NYC MEDICS WORKING IN HAITIPakistan

Since the earthquake, NYC Medics has deployed six medical response teams to provide emergency medical care to the people of Haiti.

If you are a medical professional and are interested in volunteering, please fill out the following volunteer application. One of our team members will be in contact with you.

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Wednesday, February 24 2010
New York City, NY

This is a personal document on the work of NYC Medics first response team to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. It was shot and edited by NYCM staff member, Paramedic Charles Berkowitz.

Wednesday, February 24 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti


NYC Medics volunteer Cyril Thomas writes about a day in Haiti:

As our team arrived in port au Prince I asked one of the local doctors working with us if she could help me understand the situation in Port au Prince. She said one word: Apocalypse.
 
Early one afternoon, we were conducting a mobile clinic in a soccer stadium that had become a tent city.  After walking the entire field we were dragged to a deserted area where one "structure" was sitting fare from everyone. As we approached, the only thing we noted was a wooden frame and corrugated iron placed in a shape of a tent.  As we came closer we were able to see in the shadow a frail man lying directly on dirt and rocks. He was too weak to move and could barely keep flies away from him. Three weeks after the earthquake he was too weak to move. He has could barely drink or feed himself, and needed medical attention.  No one had come to help him.
 
We stabilized him and transported him to a field hospital.
 
By the evening, the entire team was still going strong despite a full day of work in greater than 100 degree weather. The sun was going down and the cool breeze was refreshing.  We ate a quick MRE and jumped in the car to go staff the evening ER shift at the university hospital.  It was Friday night and did not know what to expect as the night before was somewhat quiet.  
 
The ER was still busy upon our arrival.  Everyone jumped in and started working.   Gun shoot wounds, stabbing wounds, MVA, seizures, pregnant women ready to deliver: it was business as usual for most of us.  
 
At one point, we were frantically trying to save this young man who was shot in the chest.  A chest tube was placed and blood transfused.   The patient was not doing well. Despite our best effort the patient died.  Someone noted the time: 23:18.  As everyone left to care for other injuries I felt it was important for someone to stay. I searched for the wife.  We held hand as I asked her if she wanted me to pray along with her.
 
As his brother arrived we all recited the "notre pere . . ." 
 
That night I was no longer a medical provider but became for a very short time a family member, a human being mourning for someone that has lost his life.   Each of us have had many roles during this mission but this is a role I had not been ready to play.

         

Sunday, February 21 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Patients who had poor access to healthcare before the earthquke now have none.  NYC Medics is conducting mobile medical clinics Port-au-Prince, going into the tent cities and slums to find patients who need help the most.

NYC Medic Jake Bevilacqua, RN tells the following story from Haiti:

They wheeled her into our mobile clinic in a wheelbarrow, she was sweating profusely even for the searing heat, and was struggling to breathe.  We started an IV on her, and gave her fluids and medication. We kept a close eye on her, even as we cared for the hundreds of other patients streaming through our clinic in the Western Hemisphere's poorest slum. 

She didn't get better, in fact, she got worse.  She became weak and lethargic, and her breathing became faster and more shallow.  We carried her to our truck and with a military escort hurried to the closest hospital.  

The hospital was atop a long and steep hill.  There was a roadblock at the bottom so our truck had to stop hundreds of feet from the entrance.  Two soldiers from the 82nd Airborne who were working with us carried her all the way to the top of the hill. Panting, the soldiers gently placed her in a wheelchair at the top of the hill, only to find out that the hospital only took trauma and maternity patients, and was turning us away.

Our local guide directed us to the next hospital, where the ranking Army officer went in to see if they could take our rapidly decompensating patient while we did our best to keep her alive. The army officer ran out and said, "This is only a clinic and not a hospital but they'll take her, bring her in now!"  

I looked over at our patient, who was now drifting in and out of consciousness because of her dangerously low blood pressure.  I knew that the woman would die if left at this understaffed and technologically limited clinic.  I ran up to the officer and convinced her that we needed to bring her to a higher level of care. 

We sped off through the streets of Port au Prince, and finally arrived at the University Hospital.   With a precision that we had gained from too much practice, I ran into the hospital to get a stretcher to put the patient on while other members of our team simultaneously notified the hospital staff of our arrival, found an empty ER bed for the patient, prepared her to be transferred out of the truck, cleared a path through the dense crowd of waiting patients, and continued to care for her there.

She was in a hospital bed in less than a minute after we pulled into the hospital.  She opened her eyes, turned to us, and mouthed the words, "Thank You".


Thank you.  Your donations & support make this work possible.
         

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Our team arrived in Haiti five days after the earthquake.  We bypassed the places where large scale aid was already gathering and headed to the places where aid might take longest to arrive. A team of trauma surgeons and anesthesiologists deployed to a hospital north of Haiti that was still standing, miraculously, but had received little support. They've operated every day for 16 - 20 hours straight.  Another team worked at a hospital servicing a tent city of roughly 5,000 people who had received little care.

Our own team established a mobile medical clinic based in Cite Militaire, part of Cite Soleil: the poorest slum in Port-au-Prince and one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere, where we have seen between 400 and 600 patient daily.


There's no way to say this nicely: the conditions on the ground are brutal. The damage is unreal - everything is crushed and the smell of dead bodies is everywhere, but the people are so happy to have us here.

Our team has delivered care directly to the people that need it most. We were not alone in delivering this aid either: the residents of the communities we are serving now make up half of our ranks. Enough volunteers come to our clinic every morning to provide every medical provider with a Creole translator and the children of the internally displaced persons tent city next to our clinic formed a long supply chain carrying our midday equipment shipment in from the nearest drivable road. This community involvement allowed us to treat roughly one thousand patients in the first two days. Two thousand patients who otherwise would have waited . . . who knows how long?

One patient today stuck out: a 5 year old came on 1/22 with significant toe infection: we treated the wound, gave intramuscular and oral amoxicillin. The patient returned 1/23, 100% better toe now definitely viable. Yesterday we were considering amputation.

Every person that comes through our clinic - patient, volunteer, or passer-by – has suffered. The hardest part of wound care is keeping the flies out and making sure they don't get into the bandage. Everyone is so emotionally distraught we spend a lot of time just talking and listening to locals. Listening to their stories and providing emotional support helps them cope with their unimaginable losses. After our clinic today the children began dancing to our music and we joined in. The mothers were thankful for our helping their children smile and laugh again.

We have been operating in Cite Militarie and Cite Soliel, although we will likely be moving further into the shantytowns to find others that are yet to have any care. The destruction is horrible and the aftershocks are frightening, but the people are absolutely amazing and so thankful for our help. We are staying in tents, it is still too dangerous to be inside because there are many large aftershocks.

Your donations & support make this work possible.