Edited – Feb. 2010
This page required editing in Feb. 2010 as a result of the earthquake that hit Haiti in January of 2010. The epicenter of the earthquake was very close to Leogane and an estimated 90% of Leogane was destroyed by that earthquake including Hopital St. Croix. Our surgical mission began at Hopital St. Croix in the mid-1990’s with annual trips made between 1996 and 2006 with the exception of 2001 when our annual trip was cancelled due to the disaster of 9/11/2001. The following is an account of our experience at Hopital St. Croix…
Hopital St. Croix is an approximately 120 bed hospital located in Leogane, Haiti. The hospital is considered one of the better staffed and equipped hospitals in Haiti.
The operating rooms are fairly roughhewn and basic compared to US standards. Much of the equipment in the operating room was donated from US hospitals such as St. Lukes Medical Center in Milwaukee. Some years we are fortunate to have air-conditioning in the OR suites, other years not so fortunate. One has to be fairly flexible and able to adapt when operating in Haiti. Certain surgical items that one might consider indispensable might need to be brought along on the trip since some surgical tools that might be taken for granted in the US, may not be available in Haiti. Surgery in Haiti requires an historical perspective in operative intervention – it is not uncommon that a surgeon must employ techniques from the past. Speaking of perspective – operating in Haiti will surely give you a new or different perspective if you are in need of one.
Salle C – an OR room in Hopital St. Croix and scrub sink donated from a US hospital.
Outside the OR, the experience in the hospital continues to be very interesting. One will find patient beds in the hallways, some of which will actually have mattresses. While there are nursing stations with nurses, much of the care is provided by family members who attend the patients during their stay in the hospital. The patient usually gets the bed, while the family member gets a spot on the floor. Food and drink are provided by the family member.
Our first task upon arriving to Hopital St. Croix is to unpack the medical supplies and organize them. Then we transfer and organize the supplies in the operating room suite.
Unless you speak French Creole fluently, interpreters are a basic necessity for the mission. Over the years we have been very fortunate to have excellent interpreters capable of speaking remarkably fluent English, some of whom are self-taught.
Prior to our arrival in Leogane, a separate medical group visits Jeanette for a general medical clinic. Surgical referrals are generated and these folks subsequently make the journey to Leogane. Typically the patients stay at the open-air chapel on the grounds of Hopital St Croix. On Monday a.m. we begin our work week with a visit to the chapel to do our initial patient assessments.
We can always count on Dr. Pope, our urologist, to have some of the more interesting patients.
Our boss lady, Nurse Darga, establishes the work schedule for the day. Don’t mess with her.
Lauren and Dr. John getting ready for the chapel pre-op clinic.
Nurse Schedler is in charge of distributing gifts of goodwill to the patients.
We are fortunate to have many enjoyable Haitian partners in the OR helping us. The Haitian OR staff including OR techs, circulating nurses, instrument room staff, and transporters are always friendly and eager to help.
The Haitian OR staff in 2005 put in many hours of overtime for us and did an outstanding job!!
Then we operate. Often until late at night.
Dr. Walz after a long hard case – and we even had air-conditioning in 2005.
Our recovery nurses watch the patients in the immediate post-operative period.
Sometimes we have to hunt down mattresses for our patients.
We go on “pain” rounds at the end of the day. Here Dr Brusky our “pain-meister” dispenses some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds, the staple for post-op pain medication.
Dressing changes on the floor.
Here are a few of our teams from recent years.
