to the hospital and sang 2 songs to baby David's family before heading back to the house to pack, shower (you just don't get use to those cold showers) and get ready for a 4:45 morning departure...boy am I envious, but being with family the next 2 days will help.

Friday (cont.)

Everyone reported to their medical places. The update on the 36 yr old mother is questionable. Reuben just walked in and so we went to see her. Not sure if she's septic, destroyed liver (from delivery) or what and it's frustrating to the doctors that the equipment and supplies can't allow them to do what they want. The next few days will determine if she survives and if she does, whether she will have a sound mind. She does open her eyes sometimes, sleeps a lot, but her husband says that she recognizes him and her vitals are ok, so that's good. The father hasn't left her side. He looks like a hard-working responsible individual with a very concerned look in his eyes. He said they came from another clinic in Baraderes up on the coast where they went to first and then by ambulance here. The ride is a very difficult 2+ hr trip over large rock. No wonder the baby made it out :-( The girls named the cute little boy David. They wanted a "courageous" name. Many of us have shed a few tears down that wing of the hospital. I had a 10 minute conversation with the father through an interpreter. He said if his wife lives, he thanks God first and certainly the doctors.

Friday

When we thought we had seen sufficient...it was the warm up.

So the power was off all night and by 9:15 am they still hadn't turned the generator on for the hospital, but soon after. For breakfast our cook apparently included some laundry detergent or dish soap or dish water??? in the large pot of oatmeal she made us. Believe it or not a couple of us didn't really notice (me being one, just Haitian oatmeal!). But once someone mentioned it, you could definitely taste it strong. We'll never know what it was. We all felt bad with bowls of dished up cereal. Jill was just stirring in more sugar - how polite. Noah tried to tell our cook with a dictionary, but we figured she would bring him some soap to put in his cereal! She really did a good job throughout the week, so one mistake is allowed.

The whole group went up to at least part of morning devotion. The scripture was II Samuel 22, a beautiful psalm of David about God's faithfulness shortly before he died. They went about 1/2 hr long this morning. Not sure if that was because it was our last day or what. They thanked us for coming and offering assistance with a very warm heartfelt thanks. I shared with them that "Great is Thy Faithfulness" is my all time favorite hymn and the message I leave them with, to which they spontaneously sang it with energy.

Thursday (cont.)

I should also mention. I wish I could capture all the little miracles that have been happening daily, like for example, this afternoon Heather & Max spent a fair amount of time sorting the mirage of sutures. Little did they know that was going to help out a few hours later. And so on...

Thursday (cont.)

Heather, Jeana & I headed back to the house while the rest continued the evening rounds. As we walked out the front hospital entrance, there was a van backed up to the gate. I noticed a lady lying on a mattress in the back and several people with her. I commented to the girls, "I wonder if she is coming or going". They thought this time of night, probably coming. We didn't think any more about it as we walked up the road. About half way home we met one of the translators and he informed me that...

I forgot to mention that when the power came back on around 6:30 pm (so we ate in dimness again), it was only partial power, so they decided to turn on the big caterpillar generator.

So the translator informed us that something was wrong with the large generator because it shuts off on its own after awhile. He said he'll look at it tomorrow. As we were visiting and slowly walking back towards the hospital (looking for tarantulas :-)), we saw someone with a flashlight running towards us very fast. When they got closer, it was Bethann and Amy shouting, "Come quick! There is an emergency c-section!" So we ran as fast as possible back to the hospital. We would have been all the way to the guest house settled in, had we not been delayed (very unusual). When we reached the entrance, we saw a 36 yr old woman lying face down on the mat right inside the door with the baby & placenta wrapped in a blanket by her feet. The baby boy was born just as they unloaded her. She was half conscience with blood all over and even coming out her mouth a little. All the rest of the crew was already gathered around checking her vitals. The Haitian hospital staff was there also with several medical students. I had the brightest flashlight, so I was the light pole then I also grabbed some gloves and became the IV pole. Dr Rudy took a team with the baby down to the clinic while several helped lift the mother onto a gurney. Her SAT was only 84, so we grabbed a hand bagger. She kept fighting us so some ran down to the surgery and got additional supplies while others restrained her with ace wrap and a PT belt. Dr Ruben was working on drugging her up while Dr Noah was directing, Heather was working on another IV with a couple Haitians, Jill was monitoring the pulse and SATs and restraining. I can't even remember what everyone was doing in the huttle, but everyone was doing something! We immediately got her SAT (hope I'm saying that right, O2 level) up to 98, but her blood pressure was 160. We found out later that there was diabetes in the family. They thought maybe she was something eclampsia? (it's getting too late to think). Dr Rudy said they get one about every 3 mos. They lost a baby this past January during that. We eventually took the mother back to the clinic and cleaned her up. The baby seemed to be doing fine. The nurses cleaned him up and Jill even got to hold him and fed him some formula! He was full term and looked decent size. So that makes 3 babies born the same day. The only 3 since we've been here (I think). We'll see how they are doing in the morning. I'm just hoping that I can get out of here now. I may have to wake a guard up again or find a gurney!

