Cholera in the Mountains!

The last update left our team up on the mountain in Pensek.  I forgot to mention in the previous update that Yvrose, who has had nursing training, had gone with them, also.

Yvrose giving a sick child ORS on the trail

On the way up to Pinsek, they passed people coming down the mountain, trying to get to the cholera clinic in Fonds-Parisien.  Many of them were already in bad shape.  Some were children who were not going to make it.   Our team was carrying bottles of water and ORS which they mixed up and gave to the children.  They continued on their way and that hydration enabled the children to make it to the clinic and get the IV they needed.  Yvrose saw those children two days later back up in the mountains.  So even as they transported things up, they were able to help save lives!

The team got to Pensek about 6 pm and found cholera victims waiting.  They put one of the tent sides up in an unfinished concrete building to stop the wind and have some shelter.  Bill’s personal account of what happened next is in the next update: Cholera in the Mountains! – Bill’s report.

 The next two days while the nurses were treating patients, Bill was looking for a place to put the tent.  Most places were not level enough.  He found someone’s garden spot that would have worked and offered the owner more money than he would make from its produce or would need to buy the food to replace what he would lose, but he would not let us use the land.

After two days, Bill, Yvrose, and the Haitian helpers needed to come back down the mountain.  The two Haitian nurses stayed and continue to treat patients.  There were 12 patients one day but the average has been about 4-5 per day ever since.

Carrying cholera supplies up the mountain

Senal, our teacher from Pays-Pourri who is from the region of Pensek, has continued to stay up there and help the nurses.  Each day he walks the two hours to the school, teaches his class, and then walks back to Pensek to help.

On June 5th, Senal sent down some mules and people to carry more supplies back up the mountain.  They were also able to send to Grand-Rak to get supplies that Bill had taken up there previously and left at the local church.  To rehydrate a 110 pound person, it takes 5 liters of IV solution.  Each box that they were carrying up on their heads or on mules only had enough solution to treat 2 people that size.  As you can see, it takes a LOT of supplies to keep the clinic going.

It is going to be a huge undertaking to keep this clinic going but so necessary to keep the contamination out of the riverbeds they have to go though to get to the CTC at Fonds and to save the lives that would be lost as the trip down is so arduous, some do not survive.

Conditions are primitive.  It is 30 minutes to the nearest water source!  We have a 150 gallon plastic tank we hope to get taken up before long.  We plan to ask able bodied family members of patients to bring two buckets of water each to put in the tank so that there will be water available for washing and drinking.  

We are so proud of those nurses for staying in the mountains treating people in such difficult conditions.  They have said they will stay till the end of the month.  During that time, Bill and I, who flew home on June 7th, hope to raise some funds for things needed to keep the clinic open.  Manolo and Juani will try to keep supplies going up the mountain and take care of other things while we are gone.

We are talking with medical people here trying to get some of the medicinal supplies donated.  Except for the IV solution, most supplies could be carried in on luggage with people going to Haiti.  Some boxes would probably be able to be put on a container going to Victory Compassion.  We also need to raise some funds to be able to continue to pay the nurses.  Nurse salaries are about $80/week.

We need to raise money to buy our own pack mules along with some good pack saddles.  A good pack mule costs between $500 and $700.  The mules can only make the mountain trip every other day and the people we hire them from use them for other things so we cannot always get them when we need to send supplies so we need to get our own.  Perhaps you could talk with your church or small group and take up a collection to help buy a mule.

The day after we left Haiti, the drillers finally came to Yvrose’ and drilled the well!  The hole is in the ground but it will be another week or two before they come back to put in the concrete pad and the cap and pump for the well.  We are all so excited that this is finally happening!

Yvrose was also able to get the floor poured in the third building so they are now able to use it.  We are so grateful to Victory Compassion for providing these buildings for her family.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.  We are grateful to be able to be used by God to help the people of Haiti.  May God bless you all.