Temporary Clinics Provide Relief
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
Nothing is routine in Haiti. For those setting up makeshift meetinghouse clinics, each new day and new location means new patients and new challenges.
On Monday, January 25, the LDS Church-sponsored team of volunteer doctors and nurses responding to medical needs in earthquake–ravaged Haiti set up shop in the Croix des Missions meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Heavy street traffic, including trucks and buses, has created a crude detour from a closed, unstable metal bridge over bumpy dirt roads and past women washing their clothes in the shallow waters—and past pigs and goats rummaging through refuse dumps located close to the riverbed.
But inside the gated meetinghouse grounds awaits a veritable oasis—clean, near–perfect concrete driveways and parking areas, lush lawns, towering trees, and a sparkling Church building that medical staff says looks temple-like.
The only immediately visible signs of damage are at the front and back of the meetinghouse. On the front wall, a large stone sign—the Haitian Creole version of the Church's name—has a noticeable crack running through it. Behind the building, the back cinder–block–and–cement wall has fallen flat on its side.
The crowd of homeless people staying on the grounds is not as large at the Croix des Missions building as it is at others in Port–au–Prince, such as the Centrale Ward and Petion–ville Ward meetinghouses, which house scores of people rather than hundreds.
Whenever the staff sets up a clinic, its members must transport a dozen or so pieces of luggage and bags containing medical supplies and pharmaceuticals and then separate everything out in a makeshift pharmacy. A clinic on the move means certain items may be in short supply.
Too few latex gloves have been packed, an assumed bottle of hydrogen peroxide is really one volunteer's personal supply of liquid laundry bleach, and it's been some time since anyone has seen a blood-pressure cuff.
From the first patient, a mother of a days–old newborn who just wanted a trained doctor to confirm everything was well with the baby, to the last patient, a man complaining of being short of breath, the day was a success, with certain understandable conditions.
The number of patients is starting to dwindle, while the most acute cases brought to the clinics are being transferred to local hospitals because surgical procedures in the makeshift clinic could lead to more serious problems with infection.
More patients for another day. Another reason to repeat the daily routine.
Material taken from: Deseret News
