day two

A somewhat more sucessful day in the ER, although I have yet to see a single lab result and the squatters are still...squatting.

They seem to throw us a new ER physician each day from some volunteer agency so the morning mostly consisted of my explaining to the new ER guy (who won't be there tomorrow) what to do...so effective. He was very good though and between a 14 year old who ran in the door with his thumb hanging off and a man hardly able to stand likely dying from lung cancer (but we have no biopsy measures) we had a pretty productive day.

My favorite part of the day was leaving the hospital. Luke, the interim "guy in charge" who has no medical expereince but somehow seems to always know the answer, asked me if I'd go with him to transfer one of our sick babies to a more capable hospital. She was burned over 40% of her body in a cooking fire several weeks ago, but the burns were not cared for, so when her pregnant teenage looking mother brought her to our hospital. The plastic surgeons said she was too infected to undergo a skin graft...yeah that's alot of info...but basically the Doctors Without Borders Hospital has some sort of burn unit...we were told. So we took her there.

Just being in a car and able to see the streets of Port au Prince was refreshing...and enlightening. The medians are covered with tents and the camps are too many to count. The atmosphere so closely resembles Tanzania, that sometimes I forget where I am...although I cannot read a word of the language here. Piles of rubble lie in the streets and don't look to be moving anytime soon. Collapsed buildings sit abandoned and I can only wonder how many bodies remain inside. But all and all life seems to be progressing with some normalcy as street vendors, barber shops and taxi services continue.

The journey to the hospital was no less than an adventure. I was in the back seat holding the baby with her mother next to me and the translator beside her. Luke was the front passenger. We'd been driving for over an hour when the momma next to me began throwing up all over the floor and the translator. The driver refused to let her use the towel that was in his car and instead gave her a plastic bag to throw up in as we drove on. I had no medicine with me besides the fluids attached to the baby...so there was not much to be done.

About ten minutes later while stopped in traffic we were rear-ended. Honestly I didn't expect anything to happen. I thought we would keep going, but the driver was not happy. He now had vomit in his backseat and a dented rear bumper. Luke and i were laughing...to ourselves of course.

The driver and translator got out of the car and there was lots of yelling and carrying on and cleaning up of throw up before Luke told them that we really had to get going.

Arrival at the hospital went smoothly and the baby was passed into what I can only pray were capable hands. The journey home included a stop to pick up supplies. An old hotel turned into a distribution center run by some pot smoking 20-something Americans gave us boxes of exam gloves and sterile drapes for to OR. The guy giving us supplies said he'd just shown up to help after the quake, met some other dudes looking to do the same and now they distribute to clinics and hospitals like ours.

It seemed kinda sketchy to me, but we got the supplies.

Tomorrow is their Sabaath, so the work load is said to by lighter, we will see.

ohh, and i'm covered in red dots...but i've only seen two mosquitos...hmmm