Haitian Courier #6: Pieces of My Memoirs

[This is a copy of the latest issue of my newsletter Haitian Courier, which was sent on July 26. To subscribe to the newsletter, please visit http://groups.google.com/group/haitian-courier]

Bonjou Mezanmi!

My last newsletter was a brief update just to let you know that I'm alive and well. This time I wanted to give you snippets of what I've been doing in Haiti for the past 6 weeks. Throughout this newsletter, you'll see words with web links, which will take you to corresponding entries on my blog.

First of all, I wanted to let you know that my return flight has changed from August 9 to July 31. The reason is that my older brother Sundo is getting married on August 2. So now I only have a few more days before I go home! Seems like my plans always change on the fly (last year I decided to stay an extra month in P-au-P). I can't believe my time here is almost over!

Secondly, I wanted to put a word out that the clinic here needs an X-ray machine to replace a broken one. Please let me know if you know anyone who needs to get rid of an old machine to replace it with a new digital one or for whatever reason. The one we have here has been broken for a while, and it would help so many people if we had a working X-ray machine.

Anyway, here are some of the things that I've seen and done so far. During the first week at the clinic, I learned how to do a breast exam, observed a vaginal exam, saw a patient with trigger finger and a very sick and hyperventilating baby. The fist weekend I went to the beach in Labadee with a bunch of people from different mission teams.

Second week, I saw several HIV patients including an old lady with an acute onset of dementia, practiced drawing blood, saw a fetus using an ultrasound, gave babies vaccine shots, and heard all sorts of lung sounds at the tuberculosis clinic. That weekend we went on a mobile clinic up in the mountains, where I got to draw lots of blood, and we brought down a girl with a machete wound to take care at the clinic.

Third week, I did some manual labor at the new seminary construction site, helped reduce a fever on a baby, saw tendons on a torn hand from a car accident, pulled a birthday prank on Vicki (another short-term missionary), and took lots of blood pressures for the hypertension/diabetes clinic. That weekend we went to Labadee again, and I went kayaking and snorkeling (for the first time). On Sunday, we saw a girl who had sickle cell crisis.

Fourth week started with the most emotionally draining day, where I saw a 6-year old boy with respiratory emergency, who turned out to have diphtheria, and two little orphaned girls who were tested positive for HIV. The boy ended up dying at a hospital, so I lost my first patient. We had saved the boy's life by bringing him to the hospital and having him intubated and put on antitoxin, but next day during the night he woke up and took out the tube on his own, and died. It was such a tragedy. Also that week, I dealt with many impatient (and non-patient) parents at the well baby clinic, got to eat a cheeseburger, and took a tour of downtown Cap-Haitien.

During the fifth week I saw a Haitian nurse open a closed hymen on a 7-month old girl, helped treat a delirious patient with fever caused by tuberculosis, learned how to take out stitches, sent Laura (another short-term missionary) on a birthday treasure hunt, rode a motorcycle, tried to resuscitate a 6-month old boy who ended up dying, learned how to start an IV, and learned how to properly clean wounds and change dressings from a Canadian nurse. On Saturday I went to see the Citadel, which was quite amazing.

This past week, I learned how to do vaginal smears, saw a lesion on a cervix through a speculum, helped take a boy with a broken femur to a hospital, distributed some food for tuberculosis patients, and attended a funeral of one of the Haitian doctor's mother-in-law. On Wednesday, there was a violent and insane woman, so we had to drag her out of the clinic.

I haven't written about the last couple weeks yet, but you can see some pictures on my web album. I will continue to write about my experiences after I come back home to the States.

Since all the other short-term medical missionaries have left as of last Saturday, it's been pretty quiet (and a bit lonely especially during breakfast and lunch), but I'm still enjoying my time here. Of all the mission trips that I've been on, I've seen and learned the most through my trip to Haiti this summer. I want to thank all the short-term and long-term missionaries that I've met here for making this such an enjoyable experience, all my friends and family for sponsoring me and for praying for me, and God for allowing all this to happen and for making this undoubtedly the best journey and the best summer ever.

Thanks for reading and for all the responses and comments on the blog!

Bondye beni w,

SunMin Kim

Blog: http://zanmihaiti.blogspot.com

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/doxadeo/Haiti2008

PS. Thanks to Laura, I now have a number you can call or send text messages to: +509-3727-7275 (but it's only good until July 31)

Goodbye Julie, Blood Drawing, Car Accident, and Augusma

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Julie (physio from N. Ireland) left this morning. It's always sad to see people go because we all quickly become like family. She was the first person from Northern Ireland that I had ever met (then I met three more within a week). Now she's the first person from Northern Ireland whom I said goodbye to. It's been really cool getting to know her.

