What's up?

Laurens is busy. Very busy. First we have the Patient dome (makeshift ward). Then we have the Supply dome (medical supplies....affectionately called the sky dome by some Canadians) and now we have the Guest Dome. Laurens has been busy directing many construction projects in the past few months which include the above plus the prosthetics lab, laboratory trailer set up (to accommodate the orthopaedic OR), modifications to create a dental room, new main office space, extra warehouse space, the orphanage kitchen, the gym for our new orphanage village, fixing the well, and now the Guest dome. The Guest dome you say, what is that? Well we have so many fantastic people coming down to Haiti to help out with our "new normal" status post quake, that we have to build a new guest house to accommodate all the volunteers. The Guest Dome is our semi permanent home for housing teams. (I will try to add pictures when I get on the other computer). He is by far not done. He is working on starting construction on our new mission property soon where we will be able to set up a new school, orphanage and more. He will be working with Mission of Hope to help construct 500 homes for earthquake homeless.

Outside of that, the kids are doing great and almost finished school. Wow that went fast. Despite the earthquake pause in school, Diana is going to have them done just on time for the end of the school year. This year is especially great for the kids as it is Teagan's grade 8 graduation!!! Yikes. I can not believe that she will start high school next year! We are parents of a highschool student (almost). Weird!! We are looking forward to a great time at her graduation.

My (Cheryl's) sister is visiting from Canada and she is enjoying seeing her new nieces for the first time. Please continue to pray for the progression of the adoption that is moving along but is always a tense waiting game. We do not think it will be done in time to visit with them this summer, but God has done greater miracles than that, so we will pray and see. Despite this, we will be taking a break in the summer and coming back to Canada for some time away (Laurens and I will have to go one at at time). We really look forward to a time of rest especially me who will not have to run my practice when I come home. I can truly have a vacation!!

Prayer requests:
1.Bridgely is under the weather with a fever and headache but seems to be on the mend. Please pray for complete improvement.

2. I have been sick since Saturday but can not figure it out. I randomly spike a fever with body ache and headache and then I feel better. The other day I thought I felt better so went to the clinic, then promptly almost passed out. Catching myself just in time. I rested for a few days and then thought I was all over it (except for some fatigue) until tonight I am up with headache and fever etc again. Those of you that know me well, know that I hate to be down and out. I get downright mad! I have too much life to live and too much to do to be out sick :) I will do some tests tomorrow to try and figure it out

3. Girls adoption - as above

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement

Do not read this if you are squeamish with trauma :)

OK so Dr. Craig orthopaedic surgeon left Wed.

Then all the fun began. It started Thursday with a mass trauma bus tap tap accident that brought in approximately 20 people with multiple traumas. We had many cases for Dr. Craig :) It was during the afternoon so it was nice to have the help of our Haitian staff and daylight, unlike the earthquake night.

In the end we had correctly diagnosed 7 pelvic fractures even 2 ramus fractures (with no diagnostic tools) and 3 other ortho fractures (diagnosed by c-arm) that were a mid shaft humerus, a humeral head, and a compound tib fib and many other cuts and scrapes. We found ourselves transferring to General Hospital and University of Miami cases that they would usually be sending to us on ortho weeks. We had everything taken care of in about 5 hours. The team did amazing and there were a lot of high 5's when we had the x-rayed confirmed diagnoses the next day. 

Then came today.....oh today. 

Ok so only 3 days later, just as I was about to dose off for my Sunday afternoon snooze, I get a call from Lindsay saying they are bringing in another accident, she knew nothing else but it either had American's bringing them in, or American's had something to do with it. 

I got to the clinic as the first tap tap arrived. This one was worse with approx 20 people again both American and Haitian injured. A young mission team working with a group in this area of Haiti had their truck overturn on a mountain road close by. We had both American and Haitian  coming in together on multiple tap taps, one after the other with large trauma. Almost the entire team and their Haitian staff were affected.

Our worst ones were serious head traumas (2 americans, 1 Haitian) with multiple lacerations; 2 femur fractures; 3 de-gloving injuries (Haitian): bilateral arms (not much left of them actually), one foot, and one lower leg. The lower leg was not only de-gloved, but the tibia was fractured so bad that the foot was barely hanging on and no muscle was visible at first glance (an amputation for sure); 5 other concussions with head lacerations (americans), 2 potential t-spine fractures (americans); partial scalping and multiple facial lacerations; other head lacerations; other cuts scrapes and shock. OK I think that is it but I may be missing some. This reminded me of a taste of earthquake night.

The medical team again did great and God provided. It happened on Sunday so this means no Haitian staff. We had only 8 medical personnel. But, as it was a local accident, our friends from Global mission showed up with 4 nurses and 1 ER doc, Samaritan's purse sent a couple nurses, another organization showed up with 2 Haitian docs and 2 nurses, the Mennonite mission sent helpers and University of Miami field hospital sent over all their ambulances. We ran rotating ambulances for the patients and worked for 5 hours.

Bottom line is post earthquake, the ER comes to us whether or not we have an official "ER" or "urgent care clinic". I am praying for funding....

and I am going to bed.