Haiti Medical Mission: day 7

Day 7- Monday march 22^nd

It was an interesting day at the clinic today. It started with a woman and a man who were hit by a car: the woman had multiple lacerations and the man had a broken rib. I saw a woman who had HIV from a blood transfusion and now also had tuberculosis.

I also saw a woman who had a headache but what shocked me was her age. Try to guess her age:

This woman is only 32 year old.

There was another woman who did not look her age. Can you guess her age?

The hardest case I saw (emotionally that is) was a father who walked in with his 4 months old baby who was moderately dehydrated from a fever. The father said that the baby’s mother had died in the earthquake in January and that he wanted to leave the baby at the orphanage. We gave intravenous fluid to the baby but by the end of the day since we do not have a ward, we decided to transfer the baby to a paediatric hospital. I went along for the transfer which went very well. The St-Damien hospital (operated by Italians) was crowded with two babies per stretchers in the emergency room.

Last night, one of the new group’s nurses lent me her little battery operated fan and it made a great difference by making the air fresher in my tent. I bought extra batteries today to make sure I don’t run out in the middle of the night. I guess you get used to be spoiled.