I've had a large response from the Junk for Jesus blog. Suggestions have been interesting: kites for the children, sandbags for building walls, banners, collection bags for rainwater off the roof, etc. But in real life, here is what we have been doing.
1. The people who work in the yard and on the generator have figured out that they can slip a pair of pants over their jeans and not get oil on their jeans.
2. (This is the best solution). We got yet another shipment from the same helpful organization, and this time it was food. Lots of food! And we have people coming every day who need food. Instead of purchasing plastic bags, we took a XXXXXL pair of pants, tied a knot in the waist, turned the pants upside down, and filled the pants with canned and boxed food, filling them through the legs. Then we tied the ends of the legs together and made a very handy carrying bag (pant?) full of food. We passed the food out to folks who came to the clinic. The recipients were delighted; one person even made up some symptoms when she heard we were giving out food. Now, we only have about 11,000 pairs of paper disposable surgical pants!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Fo Pye
Today was one of those days that make it all worthwhile! Almost everyone went home happy! This was the day that the crew from Mercer, U in Atlanta came with the prosthetic legs that we measured for a week or so ago. The patients were all here at 8:00 am, even most of the ones who were told to come after lunch. Two teams went to work, wrapping legs, then putting together a plastic form, padding it with foam, wrapping it with an outer layer like a knee brace fabric, then screwing on a pipe with a foot at the bottom. Then the patients stood up, with a too long leg, took a few steps to really set the stump into the leg, and the leg was adjusted to fit. The first couple of patients had a little trouble with their first few steps, but the waiting patients encouraged them on, and most people were able to take a few steps almost immediately. After 4 months without a foot at the bottom of your leg, an artificial leg feels heavy, but the doctors said that within a few days, the extra weight will not be noticeable.
Surprisingly, the younger patients were no quicker than the older patients in learning to walk again. Success seemed to depend more on determination than on strength or balance. The oldest patient was 85, a spunky woman, who was very vocal in getting her leg attached and adjusted before she stood on it. But she never got tired once she started walking. And, instead of taking the wheelchair ride to the front door, she insisted on walking!
One younger man, built like a football player, had no trouble at all. He stood up, walked across the room, and asked if he could drive home. He is a driver for a company here in Leogane. The doctor made him promise that he wouldn’t drive before he came back tomorrow for a recheck. But this man wanted a cover for his pipe and foot. When the doctor said that there was no cover, the man started taking off his sock from his good foot, and then began unlacing the shoe from his artificial foot. We explained that he must wear a shoe on the artificial foot because it would wear out, but he continued to unlace his shoe. We waited, and saw what he was doing. He put the sock from his good foot over the artificial foot (which was a white foot), then put the shoe back on the artificial foot. Turns out that he, being black, didn’t want the white foot to show. When I said that the group should bring black feet next time, they said that they had never seen a black prosthesis. Surely, this can’t be true!
What did I do during all of this? I typed consent forms that had been stolen earlier in the trip, set up the room, told everyone around the hospital to look for one legged patients and send them back to the pediatric rooms of the unopened part of the hospital. I comforted an old man who was confused and in the wrong place, found walkers and wheelchairs for those patients who needed them. At one point we needed another translator, so I asked a young man who was clearing trash out of a room to help translate. He was embarrassed because his flip-flop was broken and he was only wearing one shoe. When we needed him to go with a patient to another hospital, I gave him my pair of tennis shoes. I’ll get another pair from a visitor who plans to leave their shoes here in Haiti.
The only hard part of the day was telling the last patient that his stump was too short to fit a ‘fo pye’ (artificial foot) onto. He will need to have the knee removed and let the stump heal before he can get a prosthesis with a knee that bends. I thought he would be terribly unhappy, but his immediate question was, ‘Where can I get the surgery done, and who can help me pay for it?’ And, as the Lord so often provides, we happen to have a Japanese orthopedic surgeon with the group staying in the guesthouse for two more weeks. We will try to get everyone together tomorrow, to see how we can have a Japanese doctor amputate the leg of a Haitian in an American hospital, so a Vietnamese doctor in a University research center can fit him with an artificial leg! What a satisfying job I have!
