Bucks
Dr. Steve Smith Haiti Earthquake
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Every community has Good Samaritans. You and I know plenty of them. One of our friends recently returned from Haiti after caring for those afflicted by the devastating earthquake.
After a career as an orthopedic surgeon in Quakertown, Dr. Stephen Smith retired two years ago. But he returned to medicine when he became a volunteer physician for the people of Haiti.
The January earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale, killed 230,000; injured 300,000 and left one million homeless. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and 149th of 182 countries on the Human Development Index.
Dr. Smith says that he got in line with 500 physicians, which belong to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. It took him six weeks to navigate through the paperwork and reach Port au Prince, the Haitian capitol. For ten straight days, he spent 10-hour days in primitive conditions.
Twenty doctors and nurses plus two cooks comprised the teams that Dr. Smith joined. No one was paid for his or her services. No one received compensation for travel, lodging and food. They even paid for their interpreters. There were two teams. One team was from Green Bay, Wisconsin and the other from Manhattan, Kansas. Dr. Smith was on both teams.
The Green Bay team was in Haiti for four days and consisted of three gynecologists, an urologist, a general surgeon, and two orthopedic surgeons (Dr. Smith being one of the two). They left and the team from Kansas replaced them: one additional orthopedic surgeon (besides Dr. Smith), two ear, nose and throat surgeons, one gynecologist surgeon, and one psychiatrist for children with post traumatic stress caused by the quake. Several nurses were on both teams.
“We set up shop in a little clinic,” he said, “but because it had an X-ray machine, it turned into a field hospital.
“I used my French and learned some Creole,” Dr. Smith told me. “I saw an average of 20 patients every day.” The team treated infant diarrhea, punctured lungs, typhoid, malaria (endemic to Haiti), tuberculosis, AIDs, and lots of broken limbs.
“Voodoo has something to do with their [Haitian] plight,” Dr. Smith continued. “On one side, the Haitians have a charitable nature. They’re sweet and honest. But on the other hand, there’s plenty of violence. Many voodoo priests shake down their patients.”
Dr. Smith has more than 1,000 photos of his Haitian experience. One showed the repair of tendons and nerves from a near-amputation of a thumb and index finger; another was of two retired nurses in their 70’s working long days. They transformed a chaotic, disorganized place into a well-organized pharmacy.
Another photo showed a baby with seven fingers. The parents refused to allow the surgeons to remove the two extra digits because they believed the digits belonged to twins and one twin devoured the other “in utero.” The parents thought that the dead child lives on.
One picture shows over 100 bodies in a mass grave.
Another shows how a new two-bedroom house is constructed for $4,700. Heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the compressed wheat straw panels form the walls and roof. The house is earthquake proof, fire proof, termite and waterproof. Each panel weighs 120 pounds.
Still another showed shelter boxed tents, which Rotary International sent to Haiti. Much of Port au Prince resembled a tent city, Dr. Smith added. “The boxed tents gift was a very big deal. But the government red tape to keep this project moving is terrible.”
“In Haiti, there’s no time to think about decisions,” Dr. Smith told me. “Decisions have to be instantaneous and correct. In Haiti, there was no record keeping, no billing, no paperwork, no administrative head aches,” he continued. “It made me realize how much time I used to devote to paperwork instead of patient care. Before I retired, I would have seven different forms to prepare and sign just for one outpatient procedure. Paperwork is the bane of every physician.”
Dr. Smith is 63 but looks like he’s in his mid 40’s. He’s an excellent artist and loves the out of doors. And he’s a man of good humor. Dr. Smith talked about the “tap, tap” buses in Haiti. “If you tap twice on the exterior of a bus, it stops for new passengers,” he said.
He told me about the efforts to plant trees on Haiti to prevent mudslides in the rainy season. “There’s the Van Wingerten farm on 200 acres,” he said. “In addition to a tilapia fish farm, sugar cane, onions chickens and ornamental plants, the farm grows trees. “Last year the Van Wingerten farm grew 600,000 trees for reforestation,” he said. “They hope to increase the planting production to three million trees per year.”
But there’s corruption everywhere. United Nations peacekeepers and U.S. soldiers had a big presence. The military vehicles were equipped with 50 caliber machine guns.
Smith was impressed with the hospital ship, U.S.S. Comfort that was anchored off the Haitian coast. “Those doctors did spectacular work,” he said.
“Our medical team was so family like. We played Dominoes at night…and went tarantula hunting at night by flashlight. “That’s a major spider,” he laughed.
After his trip to Haiti, Dr. Smith doesn’t look at the world the same way. Surgery was often performed with light from kerosene lamps because the electricity had failed. “At the end of our stay, we gave our operating room crocs [shoes] to the children,” he said.
Smith plans to return for another round of help between September and November, or sooner. But this time, he’ll take his wife, Ruth, along. She’ll be a big help…she’s a nurse, and an excellent cook. “My heroes are the doctors and nurses who form the International Medical Corp volunteers,” he said. “They’ve been in Haiti for months.
“It’s been a sobering experience,” Dr. Smith said. “I can’t wait to go back.”
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith