Medical issues

Hello,

What an eventful week! After 4 days of "sitting" after the earthquake, I finally feel I'm on a role with doing something. Lots of stuff coming in and not sure where my place will be but I'm getting some more 'visions'.

Sat. Megan, Katie, and Anna left. Megan's father is in the army and he arranged a Black Hawk helicopter to come pick them up. What a dad will do for his kid, eh?! Of course it meant waiting for hours, since we didn't know what time they'd arrive.

PM Dr Ric and 2 other doctors and a couple other workers arrived, by private plane. They picked up me and some of the kids for translating and we headed to Pierre Payen. With the road fixed, it's only about 10 minutes from here. We started seeing the patients that were admitted and worked till about 9:30. We stayed the night at their guesthouse and continued all day today. What tragic injuries for many of them. Basically all had fractures - some really bad ones. By now they're 4-5 days old and infections are starting. They were still gaping open. Deep ugly wounds; an ankle with infection that will probably get amputated soon; 2 whose house fell on their upper backs and bent them forward - injurying their spinal cord and now they're paraplegic; an arm that's got parts of a bone missing so won't be able to grow back together; kinds with head injuries; I could go on and on. We put 3 people's legs on traction, made with a pillowcase and sand, for about 6 weeks. After awhile we didn't even asked how it happened - it was all the same "the roof fell down". We did get two vehicle accidents too, that were awful. The first they brought in a woman that was already gone. In the second a man's face was all swollen - so many facial fractures and they couldn't help him. Don't know what they're gonna do with him. He needs a facial surgeon.

And this is such a SMALL part of the medical needs in this country. Everywhere it's the same. I'm thinking of scouting around some cities outside of Port, like the Island, etc and see if I can organize medical teams there. Pray for this - I don't know if that would work, but....

I heard even today, they've been finding some people alive. A little girl was rescued today. People are not all fed yet. A big part of the people are sleeping outside yet - either because they have no house, or scared of the weakness of their houses. (You people are probably seeing more about Port than we do here. I haven't seen a single TV program on it). People are traveling north by the FULL busloads and truckloads.

S. Gladys has heard from many of the churches she's in charge of. Theirs like 4000 of their church people without homes. Many pastors died, so it's a little like sheep without a shepherd. We want to try going to Ti Goave, one of the main centers, tomorrow. If we don't get diesel, we won't be able to, but hopefully.... and I'll start looking into the medical situation and see if it would be feasible to send in doctors.

Here at Canaan, we've been doing good. We still have enough food, that we haven't had to buy, but will have to soon start looking around. I think we'll be ok. We've reduced to 2 meals a day, and more simply. Finding diesel/gas is our biggest challenge right now.

We are also looking at the possibility of a lot of people coming though, so looking at setting up tents and sheets and whatever possible to house them. Many of the kid's families have lost all their homes too. We're not sure how to handle all this so pray for wisdom. It's a little different from the hurricane way of doing it. It's kind of pointless to give rice and beans because they have nothing left to cook it. We need to give them cooked food. Thanks to money coming in, we can start. None of the banks are open yet, but with so many doctor teams coming, we should have opportunity to send the money collected with them. So please, continue giving if you can. You can get all the necessary contact info at www.canaanorphanage.org. Chris is our "American" representative, and is collecting all the money and in charge of sending it down.

One of the good things that we definitely see is that people are taking life more seriously. Many of our kids have looked at where they're at. Today 16 of them were baptized. People are praying more. Some are even singing and worshipping more.

OK, generator's going off so I better go to my room. Time for bed anyway. Just pray I can be used in whatever way. It was great to see the gratitude in the patients we helped today. A little care and ability to speak in their language went a long way to making them feel more relaxed. (I still like being a doctor better than being a nurse. I feel a little lost working as a nurse (lol), but this type of doctoring is WAY beyond me. I'm immensely glad they're here. It was kind cool though, starting lots of IVs and doing catheters, though mostly we just helped with their minor surgeries.