Surprisingly, the younger patients were no quicker than the older patients in learning to walk again. Success seemed to depend more on determination than on strength or balance. The oldest patient was 85, a spunky woman, who was very vocal in getting her leg attached and adjusted before she stood on it. But she never got tired once she started walking. And, instead of taking the wheelchair ride to the front door, she insisted on walking!
One younger man, built like a football player, had no trouble at all. He stood up, walked across the room, and asked if he could drive home. He is a driver for a company here in Leogane. The doctor made him promise that he wouldn’t drive before he came back tomorrow for a recheck. But this man wanted a cover for his pipe and foot. When the doctor said that there was no cover, the man started taking off his sock from his good foot, and then began unlacing the shoe from his artificial foot. We explained that he must wear a shoe on the artificial foot because it would wear out, but he continued to unlace his shoe. We waited, and saw what he was doing. He put the sock from his good foot over the artificial foot (which was a white foot), then put the shoe back on the artificial foot. Turns out that he, being black, didn’t want the white foot to show. When I said that the group should bring black feet next time, they said that they had never seen a black prosthesis. Surely, this can’t be true!
What did I do during all of this? I typed consent forms that had been stolen earlier in the trip, set up the room, told everyone around the hospital to look for one legged patients and send them back to the pediatric rooms of the unopened part of the hospital. I comforted an old man who was confused and in the wrong place, found walkers and wheelchairs for those patients who needed them. At one point we needed another translator, so I asked a young man who was clearing trash out of a room to help translate. He was embarrassed because his flip-flop was broken and he was only wearing one shoe. When we needed him to go with a patient to another hospital, I gave him my pair of tennis shoes. I’ll get another pair from a visitor who plans to leave their shoes here in Haiti.
The only hard part of the day was telling the last patient that his stump was too short to fit a ‘fo pye’ (artificial foot) onto. He will need to have the knee removed and let the stump heal before he can get a prosthesis with a knee that bends. I thought he would be terribly unhappy, but his immediate question was, ‘Where can I get the surgery done, and who can help me pay for it?’ And, as the Lord so often provides, we happen to have a Japanese orthopedic surgeon with the group staying in the guesthouse for two more weeks. We will try to get everyone together tomorrow, to see how we can have a Japanese doctor amputate the leg of a Haitian in an American hospital, so a Vietnamese doctor in a University research center can fit him with an artificial leg! What a satisfying job I have!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
News from the Epicenter
We’ve been busy in Haiti this week. Seven members of the Japanese Red Cross moved in. It’s a semi-permanent arrangement, as they plan to work in Haiti at least until the end of the year. It is a great move for the Japanese because they have been living in tents, and it’s really getting hot. And it’s good for Hopital Ste. Croix, because the guesthouse fees will go a long way toward paying the hospital salaries. Because the Haitian government has decreed that medical care will stay free for at least three more months, there is no other way for HSC to have income except for the guesthouse. And because the other laboratories in town have shut their doors because they cannot charge, the hospital laboratory is the only place in town to have tests done. And because we are busier than ever, and everything is free, we really need the money.
The Japanese group adds an international flavor to the guesthouse. They have a clinic running over at the nursing school across town. And they are providing x-rays for the region. (The cliché about the Japanese and their cameras is proving to be a boon for medical care in Leogane.) The x-ray machine was moved into the hospital today, and the Japanese radiologist is training 4 people to use the machine and how to take x-rays of different parts of the body. Hopefully, the hospital will have someone trained to do x-rays before this team of Japanese changes out early in June.
This afternoon, a group from Chattanooga, TN stopped in and asked if they could stay here for the night. They are on their way to Port Au Prince, where they will pick up a small container of metal studs and roof kits for transitional houses for a village in the mountains. Their church (Good Shepherd Episcopal in Lookout Mountain) has had a relationship with this village for over 20 years. They have built a school (it withstood the earthquake), a clinic (it stood), and now they are building 12 x 12’ square buildings that initially will have tarp walls, but can be finished with bricks or rocks for walls. The buildings will be hurricane and earthquake proof, and can be installed onto a concrete slab in only a few hours. This project will help 40 families of a community of about 200 families, move into dry, suitable housing before the rainy season gets too far along. If you have a spare $1000, join in and build another house.
