A Busy Day

Every day is different at Visitation Clinic.  There is no predicting how many people will come to our door, or what our staff will have to deal with.   Some days it will just be routine cases.   The next day we will have multiple crises.  Today was one the busier ones.  As recounted by this report from our administrator, here is just a few of today's cases:

Patients in the cholera center.

- 2 cholera patients from O'rouck (about 15 miles from the the clinic), one of them was in a critical state(unconcious) and is feeling better now after 6 liters of IV fluids L.Ringer donated by Direct Relief...The cholera center was damaged after the hurricane and I got two hygienists to make some improvment in it in order to receive the cholera patients.

- One pregnant woman came early from about 6 miles and delivered a baby at the clinic with the assistance of our tireless doctor and head nurse.

- One man nearby came very early this morning at 2am with a sort of intestinal infection (bacillary dysentery) and was kept on observation after a first care with some medicines and sodium chloride 900mg/100ml donated by Direct Relief

- One man came this morning also with a urinary retention with suspicion of STD. He is also kept on observation ...

 

It is evident that we rely heavily on donations of medicines and supplies from other organizations.  Less obvious is that our biggest expense is just paying our staff's salaries.  Their skill and dedication, combined with your donations,  keep our doors open.  It's easy to donate, just go here.

Recovering

Road crew at work

After repair

Big hurricanes can remind us how small our planet is and how  sometimes we all share the same burdens.   Right now, from rural Haiti to New York City, people are digging out and trying to recover.   Sometimes the only difference is the tools and resources at hand.   For instance, we weren't able to find anyone with road grading machinery  near our clinic, so we relied on the resources we could find; namely picks, shovels and workers who were eager to earn some money.   As these pictures show, it all worked well.  

Washed out road earlier this week