Published 01/02/2010 10:00
Edited 16/03/2010
14:39
It’s just before nine o’clock in the morning when the Finnish Red Cross car pulls up at Place Jeremy in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. Two doctors, three nurses and a midwife get out and walk to the tent that has been erected in the square. Haitian Red Cross volunteers help to carry four boxes of medicines and other medical supplies to the tent, along with a couple of tables and some chairs. In ten minutes, the clinic is ready to receive its first patients.
- This has become routine now; for us this is day nine. We’ve become a crew that works well together, with everybody knowing their job, says nurse Jaana Ihalainen. She has worked in other Finnish Red Cross mobile clinics before, in Pakistan, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Ihalainen unpacks medicines together with Haitian Red Cross volunteer Jacinthe Kerline. Jacinthe is an invaluable help in the distribution of medication: she translates the dosage instructions into the local creole for the patients. Volunteers also help to register patients, translate and to keep order.
One of the first visitors today is Chery Shilem, a young mother. She has come to the clinic for the second time with her one-year-old daughter Mina who has an inflamed wound in her right cheek. The wound, about the size of a thumbprint, needs to be cleaned every few days.
The little girl, her parents’ only child, was taking a nap when the earthquake struck on January 12. Her mother was outside washing dishes in the yard, and her father was in town when their house collapsed, trapping Mina inside.
- I called for Mina many times, shouting her name, but there was no answer. We thought she must have died. On the third day after the quake I heard her shout “Mummy!”. We asked the neighbours to help us and we finally got her out of the rubble. I am so grateful that Mina is alive, says Chery Shilem.
Bruises, infected wounds, skin problems
The Finnish Red Cross mobile clinic, sent to Haiti three days after the quake, has been seeing patients in two different districts of Port-au-Prince.
- By now we have attended to 1,225 patients, an average of 150 patients a day, says the Finnish team leader Marla Nykyri. Having been an aid worker after the quakes in Iran and Pakistan, she knows what it entails to work with patients after an earthquake.
- In the first wave, we get patients with injuries caused by the earthquake, such as bruises and deep, infected wounds. Then we start to see other infections, such as diarrhoea and skin and respiratory infections. As time passes, we start seeing patients with more common complaints, such as flu, fever or headache.
The clinic is trying to fill the gaps in the Haitian healthcare system caused by the destruction of the country’s infrastructure. At present there are less than 30 healthcare units in Port-au-Prince, about half of which are being run by international NGOs. In addition to the Finnish Red Cross mobile clinic, the German and Japanese Red Cross Societies have sent healthcare stations, while the Norwegian Red Cross has sent a field hospital. Care capacity will improve as a joint German and Finnish field hospital is getting ready to open its doors in neighbouring Carrefour.
- We do get patients that we have to send on to the nearest hospital. This little girl, for instance, has such a serious wound in her head that it requires a surgeon,’ explains nurse Monika Hörling of a two-year-old patient. The girl’s skull bone has been exposed by a wound the size of a hand.
Newborn baby found in the trash
Caring for pregnant women and those who have recently given birth is a vital part of the basic healthcare provided by the mobile clinic. Midwife Gunnel Nordlander sees some two dozen clients every day. The lack of healthcare services is obvious.
- We’ve treated babies two- or three-days-old who have been born in the street. Today, a female police officer brought in an HIV-positive baby who had been left in a bin. We might see more cases like that when severely distressed people find they can’t care for a new family member, says Gunnel.
One of the two Swedes working at the Finnish Red Cross clinic, Gunnel is amazed by the ability of the Haitians to face the destruction of the earthquake so calmly.
- So many times I find myself wishing I could give the patients food or money, and often in the evenings the last thing I think about before I fall asleep is how my patients are doing.
- People have an extraordinary ability to survive. One woman who was seven months pregnant had lost nine members of her family in the quake, but even so she told us she was trying to rejoice over the new life that awaits her when her baby is born.
For the Finnish Red Cross the day spent working in scorching heat ends before nightfall, when it is time to pack the clinic into the car and get some rest. The following morning there will be another couple of hundred people waiting outside the tent.
Text and photos: Noora Kero
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