From:

http://www.krzystek.eu/searchid.php

Network Meet and Mingle meeting of March 6

In addition to a good turnout of new and old Network members, we had the treat of hosting professional photographer Wayne Chinnock at our informal "Meet and Mingle" meeting on March 6.  Wayne worked with our partner Haiti Help Med in the south and with some other organizations in other parts of Haiti before coming up and spending the week with Hands Up for Haiti.

I have posted all the pictures to our Facebook group "Cap Haitien Health Network", but have included a couple highlights here.  As we usually do at these meetings, everyone had a chance to introduce themselves and their organization before breaking off to discuss things with each other. 

There are many other images of Wayne's experience in Haiti on his (Wayne E. Chinnock) and the Network's Facebook pages.

Visit to Perches

We made a brief stop in Perches on Feb. 8 after our clinic in Danda.  We had Dr. Mesadieu, who does mobile clinics there, Dr. Eugene, Dr. Ally Joseph, Juline from the Network Support Team, Pastor Elima Etienne from Danda, and some of the visiting students from the nursing and surgical tech school from Lorain Community College in Ohio, with Joseph and Jean Brunel, interpreters, all in Dr. Eugene's truck.

The Network recently connected with the Haitian Baptist Church of Orlando which it turned out has connections, through their pastor, in Perches.  Pastor Antoine Fils-Aime is from there, and has directed his church to assist the village in a long term, broad way.  They are building a new church, which will have a clinic.  They bring a team with medical and other volunteers to the village at least once a year.  Patrick Delice and Jean Leblanc are part of the HABCO Haiti mission leadership team that I met in Orlando.

I was surprise that Perches was a little larger, better organized, and nicer than expected for a village that does not show up on most maps.  It is in the northeast department, not too far from Grand Bassin, which is a central larger village south of Terrier Rouge.

Dr. Mesadieu introduced us to the nurse in charge of the Dispensaire of Perches (currently the only healthcare there), named Paul Marie Lourdes.  She is pictured with Dr. Mesadieu.  Coincidentally, he and her husband also have a connection with Fort Bourgeois, way back near Cap Haitien, where Dr. Mesadieu has his ULS clinic.  We also met the other nurse of the dispensaire.

The dispensaire has an exam room, a central main room, and a pharmacy with just a handful of meds on part of one shelf.  

They have a separate semipermanent cholera tent, an education area, and a latrine.

They would welcome visiting volunteers and mobile clinic teams to help them.

On the way out, we stopped at the guest house that the HABCO members stay, and met the owner.  It was a very nice house with nice grounds, and they were receiving visitors just coming in for Kanaval.

We look forward to working with Perches and HABCO as participants in the Network.  

Lecture at Justinien

I was happy to be invited to speak on a pediatric topic at the conference room of Justinien Hospital on Wednesday, Feb. 6.  The talk was organized by Patricia Sedlak, RN, professor at Lorain Community College in Ohio, and Yanick from the the North Haiti Nurses Association.  Continuing Education Credits for nurses with American licenses were arranged, too.  The pediatric residents and some other doctors from surgery and anesthesia also attended, as well as Pat's visiting nursing and surgical tech students.  The room was PACKED, at least 60 people, I would estimate.

The talk was entitled "Essential Physical Assessment in Pediatrics, or, Why a examination must be done for a sick child".  The power point presentation, with some pretty clear photos I was able to gather, is posted on the files section of the Network's Yahoo group, if you are interested.  The talk was very practical and clinical, emphasizing how the findings completely change your management, so if you haven't examined for them, you can easily be doing the wrong management for your patient.  I also was able to demonstrate ausculation, ear, and throat exams through the projector and demonstration.  I also brought a digital camera integrated otoscope which didn't work great but did show some of the picture of a normal ear to the audience.

I had some nursing students try to look in one of the visiting volunteers ears to demonstrate that technique.  I think it is especially important to Haitian nurses who often practice along in village dispensaire's.  One of the first students scratched the volunteers ear with the ear speculum; after that I could show the next students what blood in the ear canal looked like (but I abandoned having them using the otoscope solo--I told them to practice on ear other).  

A lively discussion followed the talk.  We have the help of young surgeon , who turned out to be the best medical English-Creole interpreter in the room.  I also had the great help of psychologist Dr. Joseph Saintus who interpreted the bulk of the presentation.

I haven't done something like this for a while, and it was always with a much more dry research bend, so it was different, and pretty fun, and I think gave the audience something to think about, and something to practice!

Haiti Village Health Medical Team

I spent a week in January working with Haiti Village Health's medical volunteer team providing paediatric outreach clinics.

The team was made up of 3 doctors, 3 nurses, 5 nursing students and non medical support staff.  We saw a total of 375 patients across the region of Bas Limbe, Ladadee and Shada.

We treated a lot of children for worms, scabies, tinia and malaria.  We also provided a lot of education for the patients and their mothers during the consultation, on general hygiene, how to prevent malaria and cholera, and ways to improve their level of nutrition.


This pie chart shows the overall ratio of diagnoses throughout the week:

The team, many of whom had been to the region this time last year, commented on how the overall health of the children had improved since they last came.  We saw many more 'well children', than previous years, which was positively reinforced to the parents.

We also provided education session for the youth of Bod Me Limbe and Labadee on sexual education.  We talked about how to protect against STDs and the team answered questions asked by the young people.  The team also helped the community of Bod Me Limbe to do a beach clean-up.

I personally think its a great idea that medical teams come to the north of Haiti to provide consultations for people who have poor access to healthcare, and to provide education on health promotion and disease prevention to these communities.

Report from MSPP Nord Director: Une prise en charge adequate realisee en urgence a Justinien

(google translate of message below:

 

I share with you these photos taken during surgery for thoracoabdominal wound on a youth, pierced by an iron bar.

It has just been extracted without complication.

Despite various constraints, providers of HUJ perform amazing feats every day that deserve also be rented. Major efforts are currently being made ​​to change the face of HUJ and make it a public institution model.

Stay close to us and support these efforts. )

Bonjour,

 

Je partage avec vous ces photos prises lors d'une intervention pour une plaie thoraco-abdominale, sur un jeune, transpercé par une barre de fer. 

 

Il vient d'etre exéaté sans complication.

 

Malgre les contraintes diverses, les prestataires de l'HUJ réalisent chaque jour des exploits extraordinaires qui meritent aussi d'etre loués. De gros efforts sont en train d'etre faits pour changer le visage de l'HUJ et faire de lui un etablissement public modèle.

 

Restez proches de nous et soutenez ces efforts.

 

Dr Ernst-Robert Jasmin
Directeur DSN

MSPP/HAITI

Rue 18 Boulevard, Cap-Haitien, Haiti                                 
Tel :  3721-1935