Saving Haiti One Life At A Time
In the ruins of a massive earthquake, a Minnesota doctor works tirelessly in the desperate struggle to care for its many victims.
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What goodness of heart
These medical peoples hearts ache,but they do what they are trained to do. Sure, that is there job and a WHOLE LOT MORE. Thanks be to all … read more
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LEOGANE, HAITI
Candles and small fires cast the shadows of thousands of homeless people against piles of earthquake debris strewn along the rutted road from Port-au-Prince. Inside a white Toyota SUV, Dr. Brett Hendel-Paterson sped by, absorbing the sight of so much misery and grief. He was 40 sleepless hours out of Mendota Heights, rushing into a catastrophe.
Soon his car pulled into a makeshift medical compound filled with tents and protected by walls topped with razor wire. The hot night air reeked of burning garbage. In an instant, his work as a volunteer on a medical relief team began.
Another Haitian baby was dying.
"You the pediatrician?" asked a doctor in scrubs whom Hendel-Paterson had never met.
"Yes," he replied.
"We've a got a very sick baby ... and we want the Canadians to take it," the doctor said. "Can you come with us and see if you can help convince them?"
"Let me get my stuff."
The 35-year-old physician was suddenly thrust into a life-and-death debate. Canadian medical volunteers didn't want to put the baby, who seemed likely to die anyway, on their advanced equipment. They wanted to conserve resources for others in need. Hendel-Paterson lost the debate. The baby lost its life.
"All we could offer the woman who lost her child was a ride back to her village, which was devastated," he said. "A ride back to the place she slept on the street."
He had learned his first lesson: In Haiti, when the earth moved, the old adage flipped. Hell now lines the road to good intentions.
The morning sun beat down on tattered blue tarps strung over the dusty outdoor clinic. As chickens strutted by, Hendel-Paterson, a solid 6-footer with close-cropped brown hair, examined patients victimized by the massive January earthquake. It has killed more than 200,000 people and sent Haiti, already among the poorest countries in the world, spiraling into unrelenting pain and chaos.
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