2/15/10- Team 4, Day 2

Today we woke up ready to hit things full force. OR team has proven itself resourceful. Anesthesia delays. Got four OR ortho cases done, plus a impromptu pediatric urology case by Dr. Schmidt (cardiothoracic) from Indiana. The OR team is trying to get as much done as we can, so that we may get time to organize, inventory, and assess needs. So much of what the OR team is doing now is old fractures, wound infections, issues that predate the earthquake or are unrelated (if possible) to the earthquake. ER/clinic crew definitely the hardest workers. Doing amazing things with the resources they have. Lots of common sense medicine. Laboratory is minimal in the strictest sense of the word.

The staff at Mission of Hope are Americans and Canadians. They were here before the quake. They will be here long afterward. The resources they have they share with other missions and hospitals. They reciprocate. Mennonites, University of Miami, General Hospital, Haitian Community Hospital, etc… They give more that they get in these relationships. Cheryl is queen of this and this is the topic of discussion tonight. What do we have, what do we need, what can we share. We have supplies that we haven’t gotten a chance to go through. Tomorrow is Mardi Gras (Carnival here), so another national holiday. If things are slow, we are going to better assess what we have. What we don’t need is given away.

This place that was a school, mission, clinic, orphanage, and more is now like a third world hospital. And soon school will resume. The school is our ward. The two certainly can’t coexist. Life has to go on. These things are yet to be fully worked out.

Picture: Dolbrice- open wound to bone on shin. Using silver foam.