God bless and keep praying!! Thanks for all your supports!!

Elsie Kornelsen

Thank God not every day is like today. I wouldn’t last a month here! Nor every week as slow.

Today started with waking up with a sore throat. I guess it has to hit me once in a while too. All morning’s been a bit achy, but no worry. Now after a nap, I feel a bit better.

My nurses have not returned since the earthquake (hopefully they’ll be back on Monday). The first day, the ones still here and I quickly saw 17 patients. By 9:30 we were done and I was able to go to Port. Thursday I had a late start going to the clinic, with so much to do at Canaan, that by the time I got there, the few that had come, had left already, all but 2 babies. Today I saw about 10 people. I’m almost surprised there weren’t more, because people are leaving Port by the busloads; but I’m kinda glad they’re not stopping here, cause the nurses are all gone. I did have one lady today, with a very swollen, blue eye and bruises all over from a house that fell on her.

What has made this day difficult was one little patient; Actually two little patients. The good thing about today is the miracle God did for me. Saphi. Please pray for him. He’s 3 weeks old, weighs 1 kg (2 pounds) (he was born 2 months early), My first thought when I saw him was “why did the parents bring in a dead baby”. He looked so dead; The color, the features, the stiffness of his face. His skin even felt dead – clammy and cold and stiff. I even asked if he was dead. I had to take off all his many layers of clothes to see if he was breathing. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him breathing – with difficulty, but breathing. I quickly took him and checked him over, but what can I do with such a situation? I told the parents he can’t live; there’s nothing I can do for him. I told him they’d have to take him to the hospital (thinking he’d never make it). No money. (Why wasn’t Dr Ric able to get to Haiti when planned? I needed him today for two little ones). I tried to prepare the dad (the mom was out crying) but he begged me to give him something – anything; a vitamin. I tried to give him some breast milk but he couldn’t/wouldn’t swallow anymore. I was even hearing what I think were cheynes stokes (dying breath rattles). What to do in such a situation! I looked at my IV stock. I knew he needed fluids but I couldn’t imagine putting in an IV in a baby that small. But when the dad continued to ask me to do something, I decided if I tried, at least I could say I had done what I could. So I got my 24 G needle – the smallest I had but still too big for a preemie and just looked at it for a while. It seemed so hopeless to try. Why, I think the canula of the needle that stays in the vein was bigger than the vein itself! So, finally, I said “God, if this goes in, it’ll be your miracle! And in it went! Not all the way – think the vein would have popped, but the tip. It wasn’t the best, but I got 50 ml in the next few hours. So after that, I thought if God was willing to do a miracle, we better take him to a hospital with hopes. So off to St Marc, but they wouldn’t receive him. It’s crowded there, UN people all around. They sent him away. I didn’t go because I had other patients to see, so was shocked when they returned with the baby, still alive. I thought he actually looked a teeny bit better. So we took him to D’Chapelle, quite a bit on the other side of St Marc. They accepted him and right away attended him, and he’s in their care. Pray for him – I think God wants him to live, impossible as he looked.

The picture looks better than real life. He's only 2 pounds. That stick is a tongue blade.

Then later another 7 month old girl came, but only weighs like 6 pounds. She also looked like she was dying. I gave mom some money and sent her to the hospital too. I hope the mom will take her.

Tomorrow we are hoping Dr Ric and some other doctors/surgeons will be arriving. Pierre Payen hospital (5 minutes from us now with our good roads) is overcrowded with people from Port, so they’re going to work there. I’ve been asked to help so will probably take 5 or so kids from here to translate for them and go work there. They’re going to work through the night.

Pray for us, for strength to keep going if there’s so many. I’m happy to be involved like this but it will also be tiring, esp if we work all night. We struggle a bit here at times because we know the huge need in Port and it feels like we’re not really doing anything.

