NAVMC is still here!

A return trip is in the planning stages! October 29th thru November 5th...

Bull will be leading a medical team back to Bernard Mevs (Project Medishare), and Kelley will be leading a mixed (non-medical/medical) team to the New Life Orphanage.

Bernard Mevs is easy... ED, OR, PEDS/PICU, MICU, PT

New Life, not so much!

The team going to New Life, will be primarily helping with construction of a library/school. In addition, there are opportunities for teaching, medical "Clinic" outreach, PT, and ???

NAVMC is looking for help. If you have gone with us, you know. If you want to return, sign up! If you can't return, consider making a tax-deductible donation to NAVMC to help offset the travel costs for our volunteers.

Perhaps this blog will become active again!!!

A Return...

Well, in one week the first team will be gathering in Miami for the fourth trip to Haiti. In two weeks, our second team will be hot on our heals to make the fifth trip!

NAVMC has put together two teams of medical professionals to go to Haiti for two back to back weeks.

A lot has changed since the last time we were there in May. Project Medishare is no longer a large MASH like hospital at the airport. They have moved into the Bernard Mevs hospital a few miles away from the airport.

So this will be like a whole new experience.

Stay tuned!

Fall Trips Planned!

This blog has been a bit inactive for awhile, but it is about to start hopping again!

Northern Arizona Volunteer Medical Corp (NAVMC) has just committed to sending two teams back to Haiti, to volunteer with Project Medishare. These two teams will go on back-to-back weeks!

Trip One: 10/30 to 11/6
Trip Two: 11/6 to 11/13

Any one interested in joining us, please visit our website at www.navmc.org or email us at info@navmc.org

Those that are following this blog, please keep the members of NAVMC in your thoughts as we prepare to return!

By the way, NAVMC now has members from across the US, and we even have our first Official International Member, from Canada!

October or November Trip?

Anyone interested in going or returning to Haiti in October or November... the exact dates are still to be determined... please contact Bull, Kelly, or Ray!

You can also email NAVMC to express your interest at:

info@navmc.org

Visit our website for more information as it becomes available!

www.navmc.org

This Friday!

This Friday, May 14th, NAVMC is hosting a spectacular event at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Flagstaff!

A benefit show, featuring a raffle, silent auction and Live entertainment!

Doors open at 6:00pm, the shows start at 6:30pm!

Go to our website:

www.navmc.org

for more info!

Photo updates from our May Team!!

Thusday May 6, 2010

Things are challenging, as usual, it just seems that living conditions are more so this time. We had our second big rainstorm last night which flooded portions of the adult tent (which still is housing adults, peds and PICU, adult ICU moved back into their spot) and of course the sleeping tent...ankle deep in the sleeping tent, but all seemed to fair pretty well. OR was back up and running last night and today. It is the second day/night with no AC, sweat city, very hot. My solution again to be able to sleep is to shower clothed, and go to sleep soaking wet and actually slept quite comfortably.The heat is still not my friend, but I am coming to terms with it, and seem to be doing and feeling better this time around. Hard to believe only two more nights. .I am again this time, as I was last time, not really wanting to leave. I have had the same patients every night and have fallen in love....with some of them. One little old man in particular. He speaks Spanish so we are able to have some good conversations.....or so I think:). I promised myself I wouldn't bring home any Haitians babies but I forgot to promise myself no little old men:) He does not have any family and he does not have a home. and it breaks my heart... I have been charge for the last two nights, because our original charge nurse crashed big time with dehydration, passing out several times, being unresponsive, very scary, She eventually did OK, but had back pain and bloody urine (kidney??) and left today to return home. Scary.Apprently she hadn't peed since the fire (two nights prior!!) ...stay hydrated, replenish electrolytes on a regular basis... is the mantra.
Lots of love to all

Connie

First Blog from May Team!

