Continuing on.....

The second burn victim was a middle-aged gentleman. Both patients had similar burn patterns covering roughly 40% of their bodies, which can be fatal within several days. The teenage burn patient and another pregnant patient (who was in false labor........ not the eclamptic one) arrived with paperwork from a Haitian doctor in Petit Guave who had evaluated them earlier in the day and referred them to us. We were now the secondary referral center for the area! This was crazy! We were working on patients on the floor of a temporary wooden shack and under tarps outside, all in the dark without electricity!

We had already been caring for one "inpatient," a 4-year-old burn patient whose burns were becoming infected. He was getting IV fluids and IV antibiotics. So, now we had 6 ICU level patients under our care for the night. We decided we had to get the seizing preeclamptic transferred to a higher level of care as she was likely to die if her dead baby were not removed by immediate c-section. Samaritan's Purse had a med-evac chopper and our compound had transferred several patients out by this option in previous days. Our call to them was fruitless, as they said they weren't flying at night as no air-traffic control was available in the area. We then decided to call the Spanish. They said they would check with their commanding officer and call us back. This didn't sound promising.

At this time, we decided we needed the help of the Marines next door for crowd control and possibly to help with transfer of our seizing pregnant lady. A call to them was unsuccessful, as cell service seemed to be down at the time. It had been spotty earlier in the day. We decided to drive next door and talk to the Marines in person. I can't recall the details, but somehow I was the one chosen to go next door. Our acting pharmacist, an amazing 20-year-old gentleman called by God to serve (more about him later), and I hopped in a beat up Toyota pickup and started the drive next door. We joked that the accelerator might get stuck on the way. The truck would barely run as we pulled out past the gathering Haitian crowd. We approached the gate of the Marine camp and asked to speak to their commanding officer whose name I'd been given. Walking into their headquarters tent, I had to give our story to about 3 Marines, I guess working my way up the chain of command. Finally the CO strolls in. He listens to my story and I ask him if he can help us. He says that the U.S. Armed Forces have been given strict orders not to "engage" Haitians and they could not provide security. He could not provide helicopter transport, as they also were not flying at night. He then proceeds to say, "This is a disaster and you guys VOLUNTEERED to come down here. People die in these situations and things can get bad. There are no rules down here. Anything can happen." This gentleman apparently has ill feelings toward Christians, as he then proceeded to say, "What rules do you guys refer to?.....Oh, yea, you've got that BIBLE to refer to, don't you?" This made me very angry, but I decided I would just look him in the eye and not say a word and show no emotion. A VERY LONG silence followed. I sensed that the other Marines in the tent realized the CO had said something inappropriate. One younger Marine then said, "I'll give you some phone numbers to call." He then wrote down the numbers to the UN, Samaritan's Purse (which we already had) and the Haitian Police. He said the Haitian Police could probably help. He said he's not sure why, but the Haitian citizens seem to be very scared of the Haitian Police. This Marine gave me the Haitian Police Chief's home phone number. He also said the UN had been authorized to provide security, but their compound was on the other side of town. I didn't have confidence that our beat up Toyota would make it, so I asked the CO if one of his men could transport us to the UN compound. He said yes, but they couldn't wait around to transport us back.

More to come later......