More from Haiti, arrival in Gonaives and two days of care, clinics and life.
docgurley
Passed a leprechaun-green field, full of donkeys with a handful of goats tiptoeing among them, Caribbean blue ocean all around
10 Oct
docgurley
We’re here! In 2008, 48,000 people in Gonaives lost their homes to 10 vertical ft of hurricane flooding. Now 70,000 PAP refugees sent here
10 Oct
[not Haiti but worth reading…]
docgurley
Spot.Us Post: The link between mental health, incarceration and homelessness – http://bit.ly/bTlcLd
12 Oct
docgurley
Heard piercing squeals & shrieks outside our clinic. Lots. But no need for “code” bag. It was a family of piglets being shooed along. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Today we head out to a desolate area away from Gonaives – the most poverty-stricken in this desperately poor area. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
I am desperately pawing thru bags of supplies, trying to restock, wishing for more BP meds, pads, condoms, tylenol, vitamins. Sigh. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Our version of champagne on our trip: the overflowing water bottle after you add electrolyte vitamin C fizz. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Our team has a theme song for each day: 1st clinic =Feels Like The First Time; 2nd day=Lean On Me. Today’s hum along? See next tweet! #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Team theme song for today (to the tune of It’s Raining Men) = They’re Burning Poop. True – all tissue saved from bathroom is burned. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Having a team contest: everyone wears our pristine white Haiti Relief t-shirts. At the end of day, winner is the one who’s dustiest! #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
“Horn” must be a crucial, required part of Drivers’ Ed here. On our way out of Gonaives on a big Easter egg-blue bus. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
A brightly-painted tiny shed, named The Paradise Bank, besides providing banking, also sells lottery tickets. Conflict of interest? #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Just passed a tiny, tin-roofed establishment named The Silence Bar. Now that’s zen. Wishing there was one in SF. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
The name of the area we’re going to is Kafou Andrew. The road is, at times, stretching the definition of that word…. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
The only billboard for miles is Hwy 101- worthy, advertising cell service. Ironic that I’m tweeting this. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Just passed a valley of Joshua-tree-worthy cacti trees. Gorgeous. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
We pushed thru till dusk, frantic & overwhelmed by the need. Walked out to deserted gravel & found the battery on our bus is dead! #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Completely dark. Our translators are laughing with us as we wait for our local sponsor’s mini-truck to jump us. The sky is huge! #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Yeah! We’re jumped off and rattling thru clouds of endless dust behind massive road construction trucks. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
We’re idling forever, waiting for petrol. Kind of ironic if you die of gas fumes while waiting for gas. It’s amazing, the gridlock. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
At night, the shops still continue – sterno flames encircled by bowls of food and other goods, people perched on stools. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Tonight’s dog Lolapalooza; one yapping band starts up, wailing in the night. That act ends & another begins. Great lead barker on the last.
13 Oct
docgurley
Saw an epicenter of tuberculosis today: at least 8 women coughing up blood. Also saw a dying child – septic from an infected head cut #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Today I saw a 100 yr old man who’d never worn shoes, his feet wide as a hobbit’s, eyes white w/cataracts. Imagine disaster at his age #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
People go out for a soda here-you walk across the dirt road in front of your house & buy one from a man sitting w/a cooler + hang out #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
We had to get dying child to hospital. Unable to move bus. Sent our nurse with Ambu bag & IV w/child & mom in TapTap taxi+passengers. #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Also saw woman with overwhelming postpartum uterus infection. Someone used hands at delivery to pull out pieces of placenta (see next tweet)
13 Oct
docgurley
Hand digging out placenta=she didn’t bleed to death, but now with massive infection, low BP. In a hut w/ me. We’re 1 hour from Miami #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
Saw an alone 9-month-pregnant 19 yr old. No birth kit, no string for the cord, no plan for who would be with her (see next tweet).
13 Oct
docgurley
Gave supplies+discussed how to ask helper to wash hands. Nothing sharp&clean for cord so gave scalpel. Acted out birth, w/handwashing #haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
We brought our own toilet paper but our host kindly provided pre-cut SkyMall (the free inflight magazine) in case we needed more. #Haiti
13 Oct
docgurley
There’s a goat outside who baaahs me awake. I swear the tone & pitch sounds like a warm, velvet chuckle of a laugh. Good times, that. #haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
Told an old man his symptoms were due to having big prostate. His take on that? “No I don’t! This is just what happens to men aging” #Haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
Shocking to realize how difficult & rare it is for anyone to have meds of any kind. Good in some ways- but not even aspirin for wicked pain?
14 Oct
docgurley
The air quality is SO appalling that I’m sure I’m going to see my exhale. I just have to say I LOVE YOU, EPA!!! (see next tweet) #Haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
Air so bad, people say their eyes sting and burn at night. Can we help? “My eyes, they cry by themselves.” Crying for the polluting of Haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
SkyMall has an ad for a $$$, unproven medical aid. I demo-ed my opinion of it in the bathroom this morning (see yesterday’s tweets) #haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
Our bus is 4-wheeling it today on an off-road “road” to a distant school+orphanage. We’re see-sawing on the bench seats, back & forth #haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
We barely missed a horse wallowing in a water-filled gully to cool off. Wild-seeing a horse scramble up right next to your bus window #Haiti
14 Oct
docgurley
Hanging out with 2 UN guys across the road from the “soda” – they’re from Argentina & been here 7 months. Doing patrol. #Haiti
14 Oct
What do you think? Share your take in the comments section. Are you a Doc Gurley fan? You can follow Doc Gurley on Facebook. Doc Gurley is the only Harvard Medical School graduate, ever, to be awarded the coveted Shoney’s Ten Step Pin for documented excellence in waitressing, and is a practicing board-certified internist. You can get more health posts at www.docgurley.com, or jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley. Also check out Doc Gurley’s joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds – so you can get topic-specific fun, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your personal wellth.