We arrived late in Haiti...around 9 pm and we had figured out who was working the night shift while we waited at the airport in Miami. I won! Actually it made sense for me to work it.
The first night went pretty well, Some of the translators remembered me and gave me big hugs...yeah, pretty wonderful feeling worked in the adult tent and we all got a row of patients. Our charge nurse had been there for a few days and did a great job of orienting everyone and helping. . Things are the same but different. A little more attempt at organization, but the execution still is tough and you have to be realistic in what you are able to accomplish. I ONLY had 15 patients this time!
Sleeping the next day was a challenge...a very HOT day even with AC in the tent and actually getting a bed in the day sleeper section. I woke up at one point and felt like my skin was burning. Quickly remedied that with a shower in my clothes and went back to sleep. The second night really started out nicely everyone with their same patients and feeling very comfortable we actually thought we would haveea smooth night. Boy were we wrong. First the pediatric tent had an electrical fire around midnight? and we evacuated the whole tent outside amidst billowing smoke. Then just after we moved all the ICU patients into the wound area of the adult tent the adult tent also had an electrical fire and we hauled cots w/patient s outside as well. This sounds much more controlled and orderly than it actually was...people were going out the sides of tent into the mud (it had rained earlier that day...torrential downpour). Eventually all patients and family and staff out, shut the power got all sleeping volunteers up to help out and we settled outside. We were outside for several hours. The adult tent was put back together (floor even got washed!!!!) and we ALL moved back in peds, and adults...yep, interesting but we all fit, plus, of course, families. I have respect for the Haitians, such troopers, I can't even begin to explain....It was not as smooth by any stretch as it sounds but it went well. The army helped move all the patients back in.
All are still in the adult tent but making progress with the return to normalcy...whatever that is.
Today no AC in the sleeping tent so most of the day sleepers moved to peds tent (still no patients in it) to sleep because it did have AC and there are a few staff members dropping like flies, getting IVS etc.
A small group of us did manage to go into PAP yesterday. We rented a tap-tap. We visited a tent city...again humbling. I don't think I could live in those conditions and be as gracious and smiling as the people we met and shared a little bit of time with.
Today I visited New Life Childrens orphanage. It is a beautiful place and I will share more thoughts on it later.
My heart is full content and happy to be here again. Not that it isn't difficult and sad and challenging but..... it feels so right.
Lots of love to everyone

Connie

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I spoke with Dr. Reber last night. They made it to Miami and were ready to depart this morning for Haiti! This team will also try to post to the blog to keep us informed of their adventures! Wish them luck and keep them in your thoughts.

Ray

Wanted: Joe Martin... International Criminal...

Getting through US Customs in Miami was a breeze for most of us...

Apparently, Dr. Joe had quite a different experience, as his name appeared on the Department of Homeland Security's "watch list!"

Two and a half hours later... he rejoined the United States... We'll let him tell the story though...

Back From Haiti

It was quite a week of sweat, hard work, adventure, sweat, camaraderie, sweat, innovation and medicine. I said in my first blog how I was interested in learning and practicing medicine that was low technology and back to the basics. Well, I got my wish in spades.

My first day I had 20 minutes of training and then I was on my own. There were approximately 110 patients in the hospital and in the general medicine tent I was suddenly responsible for about 25 of them. I quickly figured out that if I wanted to do something that is usually a quick job in the US -such as grabbing a glucometer to check a diabetics blood sugar that it was not so easy. Typically the equipment needed was not available or no one knew where it was in the mass of people and chaos. I had to just figure it out. Innovation, intuition and basic training was the key to treating the patients.

A person with swollen legs, crackly lungs, an altered level of consciousness, labored breathing would be diagnosed as probable congestive heart failure and treated as such. We did not have an X-ray, or EKG for diagnosis and for 2 days we did not have a lab for blood analysis. If the treatment was effective then we continued it. If a patient needed to be propped up in a sitting position we made a wedge under the mattress with cardboard and tape.

Another thing that really struck me was the important need for people with all types of skills. We could not have done it without the PT's who got people moving again, and the pharmacists who sorted the mountains of donated medications and knew what to substitute when an ordered med was unavailable. The Lab people were back to microscopes and pipetting with reagents, no million dollar blood analysis devices.

We really needed non-medical staff who found or organized equipment, fixed broken cots, found donated coffee makers (important) and more.

The patients were physically tough, enduring major injuries without complaint and minimal care or pain medications. We did what we could and it was worthwhile week of hard work, sweat, giving, sweat, new friendships, sweat and helping the Haitian people recover.