3 of the girls that came for 3 weeks are coordinating leaving Haiti. One of them's dad is in the US army so he's coordinating some army helicopters to come drop off some fuel and food at Canaan and picking the girls up and taking them somewhere - DR or Puerto Rico probably. There's some interesting things going on. There is a lot of support coming in - not sure what's happening with food distribution.

Sister Gladys is still trying to coordinate her return. So difficult to get into the country. They're hoping to get to the DR border and pastor Henri will pick her up.

P. Henri's mom and his sister's mother in law came here now. There house was cracked so not safe right now.

OK, I better quit. Want to try getting lots rest tonight, in case I'm up all night tomorrow!

Thanks for your support!!!

Earthquake

It was an interesting feeling when, in my room, the earthquake started. Nobody likes earthquakes, but I’ve felt so many in my life, I don’t worry about them anymore. I did wonder at the length and strength, and of course there was screaming and calling from all the kids. This was a sensation many of them have never felt before.
They were all scared to sleep in their houses, so last night all of them (except the missionaries) slept in the middle of the yard, squeezed onto mattresses and blankets (on our rocky ground). Even now, any slight tremor (which we still got today) sets off their nerves.
Today, Pastor Henri and I went to Port au Prince. He was concerned about his family. We hurried and saw the 17 patients that came to the clinic, and were done by about 9:30 and all the nurses were also able to go see if their families are ok.
What I’m feeling right now is indescribable. I have never seen what I saw before. PH says he would rather have 9 hurricanes than half of this earthquake.
As we were driving to Port, going through Arcahaia and Cabaret, the towns hit by the past hurricanes, we were shocked at seeing the broken houses, but on our way back, we barely thought about them. It was nothing compared to Port au Prince.
I wonder if there is one house that hasn’t been touched. A lot of them look ok but if you look closely, you can see cracks in them. Because of the danger of the houses still falling, they have closed every business for 72 hours. Do you know what this means? There’s no food!
There are people EVERYWHERE! Hardly any tap taps are going so people walk everywhere. The streets were surprisingly empty of vehicles, considering how they are usually. But so many people! Some are just sitting there; others walking – mostly up the mountains. Whether it is fear of being in the lower city, or whether they are going home, or visiting I don’t know. Men, women, children, babies, pregnant women…. Many of them with a bag or suitcase, probably the only things left to them. And everybody with the same expression – kind of a blank, slight frown. The only smiles were of the ones we gave rides to – gratefulness to the extreme that we saved them miles of walking.
The worst was all the dead bodies lying everywhere. Randomly or laid side by side. Probably hundreds. Then of course the disaster in buildings was unbelievable too. I will try to post pictures (I have 157 of them when my batteries ran out) but the internet is really slow so it may take a while. The Palace is broken up; lots of banks down; the army barracks and other government buildings; hospitals; markets; schools; churches; homes; stores; everywhere. We couldn’t drive without seeing broken buildings at all. Only once we were past Petion-ville did it start to lesson.
First we went to see if Pastor Henri’s 80+ yr old mom was ok. Her house is standing but there are some cracks. We found her not at home, but at her sister’s where she had spent the night. She was on her way, leaving yesterday with a niece when the earthquake hit. A piece of concrete wall fell on the front of the car. A feet or two more and it would have hit where she was sitting. It is still sitting there, partially covered.
We drove PH’s cousin home, since it was her car. This I think has made her think and PH was able to answer some of her many Bible questions.
We went to SG’s mom’s house, where her brother from the States is staying. He apparently barely escaped last night too, leaving a market or something as it was hitting and panic ensued with all the people there. Some of their windows fell out, but basically the house is ok.
Then we drove around to the palace. Just every bit of the way, we were astounded at what we were seeing. The beautiful palace is a disaster! It is unrepairable!
On our way back, we saw a lady sitting on a board and guys trying to stop someone, so we took her to a hospital. Being as it was probably a couple miles away, it is needless to say how grateful they were. It just felt like there was so little that we could do to help.
I had taken some Herbalife protein packages and pediasure along, so we would hand them out to moms with little children. We had to be very careful though, because we would get bombarded if people saw it before we got away.
We saw people around a hole right in the city – burying their dead. At least they were getting a burial. MANY are still lying in the streets, waiting for somebody to pick them up.
With no food, gas or other supplies, there’s going to be a lot of suffering. I’m trying to imagine help coming in. I have no idea how emergency relief feeds several million desperate people at once….. We don’t have gas to go to Port again, but even if we did, I’d want to stay out if possible. Today was ok because people were still in shock and not so desperate. But who knows after 2 or 3 days?
Since a lot of the staff have gone home to check on family, it’s time to go organize tonight’s sleeping arrangements. Not an easy thing to do with the children’s hyper feelings.
Keep praying for Haiti! A lot of people are suffering. The parks and any available space, including the prime minister’s yard are full of people sleeping out tonight.

