The Adventure.

Dear Friends and Family,

Many thanks for your prayers while we were gone. They were felt and much needed. Starting Saturday, it got busy and I couldn't talk to Lori much, so I'll type here what happened. First, let me describe the last 6 pictures on the blog. Lori and I aren't bloggers so we can't figure out how to go back and "subtitle" the pictures. The picture of the inside of the cargo plane with back end open and the Air Force airman sitting on the "tailgate"........this airman is directing the pilot via headset while this huge plane is backing up. "little more to the right, now little to the left........"

Let me digress and say how much I was impressed with our Military (except for the CO of the Marine compound next door......I'll talk about this later). We were VERY glad for their presence and I was impressed with their capabilities, professionalism, and POWER! The group at Quisqueya school compound were US Special Forces and were hulking muscular men, one a former defensive lineman for University of Nebraska.

The picture above the one described above (I'll go in ascending order now) is our "delivery room/procedure room" where babies were delivered, fingers amputated, etc. Speaking of the finger, we had seen a gentleman who had exposed tendons and bone on one hand and had been getting daily wound care since the earthquake. His fourth finger was barely hanging on so the wound care nurse that we brought with us asked if I would "finish the job and cut it off" since it was not viable. As was I numbing the man's hand with a shot, I noticed some pulsations deep in his wound - maggots. I pulled out 8 to 10 of them. Seeing maggots in a wound was a first for me (as was the amputation). One of our docs with some 3rd world experience said they were actually not too harmful and "only ate dead tissue". Thus we decided to leave some in and not risk spreading infection further by trying to get all of them out. They were deep in his wound. We dressed the wound and the decision was made to continue daily wound care and injections of antibiotics until we could get him to a surgeon for amputation of his hand. It was clear the infection was spreading slowly up his arm. All of us docs would get together and talk about how to handle difficult cases, which was a very good thing. In addition to sharing ideas, it held us all accountable and helped prevent any "head-strong" tendencies. This sort of thing doesn't happen much in the States.

Now back to the pictures. The next one up is a picture of 2 Marines providing a "presence" in our compound. "Hooooaah!" (that one's for you, Carl Gordon).

Next picture up is our pharmacy. The lady in pink is a nurse from New Brunswick, Canada.

Next picture up is our "clinic" under a tarp. The man wearing a cap in the distance is a New Brunswick Canadian GP physician who still works some ER time (his experience was helpful). The man in the foreground is a Paramedic with our group from Waco. He's also a Woodway (suburb of Waco) Policeman. His talents in both roles were also VERY helpful. The tarps are for shade, AND, to protect from mangos. Mango trees covered our compound and they were dropping frequently, especially around dusk when it cooled off a little. These trees were tall so the falling mangos could leave a pretty good "goose egg" with a direct hit on top of a head.

The top and final picture shows two Spanish physicians (from Spain, not Mexico). The tall one in the dark blue is a radiologist and the shorter grey-haired one is a surgeon. They were only there for about 45 minutes. The surgeon debrided a Haitian lady's bad foot wound with exposed tendon and spreading infection. They accepted her for transfer to their hospital ship for further treatment and possible amputation. The man with the maggots in his wound was gone by this time, unfortunately. We didn't know the Spanish were coming that day.

The first day, we say a grey Huey helicopter circling over head repeatedly. I could tell it was not American. It then disappeared, and a few minutes later the Spanish come driving up. I guess they could tell we were medical from overhead, or maybe they had talked to the Marines next door. They were "assessing" local medical needs.

I'll describe the events of Saturday nite and the interaction with the Marine Commander in my next post.