Today was prenatal clinic. Before seeing patients, Ms. Ketlye gave an educational talk to all the pregnant women. Vicki and Nadine helped out with weighing and taking blood pressures, and Laura sat in with Amy and Evan. Meanwhile I shadowed Dr. Rodney until he left to see Julie off at the airport. Then I went to the lab where I drew some blood and did a bunch of finger sticks. I drew three blood, two of them from little boys (about 10-12), and all of them went smoothly, so I think I'm getting better at this. But I still need more practice on patients with veins that are hard to see (Laura, are you still up for being a guinea pig?).

When I came back to the clinic from lunch, there had been a car accident where three people were brought to the clinic. In the treatment room (a.k.a. injection room) we had a 75-year old man named Augusma who fell on his right side and had people pile on top of him in the accident. I heard there were two girls from the accident in some other rooms crying very loud, but they were not in as serious of a condition as the old man.

When I came in, Augusma was lying quietly on the table as Dr. Rodney cleaned his wound. A big flap of skin on the back of his right hand had been teared open, so we could see his muscles and tendons. We could tell that he was in pain, but he was moaning very quietly. Gavin told us that in accidents like this, it is important to look for people who are lying quietly among others who might be screaming for help, because often times those who are silent are the ones in more serious conditions.

Gavin sutured his hand, including an artery that had teared under the flap and a small laceration on his right palm. Laura, Vicki, and I took turns keeping the big overhead lamp in place and holding Augusma's other hand. Meanwhile Nadine and Evan helped out with the prenatal clinic. After Gavin finished suturing and bandaged the wound, Augusma still had pain when moving his right arm, and the elbow was swollen, so we took him to the X-ray clinic, which is 10 minutes down the street from us.

As we waited at the X-ray clinic for the film to develop, Augusma shared how thankful he was that he survived the accident and praised God for sending us to take care of him. He prayed and gave thanks to God, and then started singing "Mwen renmen Jezi, mwen renmen Jezi, pou tout sa li fè pou mwen" (I love Jesus, I love Jesus, for all that he does for me). I was really inspired to see how much faith he had in God.

The X-ray showed that he had fractured the proximal neck of radius (bone of forearm on thumb side) and the olecranon (tip of elbow). So we went back to the clinic and put a cast on his arm. Augusma once again shared how thankful he was, sang the song, and prayed. He has such a bright personality. He'll be frequenting the clinic for further treatment. I'm looking forward to seeing him again.

Today was a very long day.

Pregnant HIV, Ultrasound, TB, and French Braids

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

In the morning Laura and I shadowed Ms. Betsy and Lourd, both Haitian nurses, with the pre-consultation for HIV patients. We saw a few HIV patients and a few patients who came to get HIV tests. Before the test they have to fill out a questionnaire about STD and HIV. Today was prenatal clinic day, so we didn't have many HIV patients, but we had one 5-month pregnant woman who was just tested positive. I don't know if they understand what it's like to have HIV or AIDS, but there wasn't much of a reaction from her. She seemed very apathetic or ignorant of the whole situation. If I were pregnant and found out that I was HIV positive, I would cry for a very long time. But people here don't seem to react much to the news that they are HIV positive.

At one point the patient flow at the HIV clinic stopped, so I wondered around the clinic for a bit. I walked into Dr. Rodney's office when he was doing an ultrasound on a 8-month pregnant lady. He stomach was really big, so he wanted to see if there were twins. Dr. Rodney stepped out to find Gavin, so I played with the ultrasound for a bit. I think I saw a hand and a head briefly, but most of the time I couldn't tell what I was looking at. Gavin came and looked at the ultrasound, and said there's probably just one baby.

A 60-year-old woman had been coughing for a long time, and her TB skin test was positive, but her sputum test was negative. I saw her after Gavin had taken her to the X-ray clinic, and the results showed that her left pleural cavity (space around the lung) was filled with fluid at the bottom. Using the percussion technique I learned in ICM (Intro to Clinical Medicine), I could tell that the left bottom part of her lung sounded dull. At first when I auscultated (listened w/ stethoscope), I wasn't careful enough to listen at the bottom of her lung, so I had missed it, but Gavin pointed it out to me later. I realized how important it is to do physical exams thoroughly. I also realized how important the X-ray was in diagnosing that she actually has TB. i really hope we can get a new X-ray machine soon.

Gavin told us that 2 patients came to Christ today. Our clinic staff are very active with sharing the Gospel, and time to time patients pray to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. I'm honored to be working with the staff here.

I keep forgetting that dinners are at 5:30PM on Wednesdays, not 6:00PM like other nights. This is the second time I came to dinner late because I thought it was at 6:00PM.

We played Dutch Blitz again, and some how Laura and Jen won by a huge margin... again! I'm thinking the game might be rigged because they used the same deck of cards as last night. Whatever, it's still a fun game.