Bob Parker, RN

Haiti in my rearview mirror

Early in the week the time stretched out towards alot of effort and hot tired times. I wrote in my journal about staying here mentally and being present where I was, which was a tad unattractive on the surface. Tonight I am celebrating my time here,and what I have seen and learned. It's like no meditative lesson you've ever seen on the menu. Haiti is full of love while mindful of its pain and more receptive to an embrace than the evening news may suggest. The people are us. The plane ride out will be as full of remembrance and sentiment as the plane ride in had made me flinch a bit. Cheers to Haiti, strong culture, strong people, place to come and think and do..

Dr. Joe, Ortho

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.

The end.

I am writing on the last night I will be in Haiti. A whole week has gone by and I can't believe how fast and amazing my time here has been. While here I have felt the whole range of emotion which for me is not usual. I started my week in the ICU and after two days moved to the med surg tent where I stayed for the rest of the week. Each day I was overwhelmed with the needs of the pts, the heat, stress, pain and crazyness that was common place there. I can't say enough for the staff I worked with.It was a honor to be able to work along side for a whole week the same people. The nurses who ran their buts off. The doctors who gave the most caring, attentive and best care anyone could be expected to do with the resources they had. I have made friends and will miss them. The pts and family have truely bless me and I will not soon forget their faces or ability to make me smile. I have many stories I could tell but not the energy to tell. Only to say I didn't for one moment regret coming here and hope and pray this will not be the last time I am able to be apart of this type of experience.

Ben

The Last Day

It was quite difficult getting up this morning (even though my entire body was sticky and sweaty from this humidity); this week has been the most work I have ever made it through...over 100 hours of work...and some people worked 24 hour shifts (like Mike being the only ICU nurse the first 2 days who then transitioned to a PICU nurse today when we were slammed). Today was a difficult day with an emergent peds trauma that we quickly rushed to the OR where I was trying to hang a dopamine and epi drip with no pump and only a pen and paper to do the calculation(thanks Erica! Calculators are yet another item taken for granted!) Right when I was done with the drip I heard Mike tell me that they needed a PICU nurse to start an IV on a new code so I rushed back on over (...we need PICU nurses here!) As I was leaving the OR, I saw one of our amazing doctors-Tom- trying his best to help this child as he was pulling his own blood out to give him as he was actively bleeding and we had no blood available (we only had two units that we had already used). Everyone here cares so much and has been doing everything that they can to help. It is so different here then it is in the states...if a doctor was trying to save a life by giving a child his own blood because there was nothing else available in the U.S., I'll bet that he would be sued...here the families know that everything is done to help and with a good heart. I have enjoyed working here with families that are grateful that all you can do is give them a cot right next to 15 other kids and their families crammed in a small 12'x25' portion of a large tent that is boiling hot/humid where as in the U.S. the patients/parents will complain that you only have apple and orange juice but not cranberry. I have been very honored to be a part of this as difficult as it was. I have learned not to waste anything (even if it is a buritrol that is missing a peice or is not compatible with anything....Ray can turn it in to a spaceship so "don't throw anything away!" he told me.....which by the way last night he and Derek ended up opening the wine bottle with a spinal needle into the cork and pushing air into it with a 30 cc syringe). I can't beleive it's the last day...thanks to everyone who has been a support to us. It really makes a difference here in Haiti. There are so many children that would have died from simple dehydration and yet they have a chance. And not only on the medical aspect but just the basic care to humans (love and compassion). Today a child told one of our workers "I love you and want you to be my dad" (her dad died in the earthquake)...that was heart wrenching. Anyways I am so excited for home but I know I will miss it here as soon as our flight leaves. Thanks again!

Tara-PICU RN

Adventiste 'Ospital...

Dr. "Joe" and I went to the "Adventisite 'Ospital today..." we spent about 6 hours there, I was the only "OR Nurse" there! Nurses are needed desperately! Not only at Medishare, but in the surrounding hospitals!

Took a 1.5 hour tour thru the city of PaP to get there... truly unbelievable! I took a tour in February vicariously... thru those in my team that got out into the city... Today... first hand... Not much has changed! Tent cities everywhere, a lot of destruction and devastation...