Thursday (cont.)

You would think these mosquitoes would get the hint after killing a dozen of their siblings :-(

Then in the afternoon, I spent a few hours organizing, repairing and assembling crutches. I think there were about 10% in the PT room that were complete. What a dirty mess. Most items (splints, crutches, walkers, canes) have seen miles of dusty roads.

One of the highlights of the day came around 1 pm when I was obliviously working on my crutches up front and a set of twins were born! They said the mother didn't know, but the babies looked a healthy 6 lbs or so. I didn't even hear about it till the evening meal when we enjoyed chicken, rice, slaw and cooked beet/potato salad (it's one of my favorite dishes).

The midwest girls, Jennifer, Sheila & I sat around the living room while Jill Maibach shared her engagement testimony with us. I talked her into it with the agreement that I would do the same, but then the docs came back and another vendor came to the door selling table clothes and the topics got changed, so I didn't have to. We'll see if they remember :-)

While the CA crew went back up to do their evening rounds, the midwest girls and I did another evening of singing in the ER and in-patient areas. We were doing some sing-a-long with the patients when the lights went out around 9:15 pm. The girls decided to continue singing in the almost dark for another 15 min. I was impressed with their singing by memory!

Thursday (cont.)

I am publishing in multiple posts, so I don't risk losing everything when the power goes back out.

Anyway, I also spent some time having fun with several children by introducing them to "bubbles". I know, hard work, but someone has to do it. Without fail, when I first blew the bubbles the children were a bit intimidated, until they realized they were harmless. Then they would giggle and try to catch them. Sheila has little sample bottles, so I leave it with the children. (and then the adults all ask me for one!) I also played frisbee a bit with Gene in a wheel chair. He's so delightful. Another little boy (less then 1 yr old) was sitting in an adult wheel chair with his legs hanging over the edge for over 4 hours!! At least every time I walked by he was there. He was a cute little guy. I have no idea how he didn't fall out - not strapped in, probably just scared stiff? I know my little guy would have been on his head in less than 30 sec.

I think the first surgery today was one of the translator's mother (the carpel tunnel repair one).

On our way back for lunch it started to sprinkle, so we did some quick "bartering" with the vendors before eating. The rain helped bring the prices down faster. For example, I got a little hand carved wood world globe (sorry, more junk, Honey) that started out at $25 for $10. For lunch we had ham, fried spam, goat cheese (it was very good, though I think import), slaw, bread (a lot of home-made bread, just like at home :-))... We usually eat in shifts, because the docs come whenever they get finished or take a break.

Thursday

Where do I begin. It must be Haiti. The power went back off at 6:00 this morning so I was the flashlight boy for the breakfast line so they could see what they were dishing up. Maybe I should have left it off :-) So they powered the little generator for the hospital. We went up around 7:30 for 1/2 hr with the Haitians again singing and reading in St John about Christ being the Good Shepherd and giving his life for the sheep. As we headed up the rocky road (it's about 1/4 mile hilly hike to the medical buildings) the venders were already laying their wares out on tarps along our path. Sheila told them 12:00, which means 5 hrs prior to that in Haiti. After all, you wouldn't want to miss out on a potential sales lead!

I'm going to short hand our team into 3 groups; the California crew, the midwest girls & me, for ease. As I type in the dim light, I have to swat off a pesky mosquito every few minutes (I guess not enough lizards!)

This morning seems like a week ago. The rest headed off to their respective medical tasks as usual and I started the work day with my usual routine of seeing where everyone settles in and taking a few photos. This morning I spent some time swapping out some retired equipment (wheel chairs, transport chairs, walkers & crutches). I repaired some and pulled some new ones out of storage. Of course in the process I had to do some wheel chair riding with my little friend Gene, a young boy who hurt his ankle playing soccer. In the mean time, I also checked out the "depot". Nothing like the Home Depot or Office Depot. It's the storage shed for all the non drug supplies...actually fairly well packed in shelves of totes. By the way, don't bother buying the rubbermaid "recycled plastic" 18 gallon totes. I didn't realize the difference and mine had 3 cracks in it before it even reached the airport baggage handlers. There is a difference in plastics and recycled apparently isn't good.

More Wednesday eve

As I was closing down for the night, a young 9 yr old girl started crying in the ER behind me. Come to find out she has sickle cell anemia and is in a lot of pain. So sad.

