An update from Mis Marcile

 

                                           

Haiti...    the Country I left five years ago, the country I fell in love with... I'm back!

I left Haiti in 2015 not knowing where God would lead me. After going through 4 years of Midwifery training God opened the doors for me to come back to Haiti. I was thrilled and amazed at how God opened the doors. The last couple months at home had been very stressful for as I was preparing to sit for the NARM Exam to pass the test for Certified Professional Midwife. I passed the Test October 31st and then enjoyed a couple relaxing weeks with my family before I left for Haiti. 

     Life here in Haiti has been as normal as normal gets around here! COVID-19 caused quite the stir here. Unfortunately they blame it on the "whites" for bringing it into Haiti. There are so many false stories and ideas going on around here about the COVID-19. Like if you find a hair in your bible you boil that hair in water to make a tea and drink that to keep from getting the Corona Virus!!! So, people were going through their bibles and looking for hair and making tea out of it!! We of course told them that is NOT TRUE and will do NOTHING. 

     I'm not even sure how many actual positive cases we have here. But thankfully, as far as we know there are no COVID-19 cases in our area. We have been taking precautions though and doing a lot of education to help people understand how it spreads and what to do about it. We have a hand washing station at the clinic gate entrance so everyone can wash their hands. There are a couple other changes we made to keep the virus from spreading, if it does come here. 

Thankfully people have been calming down and we don't hear as much of this craziness. Clinic days have also been getting busier as things had slowed down over the first news of the COVID-19. The government closed all the schools and the churches are supposed to be closed too although many are still having church.

     Emergency runs have been far and few between... which is something we won't complain about! We did have an "almost" emergency run a couple days ago... a pregnant lady came into clinic, I checked baby's heart tones and was very concerned as they were not normal. I quickly did a cervical exam to check dilation and was confused at the position of baby. I was pretty sure it was breech but something still didn't feel right. I palpated her abdomen and still couldn't figure out the position of baby. I called in another nurse and we decided to send her out to town. By the time we got a transfer paper written and mom settled on the machine she was pushing. Here comes a baby's butt. We could see right away that something was very wrong with baby, it was severely deformed. Baby lived for about an hour after it was born. 

Death... so final. It seems like we've been experiencing it quite a bit the last while. Or is it just because it's so draining and heart breaking?????? A mom in labor working extremely hard to bring her dear baby into this world, pushes for one last time as a lifeless little form slides into the world with a very tight cord wrapped around its neck 3 times. We did CPR but baby did not come around. Tears slid down my face as I held the mothers hand and tried to explain why baby died. My heart hurt for her as she cried out "I did all this work for nothing". 

    

     Then there's Sè (sister) Ramon. The mayor of Ti-guave, the mother of many. Died from heart problems. EVERYONE knew her... an extremely influential woman with a big heart of love for everyone she met. Its crazy how the death of one person can affect so many lives. The night she died we could hear wailing and screaming all over the hills, I was wondering how I would sleep. Clinic staff came to clinic the next morning sad and heart broken. I didn't know this lady but being with people that knew her, people that were heartbroken and crying every single day, is wearing. Her funeral will be on Saturday. 

     

      A mom of 4 boys comes to clinic extremely sick. She just had that "look"... a look that tells you she is probably HIV positive. Probably one of the worst things I have to do here is tell a person that they are HIV positive. There's so much hopelessness in those words... so much fear, so much uncertainty, so much pain... I tried to break the news to her gently but she did not take it gently. My heart broke for her as she cried out over and over "its not possible, I do not have it". I checked her 5 month old baby and found the dear little one also positive. We encourage and firmly urged the mother to go to town for treatment but she refused because she was sure she was sick with something else. She died a week later... 

     On a better note there have been beautiful, healthy babies born, bad burns that are healing, wounds that were horribly infected that are healing, sick people getting better, smiling faces greeting you as you walk into clinic happy to see you, a premie baby gaining weight, smiling mamas as they listen to baby's heart beating loudly and baby giving a big mighty kick, laughter coming from the birth room as a god mother vividly and dramatically tells a first time mom how to push, friends that come and wrap you in their arms and tell you they love you, and so much more! 

     I love Haiti. Being here is both extremely draining and extremely rewarding!!! And yet its life... its amazing how your body and mind adjust to your surroundings and what's thrown into your lap. I was asked today if we've had any crazy cases come into clinic and at first I said no, then we started talking and I realized that there was more than I realized! Because its just normal life... Everyday God provides the strength and grace we need to face the challenges of each day. 

I have been doing quite a bit of visiting the last couple days. One of my friends that knows English pretty well, decided to start a small English school and asked me to help her. She has been doing an amazing job and her students are extremely excited about learning English which is helping them learn in leaps and bounds! So I try to hike up the mountain to her house as often as I can to help her out.  The pics below are from some of the visiting we've been doing.  

