Visit to Caracol

Our Network Support Team with Elisabeth and I and nursing students from Ohio and Trish and Walter from Friends of Ft. Liberte all visited the once anonymous village of Caracol, by the ocean in the northeast.  Now it is the site of the new Industrial Park that is being built, fortunately on the way in to town and not on the water, and is expected to have eventually 60000 workers there.

There is currently still only a MSPP clinic in town, and a dispensaire.  The MSPP clinic is supported by the priest, Father du Village, who was out of town again on this visit, but he sent his associate priest to meet us.  We also met the two nurses, Mortimer Helen, who works for the church, and Nadege Lamour, who works for MSPP.  As we learned on our last visit in February 2011, the nurses deliver babies.  Since then, they have gotten a doctor, currently Dr. Riviere Maite who works there 3 days a week. 

The pharmacy is down the street from the clinic in the Catholic school.  We saw a lot of meds that we had sent from Direct Relief on their shelves.  Edna Pierre works in the pharmacy (pictured).  We were told they had trouble getting amoxicillin, cipro, and cotrimoxazole.  Fortunately we had cipro with us supplied by Globus Relief, and gave the pharmacy a tray of 12 bottles of 100 tabs of cipro.

They also have an ambulance, which we saw parked in the school courtyard, which is of interest as an emergency medical system is developed for the area.

There was also a request for HIV drugs, as there are problems with women refusing to go to the official clinics for that.  We explained that we did not want to do that in a less than fully organized way due to the potential for resistance to develop with inconsistent use, but understand the problem and will try to look for a solution.  There was also a request for condoms.

We saw the village cholera tent in another part of the village, which has no patients at this time (as was the case in all of the cholera facilities we saw on this trip, thank goodness).

They have electricity for the clinic, but need a nebulizer.  There is still unused radiology equipment in the clinic.

 

We also met a member of the Presbyterian church of Pator Payotte, named Kinson, as Pastor was also not available on that day.  Kinson showed us the school where the visiting teams from Indiana come 3-4 times per year, whom I have met before on their way out of the area.  The water system that has been developed there is pictured in the photo.

Kinson says that a team of dentists is coming soon.  We asked for the dates of all teams so we can make services know to the Network.  Kinson says that all are welcome to the visiting team clinics.

 

We have been asking to try to find out what the Industrial park plans for healthcare services for all the new people, and try to get all those interested in the village on board to make things as good as possible in the mean time and hopefully benefitting in the near future from greater resources for healthcare.

 

Ted Kaplan, MD

Clinique Medico Churirgical of Dr. Guy Dugue

On Jan. 27th, we had the chance to find out what that nice clinic many of us pass by on the way west out of Cap is all about.  It is labeled "Clinique Medico Churirgical" and I always assumed it was a private outpatient surgery center.  Well it is...and it isn't.

 

It is operated by Dr. Guy Dugue, who has practice in the area for over 25 years, in Cap and at this clinic.  The clinic is actually a community clinic for the poor, empahasizing family planning, prenatal care, and general medicine and pediatrics, supported by USAID, MSPP, and PEPFAR.  Dr. Dugue works there as well as his daugher Gaelle, who is a nurse trained at Justinian Hospital's nursing school.  His other daughter, Gessica, who completed medical school and internship in the DR, also helps him for now, as well as a staff of nurses, nurses aids, lab techs, an administrator, and a pharmacy person. Things are well organized and professional. (The OR, lab, and pharmacy are pictured.)

At the clinic, they have placed 2000 norplants, they do HIV testing and treatment, they do vasectomies and tubal ligations, and do recurring mobile clinics in the remote areas of Balan, Duty, and Gileron.

We provide 6 hemostats and later in the week were able to give a donated autoclave, after their autoclave finally gave out after 20 years!!

 

Dr. Dugue welcomes assistance from visiting teams and supporting organizations to work with him in this important work.

 

Ted Kaplan, MD

Visit to Campion

We were invited by Pastor Rwosvelt Chery to visit Campion, in the sugar cane fields between Vaudreuil and Milot. Elisabeth has been there before when Joshua was an infant.

 

This is an especially undeveloped area.  The church is in a native shelter, and they do not have any buildings for a school or clinic.  Pastor has found a church in the US, CrossPointe Church of Alabama, whose mission efforts are coordinated by Mike Nevin, to start to help them.  They have built a small building for storage of supplies, dug a well, started a school, and made over 100 concrete "Fossa Alterna" latrines in the area.  They have a nurse coming weekly to do clinic, but no medication sponsorship--the Network has given some soap in the past and will supply medications as well in the future.

