Nearly 50 children are housed daily in the hospital tent with 135 adults receiving pre- and port-operative care for wounds and fractures.

PORT-AU-PRINCE/FORT LAUDERDALE – The team arrived at the Ramada Inn near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport shortly after midnight last night. It had been a long day beginning with breakfast at 6AM, patient rounds at 7AM, and new woun ded and rescued arriving on a non-stop basis. Not a single member of the team was without opportunities to serve intensely throughout the morning, and as we gathered to mark the mid-afternoon departure for the State, all gave thanks to God for His many blessings and innumerable miracles each had seen.

The medical staff worked among two large tents, one containing the operating room and about 60 beds, the other supporting about 125 beds with a makeshift x-ray area and open-air surgical bed for conscious procedures. The latter unit contained room for about 50 children; adults filled the rest.

Coloring books provide ample distraction and a sense of normality for this child who had been rescued from rubble just days before.

Everyone lent both hands to every task – doctors carrying bed pans, nurses changing sheets…there was no heirarchy of privilege or status found among those who were working side-by-side from all over the world. The cumulative effect of thousands, even millions of ordinary acts, is an extraordinary effort only an all-knowing God could orchestrate.

Final Rounds

Our prayer the day before was that our relief team would come early enough to overlap, and thus permit some on-the-job “training” of procedures and protocols as they had evolved up to today. Fortunately, this did happen…yet another divine appointment among the litany which Basil and I could number from the start.

New Beginnings for some

As word of  Basil’s work with the traumatized children spread throughout camp, media interest was piqued. A team was on-hand from NBC Nightly News to interview him and follow his rounds in the morning. According to later reports from our friends, the piece made it on air. We both have prayed that the Lord’s hand be recognized in the actions of so many in Haiti, and that hearts be stirred to help – in this television coverage, we believe that these prays have been answered. The mental trauma so apparent among the Haitians and Basil’s presence as the only psychiatrist at camp is yet another reflection of the need for psychiatric care in disaster response, as important as surgery and wound care for healing.

A news team from NBC followed Basil and Hill on final rounds...

As I made rounds with more than 80 of the patients to perform debreeding, disinfecting, dressing changes, burn injury treatment, and confirming post-surgery cleanliness (non-infections) of amputees, I realized that our short stay was not untypical. According to the medical team coordinators from University of Miami Hospital, the medical staff only work for 5-7 days at a time and rotate out. What is not definitive is the timeframe for the rotations to continue. Most have assumed that the field hospital will be needed at the airport for at least 2 years, as rehabilitation, post-operative infections, and spread of disease from the decaying corpses which remain under the rubble, not to mention the growing problems due to the lack of sanitation in the streets and temporary shelters.

A cross necklace and a prayer for stength become this little girl's only material possession in the world thanks to a friend of Hill's in Milwaukee who asked that it be given to someone.

Before I left Milwaukee, a friend gave me a small cross on a simple necklace with a short prayer for strength in difficult times. She requested me to give this to a little girl, and one in particular had come to mind as I prayed last night. As we prepared to depart the camp for our flight, I returned to see the little girl who had lost both her legs in amputation. Her brother was always by her side, and he had sustained far fewer injuries. He spoke and read English and was able to read the prayer to his little sister. I handed it to her, asking him to explain the gift, and she looked at it with surprise. She was happy to be given her first new possession after losing so much.

NASCAR owner/driver Joe Gibbs donated his team plane like this one for teams to shuttle to and from Haiti for this week.

Our flight was ready, graciously donated by Joe Gibb’s Racing Team (another surprise blessing from God allowing us to work a bit longer and avoid the cross-country return trip via Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic). Working with Missionary Flights International and Missionary Aviation Fellowship, private and commercial planes aer shuttling medical, pastoral, logistical and rescue personnel to and from Haiti’s principle airport. The SAAB 2000 sat our entire team, a family of refugees and 4 Singaporian workers from City Harvest Church.

Most of our team openly expressed mixed feelings about leaving, knowing that so much needs to be done. But we were all comforted by our first-hand witness that God had done extraordinary things with our team of ordinary people and simple skills, and that He will continue to do so…for no one more than He loves Haiti’s children, and Jackson, me and 19 others from across the country who answered the call are humbly and joyfully glad to report the same affection for the people here. 

Thank you for your prayers over the past 10 days and for our safe return.

DH/EBJ

This couple is returning with 2 adopted orphans to Indiana..They worked for 2 years to adopt from among 380,000 orphans (2007). This figure has mushroomed over the past 2 weeks since the earthquake.