Our driver took side streets to "avoid" traffic... the emergency blinkers were on, which actually commands some respect from the Haitian people... along with a few well placed blasts on the car's horn...From Adventiste... we took two patients back with us to Medishare... Try cramming 7 people into an SUV designed to carry 5... add a long spine/back board, personal belongings, hang two IV's, and keep a Styrofoam container lid on as one speeds 40+ mph thru PaP becuase the windows are down and it is much cooler than trying the A/C...

Sry... not a lot of pics...


Ray

Baseball anyone?

This evening, after a very long and stressful day in the OR, several of us (techs, nurses, surgeons) were sitting around and were talking and decompressing. The topic of conversation somehow came around to Whiffle Ball...

That led to a piece of webril being unwound, wadded up, and then encased in a thin layer of duct tape...

Which of course led to an excursion to our supply tent, which we found an unusable piece of aluminum (part of the end support brace for a cot), some cotton batting (there are thousands of rolls...), then the idea to use up some of the fiberglass splinting/casting material we have (a gazillon rolls of...), add a small roll of coban to the end... and what do you have.... a baseball bat!

By 4:30 pm we were in the field at the western end of camp... bases set... pitching and batting practice done... when we had the first ever, official baseball game, lasting only two innings, in Port Au Prince, at the Project Medishare camp! We even had a few people watching and cheering for us!

Tomorrow is the second day in our season, and we have quite the roster of individuals who want to play!

A little diversion... a little piece of home... a little fun...

Gotta keep it all in perspective! ;)


Ray

Inexperienced

There are no words for the inadequacy I felt today. By 730 AM we had two teams at the gate triaging people trying to send only the most severe acute cases we could to the ER. They gave us antibiotics, otc pain relievers, and many other assorted medications and told us to only send back what we couldn't fix at the front. We saw people who had cancer and had to turn them away because of a lack of proper equipment. Yet each one was thankful for being able to get some sort of medical care for their problems. Thank God for the flagstaff team everyone has been a rock star helping out in everyway possible. Definitely the trip of a lifetime

Nate

Where do I start...this trip has been the most work, in the most extreme conditions, but yet at the same time the most fun and exciting time I have ever had working as a nurse (and many other occupations that I would never be able to do in the states). The heartache here has been more than you could fathom but the strength among the Haitians even more. I have learned so much from my experience here and it is not even half way through. As I arrived at the Port au prince airport and watched people as I went through the custom process that was set up, I thought to myself 'everyone here that I am observing probably is thinking about a lost loved one as they work'. We arrived at the Medishare tent hospital and has a brief tour. I was immediately sent to work in the PICU where I have had more experience in the first two days than I have had the last few years as a nurse. The need here is tremendous and I begin to feel overwhelmed at times but I remember that if everyone helps just one person then that makes this an entirely different world. The Haitains and volunteers that are here are amazing. We have all become support for each other in emotional times of loss and sorrow and through that have been truly blessed. Volunteering your skills and love to people is the best thing that I have ever done...AND I have learned how to be an engineer for just about anything I need with whats available...oh and also that propel doesn't have any sodium in it so don't chug it when you are working nonstop in a tent in Haiti when the ac is turned off and you are sweating constantly or else you will feel dizzy and need to get an IV by one of your fellow nurses. Ok now I need to help Derek and Ray figure out how to open the bottle of Furia Merlot with the few resources consisting of two can openers and a rubber mallet.....there are also some small pebbles on the ground. Thanks for all of your support!

-Tara Cecil @2300

Totally worth it!!

The time we spend here in haiti is short, but the experiences last a lifetime.

Ray and I were the only O.R. crew for two days, during that time we did 23 cases ranging from Femoral external fixators to c-sections. On Monday we welcomed a O.R. trained nurse and an ortho scrub tech, however during the next two days the scrub tech was not around the facility. He was able to go abroad with the surgeon he came with to do cases at other facilities in the port-au- prince area. This left myself as the ONLY scrub tech in the Medishare hospital. Pretty busy!!

Tonight I was waiting line for some dinner when a STAT C-section came in, so much for dinner!! within 5 minutes I had scrubbed in and pulled instruments, I had never even met the surgeon. Talk about pressure!! I was literally sweating bullets. The patient was fine and the baby was a beautiful boy!! SUCCESS!!

That is why I do what I do.........miracles happen every day

I LOVE MY JOB.


D