I'll also mention the weather has been perfect for enjoyment. Feels like upper 70's with a breeze. Oh, and Jeana found out this evening that she is an aunt again! Her sister had a little girl, Lexie. Also, the midwest girls were able to see that mid-sized tarantula tonight :-)

Wednesday eve

I should have mentioned that all of the team members were able to watch the hip surgery yesterday eve(except Jennifer) and Jeana even took 100 pictures(17 actually)! She also has several other surgery pics for those who care to see things like "cheese slicers" cutting skin off for a graft :-(( Her latest tally is 378 photos + video...too bad we can't share some yet.

This morning after breakfast we headed back to the hospital for checkups again. I started a project of repairing wheel chairs and then went to put the spare tire back on the Toyota. But the tire they said was ready was in 6 pieces on the shop floor so I repaired a gate and went back for it. When I went back there was a Haitian standing on the tire asking me how much I was going to pay him to help me put it on. I told him I just came for the tire and when I turned around there were 2 others asking for payment to help me. How many does it take to put a spare tire back under a truck?? Then Sheila asked me to take Joe, the maintenance man down to the reservoir to clean some seaweed out...quite the road. When we got there 3 other natives joined us (It amazes me. They were all walking the mountain trails and we were driving, but we all arrived the same time??) Two of them slid down the bank into the water and started swimming the seaweed out. They decided to come back in the morning to do some more when the water level is lower.

About 9:00 Joe informed us that the power was going to go out around 2 pm and back on at 6 pm for the evening lights, but it was off by 10:30 already. 2 or 10:30, whats the difference? The team had just finished a surgery so it was no big deal and the generator came on fairly soon so they could continue.

Oh, how cute. There is a 5" lizard on the ceiling above me and he just ate a misquito, nice. Glad he likes them.

We had pumpkin soup for lunch. It was pretty good. Bethann said that she didn't really like the first meal, but now she likes pretty much everything we had so she's not sure what changed :-) Maybe she got hungry.

There was a change of pace this afternoon. We went to a funeral service of one of the former hospital employees. He worked there more than 30 years and his wife still does. It was fairly large (maybe 500). We only stayed maybe 1/2 hour of the 2 hour service and went back to the guest house roof to read Psalm 39 (in English) that they read at the funeral, but it started to sprinkle. We all quickly grabbed the laundry and ran it inside. Then Noah and Max arrived back from the funeral so we got Jennifer from PT (she was the only one who worked the afternoon) and drove down to the market, which is every Wednesday. It was the tail end, so we didn't end up getting out much, but was still interesting. On the way back to the guest house, we passed the funeral procession on the way to the cemetery.

When we got back, we decided to take a hike up "Doctor's Mountain", which is about a 15 minute walk behind the compound. Beautiful scenery.

After that, the midwest girls sang several songs on the porch while Noah, Ruben, Max & Jennifer went to visit one of the translators mother (who had carpel tunnel surgery before) and then on to Jimmy's house to see his honey bees, etc.

For the evening meal, we had pizza (thick Haitian style) and cole slaw, fruit... Then Noah, Ruben, Rudolph & Jennifer went back to the hosp. for evening rounds and the rest of us had an hour bible study on Psalm 39 in the living room before we went up and helped a little and checked email.

Wednesday

There hasn't been any power all day today. It's supposed to come back on around 6:00 pm tonight. As of 4:30 this afternoon, the group was just getting ready to go out on a hike. Hoping to post more later. . . .

Tuesday

I had mentioned that we lost water Monday eve. However, the guest house has a large tank on the roof so that when we lose water to the house (sinks, toilets...) there is a separate valve in the bathrooms that will still give us water to the showers, but nothing else. The loss of power ended up being caused by someone closing a 12" valve in the line that directs the water from a few local springs down the mountain to a hydro-power plant. Because we are in a dry season, the outlet that normally provides spill-off for the community isn't running water. So I don't know if they closed the valve to cause back pressure to supply the community or to close the electric plant for whatever reason or who knows. Because the community spill-off was dry, someone busted a hole in the top of the 12" plastic pipe to get water and the maintenance crew had just put a cement cap over it. I must say even with an interpreter, it was a challenge figuring out. They would say, "Both valves are closed right now. Both valves are open right now. No, one valve is open and one is closed. No, the other one is open and this one closed. And after 15 min of changing stories, you figure it out yourself!"

