by
Website Editor
| Apr 04, 2010
Even when our team members thought their time in Haiti was over and they were going home, there were unexpected medical emergencies which they could not ignore. These guys are NEVER off duty.
On the way back from Leogane to Port au Prince to fly back to the U.S., three team members witnessed a bad motorcycle accident. RN Martina Ford said they were following a motorcycle which was clipped by a bus. The cycle slid down, the tires hit concrete rubble on the side of the road and the vehicle bounced back at the bus. The bus tires skidded along the side of the driver’s helmet.
“He was one of the few guys in the country wearing a helmet,” Martina noted. Luckily, because he was wearing a helmet, the man was not injured badly, except for a lot of abrasions from his brush with the street and the bus.
Dr. Tom Elder and RN Kris Repp bandaged him up and the team took him to the hospital in Port au Prince for further treatment after giving him some money so he could get a cab home.
After we left Port au Prince and were on our way home, I thought Fred was going to have to jump in and offer emergency medical care three different times, but it all worked out okay.
On the takeoff from Ft. Lauderdale, a woman who was sitting two rows ahead of us looked back at her husband and toddler behind her (and in front of us) and screamed the kid was choking. Fred jumped out of his seat and was ready to help, but the father was able to clear the blockage.
Then when we landed in Denver, a young woman was passed out on the floor in front of the adjacent Frontier Airlines counter. A paramedic was working her alone, Fred stopped to help get an IV started, until more paramedics showed up.
Then when we landed in Spokane, a young man got off our plane, got violently sick, and was standing there confused and unable to figure out what to do. We called medics for him too.
After we got home, we were reunited with our friends who picked us up at the airport....and then our dog and cats at the house. Our horses are at a friend’s ranch in Montana and will stay there for awhile because we’ve both decided to return to Haiti shortly. Fortunately friends consider it their donation to our missions to care for all our pets.
Fred will leave here Wednesday and will arrive in Haiti Thursday with the next Medical Teams International team going in. I’ll follow in less than three weeks with the team that will relieve them. We’ll both be in Haiti till mid May.
Hopefully by the time we get back to Haiti, the house Medical Teams International has rented in Leogane for a team house will be ready for occupancy. It would be great to be out of the tent campground where we were staying before rainy season starts.