 

Our family was graciously blessed by the Pastor in Sunday services, especially for our son with the powerful biblical name, Joshua David!

 

We are encouraged with some progress being made in Campion.

 

Ted Kaplan, MD

  

Living Waters International

Djailcovsky took us to visit Brandon Stone and his awesome Great Dane at the beautiful guest house of Living Waters International in Madeline.

 

They specialize in drilling or rehabbing wells.  Their US headquarters is in Houston, Texas.

They focus on 2 communities at a time, this year will be St. Sizan and Milot.

Teams come monthly to help do the drilling and community organizations work.

We look forward to continuing to develop stronger ties with LWI and Brandon to coordinate and extend clean water for the region.

 

Ted Kaplan, MD
 

  

Lutherien Clinic

Lutherien clinic is located in Madeline,Cap-Haitien. the clinic has 1 nurse but no doctor, 1 lab technician, and 1 staff working in the pharmacy. They received about 3oo patients per month, open five days a week Monday-Friday from 7:30am - 2:00pm, there was a doctor name Sherly ever since the chrolera outbrake she left the clinic, Pastor Eliona is in process of finding a doctor for the clinic. The pastor is losing most of his patients because the people of the community do not want a nurse to do consultation for them, charge of consultation is 50 gourdes without medications include. It depend on what kind of medication for the patients to be charge because the clinic buy their own medication for the pharmacy to stay in function, if the medication are donated they do not charge their patients. Lutherien clinic is not partnering with any organizations only the Lutherien church from the states send medical team every year, when they do come they see 500 people in one week. Pastor Eliona is adding a new part to the clinic for X-ray, Dental and a observation room but it is not completed because the pastor does not have any fund.

First Trip to Ft. Liberte

Elisabeth and I finally had a chance to visit Ft. Liberte for the first time on Saturday, Jan. 28.  We were led by Trish Putnam, a nurse practitioner from near D.C., who also had her husband Walter with her for his first trip to Haiti.

 

Trish is with the Friends of Ft. Liberte that has been working for many years there to develop a clinic, and has supported the development of schools, an orphanage, and a farm.  They work closely with Pastor Andre Jean, who we had the pleasure of meeting.  He has been working for over 30 years and has build impressive development projects for the community.

 

The clinic was very nice and well organized and supplied. They have a Haitian doctor, 2 nurses, and Ti Papi is the clinic manager. They have a lab with a lab technicican, and do malaria, blood type, urinalysis, Widal test, and QBC counts, among other tests. Several visiting teams of medical professionals come there every year to supplement the ongoing clinic.  Mary, a PA, was there working already at that time. (Trish and Nancy then helped us with a health screening at an orphanage in Vaudreuil.)

 

We noticed that the church and guest house of Pastor Andre was across the street from Caritas of the Northeast, headed by our friend Father Medenal.  We spoke with both Father Medenal and Pastor Andre of this coincidence and encouraged them to work together on health projects that they both work on, which they were very receptive to doing.

 

We also visited the beautiful new orphanage buildings being built by a visiting construction team of Friends of Ft. Liberte.

 

On our way out of town, we stopped by the government hospital in Ft. Liberte, and met the orthopedic team brought in by Berry Rice of Clinique Esperance et Vie of Terrier Rouge, who was setting up to do orthopedic surgeries in the coming week.  We had sent out a message to the Network about this opportunity, and were looking for cases in our travels (we ended up sending 3 patients).

 

FONDATION HAITIENNE DE REHABILITATION = FONHARE

On Tuesday, Jan. 31 we made a visit to Ounaminthe to see the new Network organization called   FONDATION HAITIENNE DE REHABILITATION  otherwise known as FONHARE.  It was started a few months ago by Haitian physical therapist Ivens Louisis, who had worked for the prior 6 years in the Dominican Republic, after getting his trianing in physical therapy.  He knew there was great need for his services in Haiti and decided to come back to contribute to his country. 

 

The initial clinic is in a room at his brother's "Polyclinic" on Rue Liberte in Ounaminth. Dr. Fresnel Louisis is an obstetrician, and there is also an internal medicine physician there.

Ivens has 2 therapy tables, some electrical stim and other modalities.  We brought him some more crutches and walkers that we got from For Haiti With Love.  He sent a patient that was been seen then, with an above knee amputation and run down crutches, out on one of the crutches we provided.

