Surgical Team Travels to Haiti: A Personal Perspective
Submitted by: Kelly Mason
Rural Haiti had been described to me by books and photos, even by my own father after several of his visits, but it was still astonishing to see firsthand.
I joined the Medical Missionaries surgical team in crossing the barren Haitian countryside to arrive at St. Joseph’s Clinic in Thomassique after two hours of bouncing along a dreadful, rutted road from Banica in the Dominican Republic. I was astonished, not just by the devastating poverty, but by the clinic itself—a reasonably equipped facility providing health care in a community desperate not only for medicine and physicians, but for basic sanitation. Medical Missionaries has faced every possible resource constraint to build a facility that is making an undeniable impact to patients and their families.
This was the first surgical trip to the new clinic in Thomassique since it opened its doors last year. Once we arrived on February 18th, the group worked tirelessly through the week, employing all available medical and human resources. The team finished nine cases in the first day, after already traveling from Banica that morning, unpacking and organizing piles of suitcases filled with medical supplies, and prepping the operating rooms. Over the course of five days, we saw close to a hundred patients, the team often working nonstop 12 hours in a day.
Each morning, this team greeted a flood of people at the clinic doors. In this remote and poor area, the needs are incalculable. Most frequently, the surgeons repaired massive hernias and hydroceles, removed lipomas and other growths, and treated infections rarely seen in the first world.
A 6-month-old girl came to the clinic, crying and visibly uncomfortable, with a large hemangioma on her neck. After it was removed, she looked immensely different—happier, comfortable, able to maneuver her head and neck without constraint. The physical transformation was extraordinary. Her quality of life was, without question, dramatically improved.
On February 21st, Dr. Gonzalez delivered a baby girl at the clinic. She was unresponsive, so Dr. Gonzales, Dr. Penna and others helped to administer neonatal resuscitation. Cheers filled the clinic when the baby began to cry. Ashley recently sent word that St. Joseph’s new delivery is doing well. Her name is Cassandra and she has already brought a great deal of joy to her family. Though childbirth may always be a miracle, it is vital to note that the medical techniques used to resuscitate Cassandra are unavailable in most of rural Haiti. She truly is a miracle.
Before the end of the week, I accompanied my father into the town of Thomassique. Walking through the dust and heat, we were approached by a woman asking for help. I followed my father into her home, a meager shack with a tin roof accommodating a family of perhaps a dozen. They crowded around the patient, who was recovering from a bilateral hydrocele done at the clinic earlier that week. There was a bed, a chair, a dirt floor, and little else. As my father reviewed the post-op instructions with the patient’s son, I knew I was worlds away from American suburbia. But this family felt the same things as any American family—concern, hope for his recovery, the desire to live in good health with a person they love.