A lot of us went towards the orphanage. Several ambulances with their lights on were already at the scene. I can hear yelling and screaming from a distance. As I approached closer, I saw many people outside, laying on the dirt. Many of whom were on their mattress and cots. MASS CHAOS. Women and children crying. Many shouting in Creole.
Saw Vicki in the distance, surrounded by other medical personnel, looking perhaps to get some guidance as to what to do. In her usual calm and composed demeanor, she asked us to gather up in teams and to start identifying all the patients, by name, age and to reassess those with new injuries. I paired up with Dodi (RN) and we went to work.
Many of the patients had already been operated on earlier. Many of them had external fixators on their broken limbs. Many, unfortunately were dragged by their family members hurriedly after the aftershock, many were dragged on the floor, down the stairs on their mattresses! Some I was told by an interpreter, were dragged by their fixators by family members who were trying to help evacuate everyone from their rooms out of the building.
Many of us worked relentlessly. Going from one patient to the next. Tagging them with pieces of tape on which their name, age, and whether or not new injuries existed were written. I was thankful that many interpreters were present that night. They were a godsend. One patient who had jumped off the second story balcony suffered a ruptured eye and what appeared to be a broken ankle. He was taken to the hospital for further medical evaluation. I was surprised that he was the only "serious" injury that night.
Despite their injuries and what many of these poor victims have recently endured, many, if not all of them still smiled. Despite losing everything, they hung on to their "manila folder" in which we wrote their injuries, meds, med history, or whatever little information we knew about them in. It was PRECIOUS to them. It was the only thing they had. Their IDENTITY. They are such good people.
A Haitian preacher with a megaphone went up to the second floor, and he spoke to them in their native tongue. Silence followed. Then everyone sang in Creole. It calmed everyone down, including myself. What a beautiful song, I thought.
He also spoke to everyone reassuring everyone that it was safe to go back to the building. Some of the injured were already being taken inside, back into the make shift emergency/triage area, WHEN THE SECOND AFTERSHOCK hit. All I remember is feeling the whole building shake...running towards the open field. Again, screaming and yelling followed.
Once again, the preacher and his megaphone went to work, helping to calm people down. At this point, my heart was racing too! Looked like everyone was going to be staying out of the building for the duration of the night. One of the surgeons decided to close a bleeding wound out on the field. Brenda (CRNA), who was just getting off the dayshift happened to be there and she provided the sedation for the procedure. This freed me up to finish identifying the injured with Dodi.
After the dust settled so-to-speak, I went back to the main hospital to see if I was assigned to work anywhere. I came across Janet in the lobby and she told me that I was the sole ON-CALL person for anesthesia for the rest of the night. "Great", I said. I told her that I was going to go back to the orphanage to help and for them to come get me in case they needed my help for any emergent surgeries.
Once I got back to the orphanage, I told Vicki that I was available for whatever she needed me for. She asked me to do what I was good at...and that was providing pain management to all who needed it (just the patients! Hehe). So I got busy. I put together a box of supplies, IV start kits, fluids, tubing, etc. Gathered all my drugs, and went around all night long, starting IV's on those who needed it, medicating them for pain, etc.
It was a good thing that I brought along an LED headlamp that was given to me by my brother-in-law for Christmas. I used that thing every night! Thanks, Gary! Greatest gift EVER! I needed it tonight when I was asked to provide some anesthesia for a deep wound debridement that John (surgeon) needed to perform on a sick lady. Once Dodi (RN) got her IV and fluids, running, I started giving her some propofol and other meds in my "bag of tricks", being careful not to overdo it, since we didn't have any oxygen or portable monitoring equipment! If JCAHO can see me now! The patient did well despite of the current operating conditions (um, outside on the dirt, by the fence with the night time wildlife).
Dawn was fast approaching. Word got around that the Red Cross were going to be supplying these poor people outside some tents to help shield them from the hot sun. They told us that they will be here by sun up...
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