MercyWorks Blog

By PATRICK S. BUTLER
Religion Editor – TylerPaper.com

The “heartbreaking” conditions of “families who have lost everything” has been the week-long scenario Smith County medical workers have endured in Haiti since Tuesday.

The team sent from Youth With A Mission of Tyler’s MercyWorks has experienced “overwhelming conditions” during their week-long stay, a MercyWorks staffer on the scene in Haiti said.

Dr. Jack Jorden, an ER doctor with Mother Frances, treated patients this past week.

Each Monday MercyWorks will send a new team of medical volunteers to Haiti by MercyWorks, said Debbie Lascelles, director of the Garden Valley ministry. Financial donations and medical volunteers especially will be needed in the weeks to come, she added.

On the ground for the Tyler Courier-Times–Telegraph sending photographs and updates as conditions warrant is Glenn Price, communications director for MercyWorks. Price has been working “16 hours a day” with the team, which includes emergency room doctor Jack Jorden of Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler.

The stressful conditions the team has been working under, and the sheer volume of help yet needed, has taken its toll on the team, who nonetheless continue to do their utmost.

DISPATCH

A “Dispatch From Haiti” by Price sent early Saturday morning describes the woeful scene, some joyful moments and some perspectives gained by MercyWorks team members:

“We were involved in a dramatic rescue today. A young man who had been trapped in the rubble of a vegetable shop for 11 days was discovered. MercyWorks volunteers were the first ones Haitians called upon when they found him. We administered IV and water and did a lot of digging before the Israeli force arrived and got him out. There was also an 89-year-old woman rescued today from the rubble. Truly, it was a ‘Haitian celebration’ day for people desperate for good news.

Our team of 12, consisting mainly of medical personnel, has been working out of the National Police headquarters just one block from the National Palace. The police station was ruined in the earthquake, but there are five rooms still standing in the building. This central location is ideal for helping the injured as many people are brought here for treatment.

The team is daily experiencing the challenges and rewards of stretching outside of our comfort zones.  We see people in our clinic every day who have broken bones, head injuries and deep gashes into their flesh all from rubble from the earthquake falling on them, among other things.

But that is the easy part.  Nearly everyone who comes to us for medical help has lost a family member or more in the tragic quake.  One 22-year-old woman who is three months pregnant lost her mother and father and now has to be the mother to her younger siblings while preparing to have her own baby.  Another young girl lost her parents and now will raise her five younger brothers and sisters — without any house to live in as that was destroyed as well.

The medical team is still processing a number of feelings and thoughts about our time in Haiti this past week.  Some express feelings that what we are doing is so insignificant, just a “drop in the ocean of need.”

Others say they have tried not to be overwhelmed by the suffering so as to make them inadequate to serve.  Dr. Jack Jorden remarked how much he has learned from the Haitians on this trip.

“They have suffered so much and go about their lives without complaining or demanding,” he said.  ”Instead they are grateful for the help they are receiving.”

Emergency Medical Technician Sam Jorden, Jack’s son, had a similar response to what he was seeing.

“This had made me look at life differently,” he said. “I will never see things from the same perspective. I had a ‘bad day’ recently when my dog ate my passport the week before I was to leave for Haiti.  Never again will I complain as much about things that really are so minor.  This trip has redefined for me what a bad day truly looks like.”

People are walking around with surgical masks to keep from smelling the decaying bodies. The stench is particularly bad under collapsed buildings, indicating some or several people were dead beneath the rubble. Many of the streets are still uncleared and not usable.

It is still heartbreaking to see families who have lost everything, now huddled under a tarp. People are desperate for water, for food, for medical treatment, for help of any kind.

The National Palace is still a shock to see one week after the earthquake. The flag of Haiti waves sadly as onlookers come by to stare at their once-prized jewel. For Americans, the closest thing to comprehending how the Haitian people are taking this, is to imagine the White House lying in ruins.

Within spitting distance of the National Palace tent cities have sprung up. People who have nowhere to go sometimes just take a place on the ground as they wait for help. The tent cities are all throughout the capital. People do their cooking, their laundry and everything all out in the open.

The MercyWorks medical team served hundreds of people daily and took time to listen and to pray with those who came for help.  Working with us was Registered Nurse Naomi Jean-Baptiste, a third year Duke medical student originally from Haiti and interested in pursuing International Health.

“I always thought I would visit other countries before ever returning to Haiti,” she said. “But when the earthquake struck, I knew I must go back and do something.  After my trip with MercyWorks, I know I will go back to Haiti again and do something long-term to make a lasting difference.

In the foreseeable future, Mercy Works teams will be helping in Haiti, sending in waves of teams each week. The next team consists of 20 medical staff and will arrive in Haiti on Jan. 27.”