It really is a small world. There were 10 people at dinner, 3 fellows from Chattanooga, 5 Japanese Red Cross workers, and John and me. In the conversation at the table, someone mentioned Kenya. It turns out that one of the Japanese is married to a Kenyan man, and another, an orthopedic surgeon, is getting married in Kenya in 3 months,. She went to high school in Kenya. One of the Chattanooga fellows was sitting next to her, and he also went to school in Kenya, as a missionary kid. And another of the Chattanooga fellows is married to a Kenyan woman!
A follow up to the problem of what to do with 12,000 pairs of disposable, paper surgical pants. One pastor friend shared the Junk for Jesus note with her congregation and they had a contest to see what to do with the pants. One of the good suggestions was to give them to children to make kites. Great idea, since the pants are waterproof. And there’s usually plenty of wind here. Another was to make banners with crayons. But I think we at the hospital came up with the best idea. We had another shipment from the same organization, and this time is was food. We wanted to give food to everyone who came to the clinic, but didn’t have any way to distribute the food, as most of it came in cases. So we took the XXXXXL pants, tied a knot in the waist, to make a bag, filled the bags through the legs of the pants, then tied the pant legs together, and handed out easily carried bags (pants?) of food. Now we only have about 11,500 pairs of disposable paper surgical pants left. We’re open to more suggestions. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks! And keep praying for the rebuilding of Haiti.
The Japanese group adds an international flavor to the guesthouse. They have a clinic running over at the nursing school across town. And they are providing x-rays for the region. (The cliché about the Japanese and their cameras is proving to be a boon for medical care in Leogane.) The x-ray machine was moved into the hospital today, and the Japanese radiologist is training 4 people to use the machine and how to take x-rays of different parts of the body. Hopefully, the hospital will have someone trained to do x-rays before this team of Japanese changes out early in June.
This afternoon, a group from Chattanooga, TN stopped in and asked if they could stay here for the night. They are on their way to Port Au Prince, where they will pick up a small container of metal studs and roof kits for transitional houses for a village in the mountains. Their church (Good Shepherd Episcopal in Lookout Mountain) has had a relationship with this village for over 20 years. They have built a school (it withstood the earthquake), a clinic (it stood), and now they are building 12 x 12’ square buildings that initially will have tarp walls, but can be finished with bricks or rocks for walls. The buildings will be hurricane and earthquake proof, and can be installed onto a concrete slab in only a few hours. This project will help 40 families of a community of about 200 families, move into dry, suitable housing before the rainy season gets too far along. If you have a spare $1000, join in and build another house.
It really is a small world. There were 10 people at dinner, 3 fellows from Chattanooga, 5 Japanese Red Cross workers, and John and me. In the conversation at the table, someone mentioned Kenya. It turns out that one of the Japanese is married to a Kenyan man, and another, an orthopedic surgeon, is getting married in Kenya in 3 months,. She went to high school in Kenya. One of the Chattanooga fellows was sitting next to her, and he also went to school in Kenya, as a missionary kid. And another of the Chattanooga fellows is married to a Kenyan woman!
A follow up to the problem of what to do with 12,000 pairs of disposable, paper surgical pants. One pastor friend shared the Junk for Jesus note with her congregation and they had a contest to see what to do with the pants. One of the good suggestions was to give them to children to make kites. Great idea, since the pants are waterproof. And there’s usually plenty of wind here. Another was to make banners with crayons. But I think we at the hospital came up with the best idea. We had another shipment from the same organization, and this time is was food. We wanted to give food to everyone who came to the clinic, but didn’t have any way to distribute the food, as most of it came in cases. So we took the XXXXXL pants, tied a knot in the waist, to make a bag, filled the bags through the legs of the pants, then tied the pant legs together, and handed out easily carried bags (pants?) of food. Now we only have about 11,500 pairs of disposable paper surgical pants left. We’re open to more suggestions. Keep those cards and letters coming, folks! And keep praying for the rebuilding of Haiti.
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