Dear
Family and Friends:
You
can't spend three months at Hopital Sainte Croix and not recognize that it is a
place with an important history, a different present, and a future with renewed
promise.
When
you walk through the floors of the three story wing currently undergoing
renovation, you get a glimpse of all of the medical specialties that once were
available at the zenith of the hospital's service to the
community. In 1985, the Haitian Ministry of Health had designated
Hopital Sainte Croix as the official health authority for the Leogane commune.
When
walking the halls of the first floor under renovation, the now fading signage
bears witness to grander days at Sainte Croix. There once were
separate departments or wards for OB/GYN and delivery, pediatrics, orthopedics
and neurology. There was an eye surgery center, a dental clinic, a surgical
wing, and of course general medicine facilities. There were 120 beds
for hospitalized patients.
Those
days have been replaced with a scaled down hospital, with approximately 27
hospital beds. But there is a vision for Sainte Croix's return to
its place as a major hospital facility in the Leogane region and for that matter
all of Haiti.
Before
I arrived in Leogane, I had thought that the hospital was closed because of the
earthquake. I have learned that Sainte Croix had been closed for
more than a year before January 12, 2010. I have heard several
versions of the reasons for the hospital's closing, none of which seem
particularly important at this time, now that Sainte Croix is back in operation
with a new Medical Director, Dr. Gladys Memnon, and with major financial
support for a substantial expansion of the hospital.
I've attached a graphic
diagram of the architect's rendering of the new hospital buildings, as well as
the new school and church. As reported in a newsletter by The
Rivermont Presbyterian Church in July 2010:
"A
plan to rebuild the entire hospital compound has been prepared by Jimmy Hite,
the architect who designed the nursing school. This program will
cost about $12 million, funded by a group from the Pittsburgh area through
Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF)[, affiliated with Presbyterian Church
USA,] and will rebuild the hospital, a guest house, and other hospital related
buildings, as well as the school, the church, et cetera.
Hopital Sainte Croix
reopened after the earthquake in September 2010. Attached is a
photograph at the hospital's re-dedication ceremony last
September. Dr. Memnon is shown with the Bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Haiti, Jean Zache Duracin, and John Talbird, an Episcopal priest
from Tennessee, who used to be the Chairman of the hospital's Board of Directors.
(Rev. Talbird, along with Dr. Bob Sloane and Dr. Emilie Hitron are the reason I
was asked to come to Sainte Croix for three months.)
At
present, Hopital Sainte Croix operates an out-patient clinic that may see as
many as 200 patients in a day. Patients begin arriving around 6:00
a.m., in anticipation of the clinic's opening at 7:30 a.m. There
also is an emergency room. The ER physician, Dr. Samuels, resides at
the Guesthouse Sunday nights (he's on call) through Friday afternoons, and then
spends most weekends in Port-au-Prince. He received his medical
training in Havana, Cuba.
Because my Spanish still is better than my
Kreyol - though that may change - Dr. Samuels and I switch back and forth
between Kreyol and Spanish, sometimes within a sentence, when we try to
converse.
Minor
surgeries are performed at Sainte Croix, but major surgeries, such as
orthopedic and neurological surgeries, are performed up the road at the Doctors
Without Borders hospital. Though there are plans to return to delivering
babies at the hospital, high risk deliveries currently are performed by
Medecins Sans Frontieres. Regular deliveries, including C-Sections, are performed
by Dr. Delson and another Haitian physician in Leogane.
Attached are some photographs of the hospital I took this morning: the
Lobby, the main hallway leading to wards for in-hospital patients, and one of the surgery salons. The interior of the
hospital looked a bit different the morning of May 1st.
During the two day clean-up, I had the opportunity to
spend some time pushing flood waters along side of Dr. Belanger, the resident
surgeon at Sainte Croix (shown in scrubs). He is one of the most sincere and
personable professionals I have ever had the privilege to meet.
The member of the hospital
staff I will miss most, however, is Ty Ty, the head of security. We
met the day I arrived at Sainte Croix, as Bob Sloane took me on a tour of the
hospital. Ty Ty has been my hospital guardian angel, so to
speak. He has helped me out of more than one bad
spot. And, on several occasions this month, he has arrived just in
time to take over restoring electricity to the Guesthouse, after the circuit
breakers started acting up and restoring power was no longer a simple matter of
my throwing two switches, as had been the standard routine in April and May.
