Medics aid Haitian recovery

  Robyn Couper, a member of Oamaru Baptist, worked for 33 years in Haiti with the Evangelical church, returning to New Zealand in August 2009. This past May to August she has been back with a team of medical specialists.

Dear Baptist family,

Thank you so much for the prayers and support that have come from the wider church family of Baptists in New Zealand. This has been very much appreciated and, coupled with significant local civic, community and church support, we have been able to make an incredible short term mission contribution. This has been a positive experience all round for me, as team leader, and our team members were fantastic.

My contacts in Haiti were key, resulting from having so many young people grow up with me or go through my home. Without any knowledge of what was to come, my railway station existence then has meant reaping the benefits now, as some are either married to someone in a strategic position or in reasonably good jobs, or their friends have contacts, or some of my former students are sitting nicely in the very offices I needed to visit. So never ever think you can go it alone...everything is team work and the success of this trip was due to many people - here, there and everywhere.

What have we accomplished? Our three doctors made a valuable contribution at the Justinien hospital in Cap-Haitien. Dr Steve Benford hails from England, an anaesthetist married to a Kiwi. For a number of years he was in private practice in Oamaru. He is also an Anglican vicar. He was able to teach some new methods for anaesthesia helping the nurse technicians and the anaesthetists but was alarmed at the very old equipment and difficult conditions under which people worked. His gentleness touched everyone and one staff member, who noticed his clerical collar, said to me, ‘Miss Ro, is he a priest?’ When I replied in the affirmative, she said earnestly, “I’ve got to talk to someone; if I don’t and die today I will go to hell.” She and Steve were able to talk and he was able to be the doctor to her soul which was so much more important. Unfortunately, Steve contracted dengue fever, despite all precautions and was very sick during the last two weeks of his five week stay. However, he has said he’ll return.

Ross Pettigrew, from Dunedin, is a general surgeon and a clinical lecturer at Otago University. He was our video man, always capturing things on camera at the wrong moment - at least for us, the victims, and yet we couldn’t catch him for a photo, not even easily for a serious one. The residents in surgery loved his teaching and thanked him for bringing it down to a practical level to suit the needs of Haiti and for not being high tech and out of their experience base. Most of the residents had a good understanding of English and translation was available if he got stuck when teaching. The staff would like to see him back and the gift of instruments he brought was greatly appreciated.

Jean Claude Theis, Associate Professor and orthopaedic surgeon at Otago University, was the third doctor on the team. He calls Cap-Haitien,’ the compound tibia fracture centre of the world’ because of the huge number of accidents and trauma injuries and because there are only two orthopaedic residents with that speciality. One of his most significant contributions, apart from teaching, was a spinal fusion he performed with the orthopaedic surgeon in Cap, Dr Hubert Pierre Louis. The day after this operation a man fell out of a tree and Pierre was able to do the spinal fusion for this man who has since regained sensation in his legs. This has been a first for Justinien hospital. Both of the men have since been sent to a new spinal unit run by the Baptist Convention outside of Cap-Haitien. Jean-Claude, who is French speaking, will be able to help with the ongoing education of these residents via the internet, and orthopaedics subsequently gained a new resident from the general surgery team. Isn’t that great? When our doctors left I felt quite bereft as there were no more stories from the operating theatre.

Our physiotherapists, Dale Radford, Kim Laurie and Fiona Millard, have been brilliant. Dale and Kim work at the Invercargill hospital and Fiona hails from Wellington. A new unit had opened up two weeks before Dale arrived. There were two patients and huge pressure on Dale to help bring up patient numbers. The nurses who had been seconded to a crash course in physiotherapy also needed help. On leaving we had over 90 patients. Dale set about helping to organise the unit Dale set about helping to organise the unit and put some structure in place.

There also needed to be education about the value of physiotherapists in the whole treatment programme of the hospital as the emphasis is mostly on rehabilitation for injuries as a result of the earthquake, and strokes, Kim, a relatively recent graduate, came shining through with her teaching skills. She was so precise in her directions it was easy translating for her. I think she has discovered a skill she didn’t know she had and I think I could easily become a quack physio if I kept translating for her. After Kim left Fiona came, providing solid continuity over a period of two and a half months. Fiona put the Haitian girls through the hoops to prepare them for their new responsibilities and gave them their exam. The wonderful skills of these three women, and the way they complemented each other, built nicely on the work of the previous physiotherapist. Now the director of the unit is looking for a French speaking physiotherapist from Canada and also asking for more input from us if possible.

Alan McLay, the former Mayor of Oamaru, came to visit on behalf of the Hearts and Hands for Haiti Trust Board. It was a whirlwind of meetings with the Mayor of Cap-Haitien, other civic and church leaders, and medical staff. We are proposing that a school of physiotherapy be established just outside the city of Cap-Haitie that could serve the local community. However it is early days and we need to pray, think, and plan this very carefully.

This short term team has been a wonderful gift to the Cap-Haitien community from New Zealand, and the Evangelical Church of Haiti that allowed us to work under their umbrella. We have accomplished far more than I could have dreamed possible and forged important and solid links. It has been a privilege to work with community and church leaders in Haiti and to put our hands into theirs and share the love of our hearts with each other.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts...from all of us on the team and from the Hearts and Hands for Haiti steering committee and trust.

Robyn Couper

Hearts and Hands for Haiti New Zealand is the organisation that we have formed with a trust board and steering committee. We plan on engaging in Haiti for several years to deliver help to the Haitian people, notably those in the north of Haiti where I have contacts and can network effectively. We have applied for registration as a charitable trust.