The Angel Wings International Blog

By: Lindsay Musser

One of Angel Wing’s main missions is to establish a permanent clinic, and eventually a full hospital, in the Port au Prince or Jacmel areas.  Day 2,  our first day in the Tent City, provided some compelling reasons for a local hospital.  Thousands of displaced families have taken up residence in parks and open spaces…their homes destroyed and little to no way of rebuilding anytime soon.  Medical care is only available sporadically…whenever Angel Wings or perhaps Doctors Without Borders can make a showing.  Just keeping up basic sanitation is a losing battle.

Angel Wings sets up a mobile clinic outside the tent city and our team distributed some supplies in the tent city and helped the doctors organize.

This woman met us outside the tent, and had a long conversation with Carl and Heather.  Her name was Madame Gustave and she has seven children to care for and is living in the tent city with little or no food.

Tent City resident

The Tent City was a walled-in area packed with people and tents of all sizes and shapes.  The UN and Venezuela’s presence was made obvious by the presence of huge trucks (see photo below), but many nations flags and well-wishes were emblazoned across donated tents.

Despite all the showing of international support, however, many families were still in makeshift pole-and-blanket tents or tiny palm-leaf huts barely large enough to lie down in.

Tent City Residents

Tent City residents

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So many of the Tent City residents are little children.  Many of them are going days at a time without food, and yet still eager to play and interact.  As we walked through the tent city, mobs of children would form, each hanging on to a visitor’s finger or our shirts.

Noah in the Port au Prince Tent City

Injuries from the earthquake also compound the discomfort of living in the Tent City.  Imagine having your leg in a cast and sleeping on a dirt floor in a tent that didn’t even keep the rain out, no indoor plumbing and no bed.

And no hospital anywhere nearby.

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We set up the clinic in an empty schoolhouse.  (Schools are currently closed until further notice because in Haiti children have to pay around $30 a month to attend, and right now so few people can afford to send their children that most schools have closed!)

Patients go through Triage with the Angel Wings staff…

Triage with Amors

…and afterward are allowed to see a doctor.

Woman with "frozen" joint

Dr. Christian Le talks with a woman who complained of not being able to bend her elbow.  It took a while to find out that her arm had been crushed in the earthquake, then casted, infected, and re-casted—straight.  Once the joint heals in that position, the tendons are tightly contracted and it’s very difficult and painful process for a patient in that situation to re-gain mobility of the joint.

She’ll have some painful rehabilitating to do if she wants to work again.

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Many of our patients are infants.  The baby below was only 4 days old.

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Cases of jaundice were also common.  This case was likely Malaria and fortunately, we had medications to treat the patient.

Jaundice case

Remember the man with the crutches we saw in the Tent City?  He came into the clinic clutching a beat-up manilla envelope containing his X-rays.  He must have waited for over 2 hours to see us.

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Another benefit to the Angel Wings clinic is the hands-on training the local staff get.  Many of them are Haitian medical or nursing students.  Good thing–this country could certainly use more medical personnel.

Dr. Bob teaches Kenndhy how to read this X-ray

Angel Wings serviced about 40 patients that day, and then had to return to Jacmel.  A permanent clinic in Port au Prince is desperately needed.

Noah, Susan and some new friends

Heather and a Tent City resident