Two
weeks ago, we lost power in the guesthouse. (The hospital doesn't
lose electricity when EDH power cuts out, because the hospital, unlike the
guesthouse, is tied into a battery-backed storage system to provide
uninterrupted power to the one story hospital wing.) To make too
long of a story shorter, I went down to the generator boxes and noticed that
the switch was pointed to the 45W, so with my flashlight in my left hand, with
my right I pulled the lever down to the 35W position. Just then I
heard a yell from the 45W shed that I was pretty sure was Ty
Ty. Then I heard the 45W generator kick in out back in the shed,
followed by dead silence. I waited 10 seconds or so, but didn't see
Ty Ty coming out of the shed. The security gate next to the
generator switch boxes was locked, which meant that I had to take the long back
way around a hospital building to check up on Ty Ty. I thought he
probably had been shocked real bad or worst when I threw the switch to
35W. (Ty Ty knows I won't use the 45W).
The
20 seconds or so it took me to get out back of the hospital was just enough
time for me to try to remember how to do CPR. Just as I thought,
"No, only your kids are CPR certified" - because they have been Camp
Mishawaka counselors - Ty Ty stepped out of the shadows. I tried in
Kreyol to explain that I thought I had made him "fe mal" or worse. In
the dim light, I think he smiled. He put his arm around my neck and
walked with me back to the lobby. Ty Ty gave me a big grin and a
thumbs up as I crossed the lobby toward the stairs to the guesthouse floor.
I
first learned that Ty Ty was the lead singer in a band when Carlos and I were
out back of the hospital on April 29, loading sand bags on to a gurney as part
of the sand bag brigade working late that Friday afternoon in anticipation of
flooding in the area. (Carlos definitely lifts weights) Photos 0103
and 0107 provide the answer to any question you may have about how successful
the fifty or so sandbags were in holding back flood waters that weekend!
When
they were practicing next to the 35W generator (which wasn't running of
course), the band - Ty Ty on vocals, and keyboard and guitar players - and I'm
not kidding about this, sounded somewhat like an unpolished version of Asleep
At The Wheel, when I used to watch them on Austin City Limits. Ty
Ty's band had that same non-country Texas-style to the first two songs they
rehearsed. Then they switched to a song obviously intended for
church. Watson told me a few weeks ago that Ty Ty's band plays
around town, including for churches such as Sainte Croix Episcopal Church.
Ty
Ty is one of those rock solid people, serious but with good humor, who you
always hope to meet when you find yourself in unfamiliar waters. I
have learned much from my friendship with him the past three
months.
There
is a long and colorful list of people at the hospital who I have met the past
three months. I would be typing for hours were I to try and share
even one story or impression about each of them. There is JoJo, the
pharmacist; the nurse - whose name I don't know - who always greets me in
English, and who is good friends with Jeannine; Mr. Guey of course;
and Belange, the best dressed driver in Leogane. Dr. Memnon's
assistant is Carleigh, who I will write about in the next
note. Prenell and Fontus are in the finance office. I
already have mentioned Faisol and Belove. Zoe, who introduces
himself though as Joseph, is the elder statesman of the non-medical staff of
Sainte Croix. Zoe loves the 45W. Sammy is the equipment
tech in the surgery department.
And
there's Phillipe, who seems to be able to find a way to fix most of the things
that break around the hospital and the guesthouse. I now have taken
five round trips to Port-au-Prince with Phillipe. It seems as if he
can't drive more than a 1/2 a mile in PaP without someone waving at
him. Carleigh has observed the same thing several times.
Hopital
Sainte Croix is the only low income hospital in Leogane. If a
patient cannot afford prescription medications that are available at the
hospital, they are dispensed free of charge. The charge for an
out-patient clinic visit is very modest. Jeannine's nephew was
hospitalized in May, I think for one or two nights. The charge was
500 gourdes - $12.50 U.S.
Sainte
Croix is centered in outreach efforts taking place away from the
hospital. It provides an office for the Children's Nutritional
Program headquartered in Leogane. Numerous off-site clinics and
public health programs administered in Leogane Commune originate at Hopital
Sainte Croix. The hospital's vehicles are made available to medical
and dental mobile clinics teams from the U.S. who stay at the Sainte Croix
Guesthouse.
Nursing
students from the Episcopal Nursing College up the road in Belval have come to
the hospital for training rounds and lectures just about every week that I have
been here.
I
think Hopital Sainte Croix serves a very important role in the lives of the
people of the Leogane Commune. It is a beacon of hope for the
community.
I
hope this note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.
David
23 June 2011
23 June 2011
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