Flaggite by way of San Diego, or: fun fact: hatians clean themselves as well as you do in your shower with a bucket and 1/100 of the water you use.

Iv'e seen things in my life that have given me pause before, but rarely so much in on particular place. Haiti is such a wonderful, colorful place, with so many happy people, despite the many factors stacked against it. In truth, I've never had a patient population so grateful for the care they were given. I've never had patients thank me so much, or ones that have touched my heart to this degree. The families of my patients were unlike almost any of those I've had in the states, feeding, bathing, clothing my patients (linens and baths were done by families.) Though many times we had no supplies (try going a day with only three pairs of gloves for three patients, no running water, the constant threat of losing power, eqipment that breaks when it's absolutely critcial, running out of a essential meds, no lab, no x-ray, no ct or MRI, no 12 lead, etc) and fought terribly oppresive heat, dehydration and humidty, somehow I managed to give the best care of my life (I gave a patient a foot rub and she told me that no one had ever touched her feet before!!!).
Somehow over the course of the week I found myself in the PICU, the NICU, and Peds every second I had to spare. The real future of Haiti, the children, absolutely broke my heart. We face death and code situations every day in the hospital at home, but it's a rareity to lose a child. Though we lost people in the ICU, the picu deaths in partiuclar and there were....a lot, were very very hard. For me, the PICU was just the start of a thousand first for me. I had never seen a dead child before this trip. I had never been there for the death of a child before this trip. In two years of working at a major city trauma ICU, I had never lost a patient of MINE to anunexpected code. Bluntly put, those parts, they sucked, and I won't soon forget them. For every one of those moments though was two of sheer happiness. Feeding an infant so small and malnourished they were smaller than my hand. The day our cerebral malaria pt fianally woke up and spoke to her 10 year old daughter who slept on the wooden and dirt floor next to her every night. The massive tent city just outside port-au-prince, with one single solitary makeshift kite flying gleefully over it, oblivious to the abject poverty and stuggles below it... These are the images I will take home with me, the ones of hope, the ones of need. Haiti faces so many socioeconomic challanges on it way to deveoplement. The paitents I helped, the amazing voulanteers I worked with, the families of the ones who died this week, and the awesome kids, they still need help. Haiti will never make it without the Hatians doing the majorty of the recovery themselves, but they need healthy bodies to do it. Please consider donating to project medishare. God knows they need the supplies. But try coming down here and putting in your own time. It my not change your life, but it will change someone elses.'

Before I leave, I'd like to send out a special thanks to all of those who helped me this week, and those other volunteers who I was fortunate enough to spend time with. You brought me through the frequent hell that is life here with your smiles, your insights, and your love for your professions. Additionally, the Seattle team... You make me want to quit adults, move the the northwest, and work a PICU. I will miss you terribly.


Michael L.