The Angel Wings International Blog

Today the Cutco crew visits the Jacmel hospital to get a better idea of  what medical care is currently available in the area. In conversation around the dinner table the previous night, Myrlande told us that the hospital in Jacmel is limited by a small staff and no ability to do specialty care.  She told story after unfortunate story of lives cut short due to lack of a nearby hospital.

The situation for the surrounding areas can be summarized as:

-no paved roads

-no public transportation

-rural patients must undergo hours of rough travel, some by boat!

-once they reach Jacmel, there is no guarantee that the services they need will actually be available, or that they will have sufficient funds to pay for the care that they need.

Carl asked, “So, let’s say someone has an automobile accident.  What happens to them?”

Myrlande referenced a recent incident: “About a year ago, a man from Jacmel fractured his arm in a motorcycle accident.  He was the electrician who wired my mother’s house.  There is no ambulance service in Jacmel anymore: you just have to hope that someone with a kind heart will drive you, and they might need to take you all the way to Port au Prince [a 3-4 hour drive.] This man made it to the Jacmel hospital, where they gave him an  unknown injection, and 30 minutes later he became cyanotic (turned blue) and died.  The staff there is incredibly hard-working, but there just are not enough diagnostic resources to support them.”

We decided to go see the hospital for ourselves.

Cutco team at Christ Love Center with Bonite Affriany and several Angel Wings staff

The hospital is located at the main entrance into Jacmel, about seven to ten minutes from Christ Love Center in St. Cyr.

Hospital at Jacmel

During our dinner conversation, Myrlande mentioned the lack of ambulance service in Jacmel.  Below you see the only ambulance in the city.  The man standing beside the disabled vehicle is an administrative office employee named Robinson.

Robinson, an administrative employee at the hospital stands beside Jacmel's only ambulance

Jacmel's ambulance

The earthquake only compounded an already dismal lack of resources and equipment. After the quake, most of the buildings on the hospital ground have been declared unsafe.  Robinson’s desk has been placed outside, and he admits patients and does all his administrative work from here in the open air, with only a canopy to shade him from the weather.

Robinson's "office"

Robinson gave us a tour of the hospital grounds, which is composed of different buildings for each ward.  This building used to be the maternity ward, and was actually brand new just before the earthquake.

Collapsed maternity ward of the Jacmel hospital

Collapsed maternity ward at the Jacmel hospital

Myrland tours the collapsed maternity wing of the Jacmel hospital

With virtually all the buildings of the hospital condemned and unusable, all the patients are being treated and kept in tents.  (This one was donated by the UN.)  There is no way to tell how soon a building will be available since there is currently not even any talk of construction of new facilities…much like the Tent Cities, these “temporary” conditions might not actually be very “temporary” unless someone steps in to help.

Temporary patient area

Back of the maternity ward. Lindsay Musser, Myrlande Affriany, Carl Drew, and Robinson.

Robinson shows us the back of the hospital where the river has eroded a significant amount of the hospital grounds.  If a retaining wall is not built soon, the foundations of the current buildings could be threatened.

Polluted riverbed behind the Jacmel hospital

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Even the most basic things are in short supply.  Here Robinson shows us cloth rag diapers drying in the sun outside the children’s ward.

Diapers drying outside the children's ward

Diapers drying outside the children's ward

The earthquake devastated almost every building the hospital has, making patient care extremely difficult.

Combined women's and men's ward

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In summary, hospital care was extremely limited before the earthquake, and now it is almost non-existent. Until a full hospital can be built by Angel Wings, the organization is limited to using Bonite Affriany’s facility (Christ Love Center in St Cyr)  to house the temporary clinics.  Until they have a permanent building, clinical care is also only available quarterly, when Angel Wings is able to supply medical teams from the United States.  Our next post shows what Cutco reps were able to do in the temporary clinic at St Cyr.