After Sheila & I arrived back from the water investigation. We spent most of the morning doing more inventory and unpacking tubs of supplies. I think between us, Jeana & Heather, they're caught up. I'm not sure how many surgeries they did today, I think Dr Rudolph said 11 total, but that seems high. Sherice will be impressed, I got to watch a hip surgery today (10 minutes was enough for me!!) They had to remove the metal ball from a 93 yr old man because they found it actually protruding out the back of him when they rolled him over in bed! Wow, that was a first for Dr Weiss. Another little 3 mos old baby was brought in, yesterday actually, who was born with a band of skin just above the ankle. Normally this is an emergency surgery after birth to save the foot, but not much you can do after 3 mos., but amputate when the baby is a little older. Jennifer had another busy day in PT. At about 5:30 she saw a 104 yr old! lady who I saw lying on a floor mat in the lobby all day. She ended up having a severe fractured femur that needs immediate attention tomorrow. If they would have known today, they may have tried to fit her in. If Jennifer would have known, she would have processed her much quicker. Communication and triage is a real challenge sometimes. The midwest girls did more recovery room PT and Bethann, Amy & I even had an afternoon Creole lesson. After our evening meal, the midwest girls, Sheila & I went up to the hospital and sang hymns for about an hour to the various wards. Some of the Haitians even joined us. One wing of the clinic burst into song on their own! It sure is fun singing with this group! Well, I probably should go back to the house since I had to wake the guard up last night to let me out. I'm going to try and post some photos in the morning.

Monday Afternoon (again)

Ok I'm back for a bit. Now for some of you (those who worry too easily), I probably shouldn't mention this, but when Tim's crew left after lunch they had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to get through some "demonstrations" just up the road a short way. It's pretty typical down here if there is some political disagreement, they burn tires all across the road so traffic cannot pass? What a lot of good that does?? So the Peoria team had to wait till the tires were burned to get through. When Sheila and I passed through there this morning, we saw all the tire debris, but all was calm and no sign of an uprising.

Our team is doing a phenomenal job with their resources. Jennifer is amazing in PT, working with about 30 patients nonstop all day, I think she manages a couple clinics back home. Dr Noah, Dr Ruben & Dr Rudy with the help of Heather & Max did 4 surgeries and triaged about 40 people. While Bethann, Jeana, Jill & Amy were working with in-patient therapy. I helped them a little and it was amazing how many wanted to get up and around once they saw others getting up and around. Almost like it was contagious! They were helping people walk with walkers, wheel chairs, sitting, standing, in-bed stretches... Jill said, some of them have a very high pain tolerance. She thought if she did back home what she was doing here, her patients would be yelling at her! Jeana even played ball in the yard with a little girl to help exercise her elbow.

The first surgery was a 20 yr old girl, Sherley, who was an earthquake victim. The school had collapsed that she was in and 80% of the students died. A friend of hers dug her out and used a car jack to free her. They originally thought they were going to lose her legs, but she is now able to walk. She does have nerve damage and needed the tendons on the back of her ankles to be stretched so she could walk better. They put her in half casts and today she is back up and walking with cast shoes. They also repaired a humerus fracture on a 6 yr old girl who had a compartment syndrome because it was rapped too tight to heal originally. She was crying alot so I gave one of the dolls that my Erica donated for her. Today she is doing a lot better. It was rather sad last night when they had to tell our guest house cooks that their sister/mother could be taken home today, because there is nothing more they can do for her. She has ankoloysis spondylitis where she is on a gurney stiff as a board, in constant pain. She had a fracture repaired that hasn't healed in 8 months! And many more...

Oh, I probably shouldn't mention this either :-) but there was another scuffle outside the front entrance yesterday afternoon and guess who was in the middle of it - the town mayor again! About 100 Haitians were gathered around watching. They have a different way of resolving differences than we do! But it's calm today.

Till then,

Monday Morning (again)

I only have a few minutes, but I'm going to try to write a short note.

By the way, (quick power update) we lost water and power yesterday evening, two different issues non related. So we had a wonderful "fireside" visit with flashlights in the living room! More on that later. We did get water back this morning around 7:45 and soon after that Sheila, a Haitian interpreter and myself went to the reservoir to figure out the hydro electric power issue. We found the problem and restored power. More on that later also. We are currently back in business as "Haitian" usual :-)

Ok, seems like 2 weeks ago since yesterday. After breakfast we joined Dr Rudolph, the local pastor and the hospital staff for a little singing and short bible devotion time before hitting the rounds again around 8:00.

I changed a few light bulbs and sorted some supplies for Sheila. Then my sister-in-law, Joan, stopped by for a short visit to bring another missionary, their neighbor in Cayes, to have her foot looked at. It was good to see them. Joan had to be back to Cayes by noon to pick up her youngest daughter, Faith from school. Soon after she left, by brother Tim stopped by with a large construction team from Peoria and had lunch with us. Sheila also gave them a hospital tour (her second team of the day). It was a pleasant surprise for the midwest girls, because some of them knew several on the construction team. It was also great for me to see 3 of my nieces, Sarah, Bethany and Richelle (Richelle just arrived for a 2 week visit). What a blessing to sing a few songs after lunch with 30+ people. We even sang happy birthday to Amy F! She was a bit surprised and appreciative. (We surprised her again with a home-made Haitian decorated birthday cake in the evening after supper!!!)

more to come...