Please continue to pray for us! Prayer works and we can often feel it. 

-Marcile

                                             

A seriously broken leg!

As we were settling down for lunch one day, a group of Haitians showed up at the clinic, bearing a man on a stretcher. He had been at market nearby and a moto was coming through on the road; he tried to get out of the way, but wasn't nimble enough and fell, landing right in the moto's path- resulting in a seriously broken leg!

Here he is, sitting outside the clinic on his stretcher.

His right leg was the broken one, evident by the wrappings of leaves and old cloth.

The man seemed to be in much pain (understandably!) so Anita immediately started an IV and began a dose of ibuprofen.

As the pain killer began it's work he was finally able relax.

Before we moved him into the clinic, however, Anita made sure his vitals were good.

Once inside, we opened the wrappings and examined his fracture;

It was completely broken, about 6-8 inches above the knee.

Thankfully the broken bone ending didn't puncture the skin, and stayed where it was!

After bracing it, we wrapped it and temporarily set it in place.

Here's the finished product!

After the brace and temporary casting, we stabilized the broken leg by binding the good leg with it.

Andrew and Mose took him out to the hospital in the Gator, where he would get it set and cast.

We're hoping that he'll recover well, but seeing he was an older man, he might have a harder time healing.

Please pray for him!

Broken Wrist...

Ouch!!! This broken wrist looked REALLY painful! The son of one of the
leaders in the church here, this young man fell and landed wrong on
his hand, resulting in the damage you can plainly see here.
At this same time, his older brother was checked into the CTC and
was being treated for cholera! Poor family...

This situation was beyond our ability to help, so we needed
to send him out to Ti Guave.

With his Mom, after the arm was well wrapped to prevent further
movement and possible damage...



He got his bone set on Friday or Saturday; we haven't seen him
back up here yet...



Gravity Wins...

This young gentleman had a problem with gravity; apparently
gravity won. :( You guessed it- he fell out of the garden.

The nurses had a hard time telling exactly what was wrong with his arm;
there was obviously something not right, but they weren't sure whether
it was out of joint or broken. So we took him out to the hospital in Ti
Guave; there we were informed that, since they didn't have any current
at the time, it would be impossible to have an x-ray done that night.
We decided to run on out to Leogane to the Medicin San Frontier
hospital there. (Doctor's Without Borders). We dropped him off there
and stopped in the next day to check in on him........

As you can see, he also has an eye difficulty. He's had
that since he was two years old, apparently....
The next day, we found him sitting in a hospital bed
with a full arm cast. The arm was broken in two
separate places, but had gone back together well.
His parents told us that the doctor said he wanted
to check out the eye problem as well; they seemed
pretty happy about that!!! Pray that God's will be
done there....

Mountainside tumble III !

This 9 year old little girl came in on Wednesday afternoon at around 3...
The story we were told was that she had fallen down the mountain a little
ways, then falling rocks had slammed into her head. The evidence was
certainly there- several severe gashes on the top and back of her head,
along with various scrapes and lacerations elsewhere. At first, the nurses
weren't particularly worried; it looked nasty, but she was very alert and
"with it", and didn't seem to be in as bad a shape as several similar cases
we've dealt with. But then, through feeling the back of her head, they
discovered a rather large "soft spot" in a wound area, that seemed to
indicate a more serious fracture than we had realized before. So it was
decided that it would be best for her to go out to see a doctor, and be
where there was the possibility of getting an x-ray if that was deemed
necessary. Since it wasn't an immediately critical situation, and we've
been having difficulty with several vehicles here at the mission, we opted
to send her out with a "moto" (motorcycle); so we hauled her and her
parents up to the closest market and sent them on their way- dad
sitting behind to support her on the way...............

Here she is with her mom, just before heading out. Her head is already
bandaged up and wrapped in a cloth to keep the dirt out, always a
problem in this dusty, dirty environment. Please pray for their family,
 they didn't profess to be Christians and the dad had obviously
been drinking. God can use anything to
point people to Himself!!!

Mountainside tumble



I don't have any really great pics of this guy, it was hard to see what all
was wrong with him anyhow. The most noticeable thing was his right arm
which was broken, but he was also covered with numerous cuts and
tears; the results of falling down the mountainside and landing
on a boulder. Ouch!!!




They wrapped his broken arm up with casting cloth, so that when it
hardened it protected the arm from further movement and injury on
the way down the trail.



We don't set broken bones here at the clinic, so that was an automatic
trip out right there. We left at around 10:30 and arrived at the Ti Guave
hospital shortly after midnight. We were able to round up a doctor in
about half an hour, and by 2 A.M. were over at Darv and Jo's for a
nap before hitting the trail again. Turned out the man's arm had a
compound fracture...