Tuesday February 10th

Tuesday was an incredible day. The medical team held clinic outside on the porch area of the transitional housing and we did check-ups for all of the children at Cambry. It was truly incredible, because of how healthy there were. Just three years ago they were all starving, not growing and many infected with Tinea, parasitic worms and scabies. It was an amazing site to see all of them making gains on their growth chart and so much healthier than I've ever seen them before. We didn't even need a "runner" for clinic this time to get prescription medications for the children as we typically have to do. In addition to the routine physicals, all of the children also got de-wormed with Albendazole. Although the children all have shoes, they often still go around the grounds barefoot. Unfortunately, this is how parasitic worms can be picked up through the soles of the feet. The children are required to wear shoes at school and are not allowed to attend school without them. For this reason, they often will only wear their shoes for school in order for them to last longer before they wear them out.

Dr. Will has a tradition of doing push ups just before clinic. The children tend to join in on the fun, too!

I don't remember the photographer capturing this during clinic, but that's me doing a cardiac exam.

Kinley and Charlie, both assisting at the de-worming station. Don't freak out too much, it just means chewing a chew-able Albendazole tablet and drinking some Gatorade.

Kinley was such an awesome helper the entire time I was at Cambry! I essentially became his Pwofese Englis (English Professor) while I was there. He also taught me a bit of Haitian Creole!

Blowing bubbles! Cannot believe we found these bubbles in a box in the clinic labeled Mercer 2011. 

Jed, Davidson, Nickson and Makenson

Nickson and Michelson

Davidson playing around after clinic. He thought listening to his own heart was the coolest!

Hanging out after Clinic

Valentine Cards from Sponsors

"If you... satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness

and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy

your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; you shall be like a

well-watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail."

Isaiah 58:10-11

One of the highlights of the trip was celebrating Valentine's Day with the children. Each sponsor (including myself & Ryan) was allowed to send down with the team a card filled to the brim with small gifts, photographs and letters. It was such a blessing to be there to see them open these! Here are many photos from that event.

Passing out gifts to the children from their sponsors

Davidson

They loved getting photos from their sponsors, especially when it included a photo of themselves for them to keep!

Youseline (Herold's sister)

Cinthia

Alex passing out new shoes. Each child got a new pair.

Allison with Titie, the child she sponsors and just this trip was able to meet for the first time in person

Herold Hercule and I

Herold with his new shoes

Nickson Samedi with his new shoes. This little boy was the very first child to take my hand back on my first trip in 2010. He has grown so much since then!

Caleb, the tallest in all of Cambry, amazing goalie, and my brother in Haiti (my Mom sponsors him).

Caleb with his new shoes

He loved the photographs, letter and embroidery thread for making bracelets

These two guys happened to get the same card and they played music!

The children making Valentine's Day bookmarks for their sponsors

Monday February 9th

This was quite the epic day in Haiti. The medical team was still focused on getting the clinic truly ready for a work in process renovation that will be happening soon thanks to donations to make the Cambry Medical Clinic a true community center for healthcare. We worked on cleaning out the most feared "storage room" in the back of the clinic just across from the pharmacy. My only regret is that I do not have photos of the before, however, let's just say it was filled to the brim with outdated/expired items in stored bags/boxes stacked on unsteady shelves and covered in insects and rodent droppings. We definitely gloved up and wore masks when tackling this project in order to reclaim space to make this a more functional clinic. We also managed to find a live tarantula hiding out in the process while we were cleaning. Charlie kindly escorted said tarantula outside so it can continue helping with insect population control.

The medical team made a trip to the Annex Hospital in Les Cayes that afternoon to donate some of the Orthopedic supplies and OR supplies that would not be needed in clinic. While there, we also essentially staffed a consult on one of the patients there as requested by the Chief of staff at the hospital. It was a very unfortunate medical situation, regardless of where in the world you are. It was heartbreaking to realize the limited scope of treatments for certain illnesses there. The standard of care medications we would simply order in a computer and have magically appear form pharmacy this hospital had none of the ones indicated for treating this particular diagnosis. They also lacked the ability to perform imaging needed to be sure of the diagnosis. Here you diagnose many things based on the physical exam. The physicians in Haiti have truly fine tuned their physical examination skills, which is in stark comparison to the physicians in the US who often rely heavily on imaging to determine a diagnosis. At this particular hospital X-rays could be obtained, but if a CT scan was needed the patient would need to travel all the way to Port-au-Prince for this. Each time I encountered a situation such as this I wished those back home would realize how fortunate they are to have access to medical care. I was also impressed with the laboratory facility at the hospital, but have limited photographs from there as there were employees working who did not want their photo taken.

Being in Haiti, practicing medicine in an area where you do rely on your knowledge and examination skills heavily, and serving patients who appreciate and value any healthcare so highly is an incredible experience. I am so thankful I was able to do this during residency as it truly helped me recharge, reset my compass and focus on the heart of medicine. It was also incredible to see Kate and Charlie just light up as they got to experience things in the medical field as well as teaching them a little during the trip.

Pol (chicken) who never knew that it wasn't dawn and crowed all day

Youseline was my escort down to clinic

Herold on his way to school that morning

Walking to Clinic

Unpacking and cleaning house in the clinic

No power that day, so everything was by headlamp. This is Andrew our knows a bit of everything PA.

We found a random box of children's stuff from a Mercer 2011 trip tucked away on a shelf

Dr. Will, our fearless medical leader and medical director of Give Hope

Tarantula discovered! At first we actually thought it might have been dead... and then it moved!

Trying to give a size reference for the spider, it was huge! They are also known to jump, so this was taken very quickly!

It was huge, although not the largest tarantula I have seen there before

The tarantula was starting to curl up by the time the photographer from our trip arrived to clinic

Escorting the spider outside

Kate and I in the midst of cleaning

Electrical work done by headlamp also

Great photo of Kate and her dad Dr. Stuart

Newly organized pharmacy. No pharmacist at the clinic. Providers typically fill their own medications here.

Bleaching the entire room

Dr. Will with the Cambry Children charts

Dr. Stuart, Kate, Charlie and myself at the end of the day