Home evaluations in Haiti...

 This blog is for my OT/PT friends and co-workers...

Welcome to YouYoute's tent.  She had a tent located on land that the owner was donating for a short time after the earthquake.  She was in our rehab center at the time of the notification for removal of all the tents from the land.  She couldn't move her tent so the land owner burned it down.

On the home eval form:  Entrance: none

 Thankfully, just 15 miles down the rocky, pitted road into the country-side, we found the home of her family!  They were very welcoming and we found out she has a 4 year old son, Elisinor.  YouYoute is the lady in the yellow and pink in the middle.  The little boy wouldn't let go of her pink skirt the whole time we were there.  They were very excited to see YouYoute and want her to live with them.

 However, on the home eval form:  independent with transfers in/out of bed?  No, she doesn't have a bed and they have 16 people living between three houses.  This photo shows two homes.  So, she needs a tent or a temporary shelter and is on the list for shelters being donated by organizations here. 

 Home eval: Can patient access laundry facilities?  Yes, as long as she can sit on the ground.  Which she can, even though she has significant injury to her leg that prevents her from bending it.  Gotta wonder what my knee replacements will say when I ask them to get up and down off the floor with less than 90 degrees of knee flexion? Many of the people here are very resilient and determined.

 This is Elfine's new home.  She lost her leg in the earthquake and received her amputation and aftercare at Camp Hope.  She lived in a tent and was one of the first people to be able to move into these cute little houses the organization is building for the people that have received care from them and now live in the tent city located on the same property.

Elfine is 6 months pregnant and expecting a little girl sometime in February.   She does have a prosthetic for her above-the-knee amputation, but it doesn't fit right now due to her pregnancy.

 This gray bed is Efine's, which she will share with her 3 year son and soon, her new baby girl.  The other bed is for her mother.  There are two other beds in her house for her sister-in-law and her two school age children.  This makes me so thankful for my home in Alexandria.  It will feel like a mansion when I get back home :)

 Home eval:  Can the patient access the toilet?  Yes, she walks on one leg with crutches to the outhouse - The orange building in the middle.  The place is very clean and they have toilets versus a hole in the ground. 

 Home Eval:  Can the patient shower independently?  Yes, once she brings the bucket from this spout to her home for a "bucket shower".  The water is clean and safe...and cold.

 This middle pink house is Elfine's.  In Haiti, these  houses are top-of-the-line.  I think they are just adorable.  We all know how much I like cute, cozy, little houses!!

 While here, Elfine became very close with another female patient, Wideline.  She has a spinal cord injury from an infection.  It was a difficult outing for Wideline.  She has been in some sort of hospital setting for a long time.  We practiced car transfers and wheelchair mobility, including a 4 inch step.  She did well, but on the way home, I could she see was overwhelmed by our excursion and very sad about saying goodbye.  So was I!  We all cried and the two guys with us just made fun of us.  Typical men :)  Some things are the same in all countries!

This is the school built right on site for all the children at Camp Hope and Love-A-Child orphanage.  The Haitians are very dedicated to educating their children.


Say a prayer tonight thanking God for all the wonderful things you have: toilets, showers, hot water, electricity, safe roofs over your heads, good roads, clean water.  All the things we take for granted every day. 

A roller coaster Saturday!

On Saturday we went to New Life Orphanage to visit the disabled children there.  The orphanage does a great job of caring for them in a difficult situation.  We brought toys and held and played with them for the morning.  They were very sweet and so happy to see us and get some new toys. 

This little cutie is what they call an "earthquake baby".  He was born 2 weeks before the earthquake and his parents died in the earthquake, he was found by aid workers in the rubble.  Thank God the Haitian mama's wrap their babies in lots of blankets in the winter time!

They had beautful gardens there that are tended by the able-bodied children that live there.  The boys have their garden...




And the girls have their own!  The two people that run the orphanage encourage the girls to learn different trades and to not believe they are only meant to clean house, cook and take care of children.  Very progressive!!

That afternoon, we had our first cholera case arrive at the clinic.  The young boy was carried by his mother but had already passed away by the time she arrived.  We spent the rest of the day maintaining a campfire to boil water so we could boil all the families clothes, then bleach rinse them.  It was bitter sweet morning that become a sad, difficult day.  

after the hurricane...

 Bon jou tout moun!!  That means Good Day Everyone :)

Last week was a short week. Monday and Tuesday were the Haitian Holidays of All Saints Day and All Soul's Day.  After Lyndsay and I saw the inpatients we did get to spend some time on the beach.  Swimming in the ocean is wonderful, even though the occasional Styrofoam container or plate floats by!

Hurricane Tomas hit us on Friday, though we personally experienced very little effects here.  We believe maybe Padre Joseph, the many seminarians and the nuns here have something to do with a little bubble that protects St  Charles Seminary.  South of us was damaged badly by flooding and a few places on the coast experience terrible winds.  I guess our beautiful vacation spot near Baharona, Dominican Republic was damaged. We saw the inpatients in the morning and then had some fun in the afternoon.  I taught 2 of them how to put together puzzles.  The Haitian children here don't play with puzzles so none of them even knew what a puzzle was.  In the beginning, I asked what the Creole word for puzzle was and I received some very confused looks.  So now...the Creole word for puzzle is "puzl" :)



After puzzle making, we started on hair braiding.  My hair is very difficult to braid because of the layers so it took several hands to perform the task and we only had enough really, really small rubber bands to do a portion.  The woman on the far left is Elfine.  She is a patient here with an above the knee amputation.  She is currently 6 months pregnant.  We received some great news last week that she will be allowed to move into a home through Love-A-Child organization.  We will help her move into her new house with her mother and 3 year old son next Wednesday.  The other two young ladies are here to assist two of the patients who live here. 

Saturday Lyndsay and I went to Catholic Mass.  It amazed me that I was able to pick out a few words and just with the music and Father Joe's dramatic delivery of a message, I was so moved and didn't really have any idea what was being said!  I guess worship "feels" the same in all languages!

Sunday, we walked the streets around the compound and even tried to get a deal on purchasing some bicycles for the medical and rehab staff at the clinic, but $90 was too much to pay for a mountain bike with flat tires and an unknown braking system!


Today was a very challenging day.  We went to pick up a woman that arrived here last week unable to walk and when we found her in her house, actually on a urine-soaked mattress in the area in front of a partially crumbled home, she was unresponsive.  I did assess her to be breathing but initially was very afraid she would be dead.  We were able to transport her back to our medical compound, give her an IV of fluid and then transport her to a hospital for medical care.  She was in diabetic shock.  Hopefully, she will respond and she can return here for rehabilitation and even return home. 

We have many patients planning for discharge back to their homes this week and a list of many to see as outpatients so tomorrow will be a busy day.  We are also hoping to start a stroke class this week that I am going to set up following the activities that we use in the Neurofit class that I used to help out with in Alexandria.

That's the update for now.  I know these seem to be getting further apart but I will try to be better this week and get more pictures of the patients and share their stories. "Pase bon hwit"