Grand Tour of the southern North

3 sections of Bendawest pharmacy

Bendawest Clinic in Ranquitte

Ranquitte MSPP clinic

La Victoire clinic

pharmacy at Baptist Hospital

voluminous waiting room at Hospital

Baptist Hospital of St. Raphael

permanent CTC at St. Raphael clinic

tent CTC at St. Raphael clinic

lab at St. Raphael clinic

Anna + Juline visit St. Raphael pharmacy

Dr. Adeski Moise with our Team at the

St. Raphael MSPP clinic in front of labor room

St. Raphael MSPP Clinic pictures above

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, our Team headed out on a grand tour of the Grand Riviere section of the Nord Department. We started on NR 3 out of Quartier Morin--this road will someday soon be fixed as part of the overall rehab of NR 3 from PAP to Cap, unfortunately, that did not help us today, as it was a true lunar landscape slow motion ride! With our car full of walkers and crutches that we received from Network partner For Haiti with Love to distribute at the clinics. Our first stop was the Dondon MSPP clinic where we met Dr. Yslande Amazan, who has been practicing general practice there for 1 year. The clinic also has 2 nurses and 2 nursing assistants (n.a.). The only outside help this clinic has received has been from Oxfam and MSF for cholera--a new separate building was build, plus they have a tent and a new water system.Dondon Clinic sees 10-20 pts/day, and they had 2 cases of cholera last week. They send referral to Milot, Justinian, and Grand Riviere. We left some meds in their pharmacy and got back on the rugged road.

Next we moved on to the dusty valley town of St. Raphael. Our first stop there was at the newly built St Raphael MSPP clinic.

It was quite impressive, with the old building being used for storage, and the new building clean and nicely laid out, even having 2 observation/short stay rooms. The Medical Director is Dr. Wesly Louis, and our friend and neighbor to our depot, Dr. Adeski Moise is the second doctor there. They have 6 nurses, 3 lab techs and some lab aids. They can test for malaria, Widal test, urinalysis and pregnancy test, vaginal smears, syphilis, parasites, and blood count by microscope. (lab pictured)They refer to the St. Raphael Baptist Hospital (see next) for deliveries. HIV care and admissions are sent to Pignon.They have a nice procedure room they use for sutures, draining abcesses, deliveriesOne thing they needed was more antibiotics (hardly any in their pharmacy, also pictured), including ceftriaxone. They also asked for chairs (got 20 from ASAP). We saw the scale we distributed to them from DRIThey also have a nice call room. They have a generator and 8 batteries, but currently the inverter is broken.No cholera cases now.USAID/MSH pays some of the salaries along with MSPP. We left them some meds for their pharmacy.Over in a much quieter area behind most of the town is the Baptist Hospital of St. Raphael, that was started many years ago by the family of Pastors there, now led by Pastor Serge Fayette. Pastor Fayette met us and took us on a tour of this facility, that 2 years ago they turned into a hospital, from a clinic. It is quite large, at least 7000 square feet, and has a voluminous waiting room that is sometimes used for meetings (pictured). Currently they have 1 doctor, Dr. Bertane Adrien Nivol, 2 nurses, 4 NA, and 1 lab tech. They have 1 x-ray machine. Their administrator is Jonas Norvil. They see from 10-25 patients per day. During cholera, they saw 2060 patients and 40 died. MSF helped them after a month into the epidemic, but are gone now and there are no patients with cholera currently. They have a materniaty and postpartum area, OR (in disrepair), medical wards, call rooms, storage, etc, and are open 24 hours. They have 3 big broken generates and 2 propane generators that are too expensive for them to run regularly (100 US per day).They also have a 252 foot deep well and a nice guest house and doctors quarters nearby. They get meds from ASAP and there is a Dr. Gary in New York that has a plan to try to help. Unfortunately, they are currently struggling greatly financially.We left some meds and crutches/walkers and then bid adieu to Pastor Fayette and went on to pass through Pignon, where we stopped briefly to see the Famous Hospital of Dr. Guy Theodore. We met his nephew, who is an administrator there, and several other doctors and administrator in the courtyard, but Dr. Theodore was not there. We invited the group of leaders to join the Network, and then moved on to the La Victoire MSPP Clinic. Even though it was mid afternoon by time we got there, this clinic was packed!! There doctor is Dr. Elie Joseph. Mdm Philistine is the nurse, who came and got materials from the Project Cure container for this clinic. They have 6 solar panels, but no electricity now due to bad batteries. They were in the process of giving the clinic a new paint job on the day of our visit. They do not have running water. They do have an observation/delivery area. World Food Program helps them with a nutrition program. We left them some more meds.Next we hit the rockiest and harshest road to go into Ranquitte. This is probably where the oil reservoir of our Network's vehicle got punctured (see below). Ranquitte is also where Team leader Djailcovsky grew up, and he knows lots of people on the streets! First there we stopped at the, at this point, empty Centre de Sante Ranquitte. It has 3 in patient beds, 1 nurse, 3 NA, but no doctor. We left some antibiotics from Globus and went on to the Bendawest Clinic of Christian Flights International in a compound in another part of town. Ronnie and Rachel Allen, nurses from Kentucky in the US, recently started a one year stint in the clinic. Ronnie is a neonatal nurse and also does adult step down ICU care. Rachel works in the ICU. They showed us around along with Fresnel, the Administrator (earlier in our trip, we met Dr. McMorrow and Lesley Smart from CFI). We learned that there are 26000 people in the town, and no doctor. They have 3 teams a year from CFI (and there is a team from Peacework Medical that comes annually). Ivy Solomon started this mission and ran it for 50 years; she is in US now in poor health. Ramide is the Haitian nurse in charge, and there is another nurse that works with her. They do TB tests there, and have a malnutrition program. The clinic is registered with MSPP. They do not do vaccines. They have 6 Solar panels with a battery system for the refridgerator in the clinic. We left meds for their pharmacy, and then discovered that there was a leak from the oil reservoir of our vehicle. Ronnie and some of the people in the village found some silicon sealant to put a temporary patch so we could continue our journey....We called ahead to our next stop, the Catholic clinic in Bahon for them to try to locate us some motor oil, which they were starting to do when we arrived on the much better "other side" of the road, no longer NR 3, that goes along the Grand Riviere. We came down the mountain from Ranquitte and arrived at the church in Bahon in the darkness. I have corresponded for a few years with Patty from the twin parish in Nashville, Tennessee, but it was great to finally meet her in person. We have come to Bahon several times, but this is the first time when the twin parish team was there. We had a great discussion about the Network and medical care in Haiti with there enthusiastic and dedicated team, and got a little bit more oil for our car, before heading out in the dark. Should we stop at Grand Riviere and Milot hospitals???? Exhaustion and safety won out, our vehicle persevered, and we made it back to Cap for one more day of visits planned. (fortunately, our friends' mechanic was able to repair the vehicle the next day, although it grounded us for the morning, it could have been much worse!) Ted and Elisabeth Kaplan