Beth taught me how to French braid. We used Nadine's hair to practice. This is what happens when I'm surrounded by so many girls 24/7. They told me it will be good for my surgery skills... sure...

Farewell, Phlebotomy, X-Ray Clinic, Walkabout, and Dutch Blitz

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Julie (RN, former missionary), Kelly, Cindy, Mike, Heather, Tyler, Ali, Matt, and Jacob left this morning. They had been here for one week working at the new seminary construction site. Since I work at the clinic, I didn't get to see much of them during the day, but it was fun hanging out with them, especially over the weekend and in the evenings. It was sad to see them go. I forgot to get their email addresses, but thank God for Facebook, we'll probably find each other soon enough.

Julie Briggs (Irish physio) gave a talk about cerebral palsy to the medical staff this morning. She spoke in English, and Dr. Rodney translated into Creole. When someone spoke in Creole, Gavin translated into English. It's great that we can communicate so effectively even with the language barrier.

I decided I wanted to try learning some lab work today. I needed to refresh myself on how to draw blood, so Beth let me practice on her. I failed miserably and gave her a little hematoma (bruise), but she was very encouraging and said I was doing well. Then I tried to draw on a patient, who was anemic. He almost fainted because I bruised him as well... Ms. Leonice, a Haitian nurse and phlebotomist, helped me out and taught me how to do it properly. By the third patient I was pretty comfortable drawing blood. I ended up phlebotomizing about 10 to 15 patients, and most of the time it went really smoothly. I drew Julie's blood (she just wanted to test her blood), and I didn't bruise her (much) even though she says she bruises easily. Ms. Leonice taught me well, and thanks to Beth for being my guinea pig.

One of our security guard Jacquelaine injured his left thumb, so we took him to the X-ray clinic. Ever since our X-ray broke, we've been taking people there when necessary. Just to show the place, Gavin took Nadine, Vicki, and I with him. They have a couple big X-ray machines in a fairly small building. Fortunately Jacquelaine's thumb wasn't broken. X-ray at this place is very expensive, but sometimes the owner gives discounts or does it for free. In any case, it's been more difficult to get X-ray because of the cost. We used to be able to do X-rays for every patient who tested positive for TB skin test, but now we diagnose by symptoms most of the time, and send them for X-ray if it's uncertain. I hope we can get a new machine soon.

After we came back from the X-ray clinic, Gavin lead a group us on a walk around the back of the compound. We don't get to go out of the compound much, so it was refreshing. We climbed up a hill where we could see the entire compound, but since the place is full of trees, we couldn't see much. Still, it was a nice view of the neighborhood. On our way back it started to rain, and a couple feet behind where I was walking a transformer on top of an electric pole exploded with sparks and loud noise. Good thing it was on the other side of the street. It started to pour, so I ran back to my house.

Nadine brought a card game called Dutch Blitz with her, so we played it after dinner. It was a lot of fun even though Laura and Jen won by many more points than any of us. We'll have to play it again soon.

On the way back to our place, Nadine, Laura, Evan, and I saw an interesting bug that looked like a grasshopper with wings shaped like a green leaf. Nadine touched it, but it barely moved. So I tried to pick it up, then it flew right towards Laura, and she screamed and used me as a shield, even though the bug wasn't doing anything. Anyway it was a really cool bug.

X-ray Machine, Certificate of Honor, Christoph, and Fifth Disease

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Today we went to Pastor Daniel's church. Every morning before we start working at the clinic, we have a devotional with all the staff, and Pastor Daniel is the one who usually speaks. Pastor Daniel is an Haitian pastor who is also our X-ray technician, but ever since the X-ray machine broke, he's just been helping out with patent files. The X-ray machine at the clinic had been so crucial in serving the community. We are looking for a new X-ray machine, so please let me know if you know any one who's upgrading their machine and needs to get rid of their old X-ray.

The service started around 7:30AM and ended around 9:00AM. Pastor Daniel had made a "certificate of honor & merit" for each of us for coming to Haiti as short-term or long-term missionaries, and presented them to us during the service. Back home, people might think it cheesy, but it was very meaningful that he did that for us.

After church we went to a hotel called Hostellerie du Roi Christoph. There we swam in the pool and had lunch. Apparently this is where we usually have lunch on Sundays. Julie (Irish physio) taught Laura and I how to throw people in the air (Julie used to do gymnastics), so Laura and I were throwing people in the pool for them to do spins. It was a lot of fun, but our arms were sore later.

Anna had been sick for the past few days, so her sister Carly had stayed home with her yesterday as we went out to Labadee. Apparently their younger sister Emma had just gotten the Fifth Disease, and looks like Anna got it from her just before she left for Haiti. But she was feeling a lot better today, so both Anna and Carly came out with us.

It was a very relaxing weekend.