Rachel Richards

Healthcare in Haiti

The Partners in Development medical clinic in Haiti mainly relies on donations, both financial and supplies. My mom is a physician in Minnesota so we had the perfect opportunity to get medical donations to bring with us. Before the class left for Haiti, my mom and I collected medical supplies such as bandages, iodine, IV kits, and prescriptions. The class and I packed the collected supplies into suitcases to bring with us, filling eighteen!

When we arrived in Haiti the donations had to go through customs. I was a little worried some of the supplies were going to be taken by customs since we had some questionable items, but a few bribes later most of the items had made it through customs and loaded onto the bus.

Once we made it to the PID compound without any of the luggage falling out of the windows (I was a little worried), we unloaded everything and began sorting the donations in the clinic. The donations were sorted into piles based on the type of item and then counted. The sorted items were then brought to the storage area to be kept until they were needed in the clinic.

People who are in need of medical attention wait outside of the compound until 8 A.M. when the gates open. They then sit on concrete benches until a triage nurse comes around and admits people based on needs. Sometimes people will wait for a few days before they can been seen. Once the patients are admitted, they have to wait in another line until a different triage nurse can take their health information, weight, and blood pressure. Once this information was taken they were put in a different line, specific to their injury or illness. There is a room for wound care, midwife, lab, pharmacy, and the resident doctor. When nurses or doctors come in they are put in a different room and see all kinds of patients and help as needed.

If the clinic is not able to assist the patient (if they don’t have the necessary prescriptions or the case is too complicated) the patients are sent to a hospital. Often times people do not have enough money to pay for the hospital fees in which case PID helps them financially. The PID clinic is completely free so they see many cases where people should have gone straight to the hospital.

I had the opportunity to work in the clinic for a day shadowing Lynn Armstrong, a nurse who came on the trip with us. She saw a variety of patients, from children with abscesses, a man with a leg wound attributed to vodou. The cases that had the biggest impact on me were the ones where malnutrition was a factor. There was an 18 month boy that came in who was under 20 lbs. The normal weight for a child this age is 22-26 lbs. When dealing with a young, developing child, those 5-10 extra pounds are crucial for proper development. The boy was placed on the PID emergency sponsor list which so his family would have enough money to buy him food. This is the link to the list of children waiting for a sponsor: http://www.pidonline.org/programs/haiti/child-sponsorship-haiti. The $30 per month helps feed a malnourished child and gives them the opportunity to attend school.

The second case that had a major impact on me involved a young woman and her baby. This woman was 21 years old and weighed only 75 lbs. She was nursing a young boy who was very healthy. After asking her some questions about her life at home, she revealed her husband was withholding food from her and beating her. This was heart wrenching for me to experience especially because I know the Haitian police will not get involved. She was giving everything she had to her baby and was leaving nothing for herself. All I wanted to do was give her a hug and tell her it would all be okay, but I couldn’t do that. The best we could do was get her an appointment with the amazing social worker at PID. Hopefully he will be able to get her out of that situation and into a new home.

My time working in the clinic was an eye opening one. The Haitian people are dependent on this clinic to live and this clinic is dependent on donations to continue functioning. If the clinic doesn’t have the resources to help someone they have to be turned away. This would never happen in the United States. Every person who walks into a hospital is cared for regardless of their ability to pay. Hospitals in Haiti require the patient to pay upfront before they are given treatment. This causes many people to not seek out healthcare and many suffer for it. Haiti needs more people such as Lynn to come down and provide free services. It was amazing to see how a few people can impact the lives of so many.