Art's update from Haiti

February 4, 2010

As most of you know, the orphanage in Haiti where Cyndy and I have been volunteering for the past 3 years has been set up as a place for the injured to come and recuperate following the earthquake. We have set up a hospital in our church and have staffed it with volunteer nurses. We have a retired naval officer, Mike, trained as a field PA who keeps a close watch on the healing process. Tonight he was concerned about the pain that 17 year old Darlene was experiencing. She had broken her leg when the school building she occupied collapsed during the earthquake. She had a compound fracture of the tibia that had broken through the skin. She has a cast on her leg that was put on 10 days ago. The cast was applied 10 days after the earthquake.
We decided to take her back to the University of Miami Medishare hospital where the original cast was applied to take a look under her cast.
You will probably hear this story out of Haiti many times in the coming weeks and months. As they removed Darlene's cast, the smell of infection was overwhelming. I held Darlene's hand and tried to distract her as the medical staff reacted to the discovery of infection. Infections like this will certainly cause a second wave of terror in Haiti. There will be more amputations and more deaths following this earthquake.
Darlene is one of the fortunate; she has people around her who care and have medical knowledge. PA, Mike said as we got back to the compound tonight. "Thank you Jesus, I think we saved her leg tonight." Pray for Darlene and pray for her leg to heal.

Art, reporting from Haiti