Hello All
I arrived in Jacmel this afternoon on a small private plane from Florida. There is a lot more plane movement and shipment of supplies into jacmel in the past 48 hours.
The Canadian military has landed 3- C 130s and the americans are dropping off supplies by helicopters. The airport was pretty confusing today when we arrived as Air Traffic control is quite limited.
I met with Dr. Annie Bouchard of the Canadian DART team. As I am familiar with the area, I was able to give her intelligence of local clinics in the area and possible locations for setup of the field hospital.
The field hospital will be deployed in the next 48 hours. Presently the DART team are staying with the UN at their base near the airport.
You know it's a small world when you run into old friends in Haiti. I met Dr. Rob Ennis, a med school colleague of mine from St. John's Newfoundland, memorial medical school. He's a member of the DART team. i hope to work with them more closely over the coming days.
The city is devastated in areas, though along the east end (near Cyvadier) there was not as much damage. I met with good friends Sarah Wallace from olive Tree Projects, Danny Pye of Haitian children's home, Lia Van de Donk of Love you can feel orphanage and Pastor Placide who works with Bob Davisson of Lifeline Haiti. At the hospital I also spoke with Dr. Sem Gaspard and Dr. Frantzo Nelson who works with FOTCOH.
On the ground Haitian Children's Home under the care of Danny Pye, Gwen and her husband Nick have done increble work in organizing shipments of supplies and people.
I flew down with members of the Friends of the children of Haiti, based in Cyvadier, and they will be opening their clinic tomorrow.
The city is dark, there is no electricity except for those that have generator like Gwen and Nick which is where I am presently staying.
Most people are not sleeping in their homes for fear of another earthquake and not knowing the structural integrity of their homes.
Oh, for those who remember Trinity House, it is still standing and the boys are all doing well.
The streets are still closed in many parts of the city. A mass grave was started near the cemetary for remains.
On a final note, I must share a happy story on the strengh of a newborn. A 22 day old baby was pulled today out of the rubble by some search and rescue workers. At this point, they had been finding mostly dead bodies. Just after they found the baby, the Canadian DART team drove by they were doing a site assessment. I was there when they rushed the baby to the hospital. She is alive, cried when they inserted her intravenous line and then peed shortly after. The power and life of a newborn.
So, what does tomorrow hold...I'm still figurng that out but I will try to keep you posted as best I can.
Tiffany
Tiffany Keenan, MD CCFP
Haiti Village Health
"Sustainable Health Care in Haiti"
7 Marley Beach Drive
Warwick WK08
Bermuda. 441-599-7709
Canada. 506-474-2429
skype. tiffany.keenan.1971
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1 comment:
Hi Tiffany-
I just found your blog and it's good to learn all the things that are, or were, happening in and around Jacmel. If you remember, I flew down to Jacmel with you from Ft. Lauderdale to work for FOTCOH. We had a very busy, but successful clinic with no damage to the clinic buildings.
Are you still in Haiti or back home? We made it home on Jan. 29th. It was a shorter clinic than usual, but we saw just as many patients if not more than a normal clinic.
Thanks for the info,
Jess Streif, RPh
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