Update from Haiti and the D.R.
Good morning from the D.R.
Here are a few updates for you…
CURE’s Bryce Flurie has arrived safely in Santo Domingo after three days in Haiti with the CURE Haiti Relief Team. Yesterday, he sent us some notes from his day there on Saturday:
As we passed the fruit stands this morning we noticed a human bone sticking out of a garbage bag on top of a dumpster…life-giving fruit on one side of the road and dead bodies in a dumpster across the street – Haiti is contrast after contrast. People starving, but sidewalks lined with fruit no one can afford.
Trying to respect people’s emotional space with all the trauma they’ve gone through and trying to tell you all what is happening here. Like this that happened at the hospital today…
We heard a woman yelling “MAAAMAAA, NOOOO! MAAAMAAAA, MAAAMAAA!” I was on the second floor and looked down to see one of the doctors standing on a chair giving a woman CPR. Then the paddles came out. CLEAR! We’ve all seen it on TV, but this was as real as it gets. Doctors and personnel crowded around…CURE International’s spiritual director for the D.R. hospital, Samuel Reyes, took the woman’s screaming daughter into a room and calmed her down. I can’t tell you what he said; she emerged looking worried, but much more calm. Emotions ran quite high, but her pulse returned; and she was transferred to another facility.
Not all of the stories have happy endings, but there are also amazing triumphs and miracles happening daily in this challenging situation.
You’ll read more of Bryce’s stories in the days to come….
Here at the D.R. hospital, we had two more Haitian patients come to us for surgery: a little girl named Islande and a teenage boy called Oslin. They were both referred by a nearby hospital.
Islande arrived at the hospital with her father. She and her mother had been been trapped in their house in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, but were rescued. The father had been at work. He frantically sprinted home to find his family alive. But Islande needed medical help; her thighbone was fractured. Somehow, thanks to the help of many Good Samaritans, they found their way to Santo Domingo and our hospital. The CURE surgeons were able to perform surgery yesterday, and the prognosis for recovery is positive.
Islande
The other patient, Oslin, has a heartbreaking story. After the earthquake, his right leg was so badly injured it had to be amputated while in Haiti. He was brought over to Santo Domingo and sent to our hospital for surgery on his other leg. I soon learned that not only did Oslin have no right leg, he was an orphan, alone, with nobody in Santo Domingo. It broke my heart. After his surgery, he was transferred back to the other hospital for recovery. He looked so sad and lost as they wheeled him to the ambulance. As I watched the red lights of the ambulance fade into the Santo Domingo night, I whispered a prayer as I tried to hold back the tears.
Oslin
Also, an update on Bernadine, the patient I mentioned on Thursday. Her pelvis will be okay without surgery, but she did need surgery on her foot. We’ll keep the updates coming.
If you want to help patients like Islande, Oslin and Bernadine, please consider contributing to the CURE Haiti Relief Fund here.
How can you Help?
Click here to give a gift to CURE Haiti
or text CURE to 85944 to give a $10 gift through your cell phone.
And to help support CURE’s response to the earthquake in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, add the following message to your Facebook/Twitter/email signature:
Help CURE in Haiti: http://helpcurenow.org/haitirelief or txt CURE to 85944 to give a $10 gift. Follow: http://blog.helpcurenow.org
CURE’s Noel Lloyd and Bryce Flurie are in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, reporting on CURE’s work there to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
Posted by: Noel Lloyd
[...] Oslin was an earthquake victim from Haiti whom I met during my last visit to the CURE D.R. hospital in late January. You can read my post about him here. [...]