 

We let him know that there was an orthopedic team in Ft. Liberte that day and the next day that could help the amputee's infected stump and another patient's ACL knee injury (we found out later that day that there was ANOTHER ortho team actually operating in Ounaminthe that week--we got both other their contacts and will try to help everyone be more coordinated with that information in the future!!).  We also informed the orthopedic teams that there was a PT available--Ivens-- who could help their patients with post operative rehabilitation, which they were worried about and thought would have to wait until their next trip!!

 

Ivens and Fresnel showed us the site of the new OB office and FONHARE therapy centers, that will be next to each other on the main road from Cap to the DR that goes through the center of Ounaminthe.  It is an impressive new building that will have all the modern amenities and be a good place to refer patients for PT or OB care.  Dr. Louisis does ultrasounds for 500 gourdes--which is a very reasonable way to get OB ultrasounds when needed.

 

We enjoyed learning about FONHARE and Ivens is very enthusiastic about networking with other rehab programs in our Network, with the goal of making services available and convenient all over the region and country.

Vaudreuil Area Visits on Feb. 2

On the last day of our trip, our Network car needed some repairs after braving NR 3 to Ranquitte.  When it was ready, we took the opportunity to finally visit a few Network partners in the Vaudreuil area, where we had been staying but always leaving!

 

Father Abraham, now the priest of Bord de Mer Limonade (which does not have any staff for their clinic!) has set up his initial goat and small animal farm where he hopes to raise meet for protein and for funds to help orphanages in the region.  It is out in Plain du Nord, not too far from Vaudreuil, up on a hill in a beautiful area, with several goats, chickens, pigs, and a cow, just like Old Macdonald's farm!

 

We have already started linking Father Abraham with orphanages and other pertinent organizations within the Network.

 

I finally got to see one of Elisabeth's favorite places, Mama Baby Haiti, the birthing center opened by an organization of midwives and naturopathic doctors last year.

Currently, they have 3 Haitian midwives working there along with a rotation of visiting US midwives and naturopaths.

They have 3 delivery rooms. They run prenatal clinic in another room. In their dormitory they have a pharmacy that features homeopathic preparations along with more standard medications. 

They have also developed sustainable gardens and a chicken coop in their yard.

Sarah is the on site director now, and she is planning a seminar for March on maternal-fetal topics.

 

Finally, we stopped by and visited Geordani Jean Baptiste, formerly in charge of St. Francois de Sales parish and hospital, now working for the Catholic Diocese's ASAP projects, where they receive and distribute medications from Food for the Poor and other Catholic charities, and they are developing a guest house for visiting volunteers that is going to open soon.  They have a medication/supply depot and a truck that they will make available to the Network when needed for larger scale distributions that our own vehicles cannot handle.

 

It was a pleasure to have a soda with Geordani at the site of his new project.



 

  

Meeting with the Monsignor of Cap Haitien

Thanks to our friend and ambassador for the Network, Madame Maude Dugue, Elisabeth and I had the chance to meet with Monsignor Louis Kebreau, the Archbishop of Cap Haitien at the Diocese headquarters on the main plaza in Cap on Feb. 2. He was very gracious as baby Anna crawled on the floor of his receiving parlor.  He is already familiar with what we have been doing, supportive of the Network, and is very sympathetic to the need to make the most of available resources to improve healthcare services in the area.  He suggested we continue to work with Geordani Jean Baptiste, who is supervising the medication efforts for the Diocese.  We look forward to continuing this relationship on behalf of the Network. 

Fort Bourgeois clinic

Fort bourgeois clinic is located in Cap-Haitien on road to Labadee. Elisabeth and I talked to Dr. Bien-Aime, Farah about the clinic.

The people of the community where asking for a clinic to be located there because they were in need of medical attention, they would have to take a boat to Labadee to be seen by a doctor or travel to Justinien for care. These doctors are from the area so the people of the commmunity knew who to come to for help.. A meeting was form to discuss with the community about needing there support on making this happen because the area is known for trouble making, everybody agreed to support.

The doctors got together and rent a building to do the clinic. The clinic open Monday-Friday from 8am-3pm , there are 2 doctors and 2 nurses. They see about 150 people per month, they charge 250gudes for consultation this includes medications. The clinic buy their own medications, MSPP gave them a letter to buy medications form Justinien for a low price. The staff also do mobil clinic to the outside area of Fort Bourgois which is still considered Fort Bourgois every month, a few days ago they went to place called Haut rahand that place is very poor and the people never medicale care before. The people received free health care and medications, the doctors keep a medical chart for the people to go back to their clinic for fellow ups. The clinic has 1 room consultation, 1 pharmacy room, 1 waiting room and 1 lab room thats not fully set yet they need help on getting equipments for the lab room. they do consultations,fellow up visits from Justinien and dressing.