p.s.
we're still feeling tremors

Earthquake

It was an interesting feeling when, in my room, the earthquake started. Nobody likes earthquakes, but I’ve felt so many in my life, I don’t worry about them anymore. I did wonder at the length and strength, and of course there was screaming and calling from all the kids. This was a sensation many of them have never felt before.
They were all scared to sleep in their houses, so last night all of them (except the missionaries) slept in the middle of the yard, squeezed onto mattresses and blankets (on our rocky ground). Even now, any slight tremor (which we still got today) sets off their nerves.
Today, Pastor Henri and I went to Port au Prince. He was concerned about his family. We hurried and saw the 17 patients that came to the clinic, and were done by about 9:30 and all the nurses were also able to go see if their families are ok.
What I’m feeling right now is indescribable. I have never seen what I saw before. PH says he would rather have 9 hurricanes than half of this earthquake.
As we were driving to Port, going through Arcahaia and Cabaret, the towns hit by the past hurricanes, we were shocked at seeing the broken houses, but on our way back, we barely thought about them. It was nothing compared to Port au Prince.
I wonder if there is one house that hasn’t been touched. A lot of them look ok but if you look closely, you can see cracks in them. Because of the danger of the houses still falling, they have closed every business for 72 hours. Do you know what this means? There’s no food!
There are people EVERYWHERE! Hardly any tap taps are going so people walk everywhere. The streets were surprisingly empty of vehicles, considering how they are usually. But so many people! Some are just sitting there; others walking – mostly up the mountains. Whether it is fear of being in the lower city, or whether they are going home, or visiting I don’t know. Men, women, children, babies, pregnant women…. Many of them with a bag or suitcase, probably the only things left to them. And everybody with the same expression – kind of a blank, slight frown. The only smiles were of the ones we gave rides to – gratefulness to the extreme that we saved them miles of walking.
The worst was all the dead bodies lying everywhere. Randomly or laid side by side. Probably hundreds. Then of course the disaster in buildings was unbelievable too. I will try to post pictures (I have 157 of them when my batteries ran out) but the internet is really slow so it may take a while. The Palace is broken up; lots of banks down; the army barracks and other government buildings; hospitals; markets; schools; churches; homes; stores; everywhere. We couldn’t drive without seeing broken buildings at all. Only once we were past Petion-ville did it start to lesson.
First we went to see if Pastor Henri’s 80+ yr old mom was ok. Her house is standing but there are some cracks. We found her not at home, but at her sister’s where she had spent the night. She was on her way, leaving yesterday with a niece when the earthquake hit. A piece of concrete wall fell on the front of the car. A feet or two more and it would have hit where she was sitting. It is still sitting there, partially covered.
We drove PH’s cousin home, since it was her car. This I think has made her think and PH was able to answer some of her many Bible questions.
We went to SG’s mom’s house, where her brother from the States is staying. He apparently barely escaped last night too, leaving a market or something as it was hitting and panic ensued with all the people there. Some of their windows fell out, but basically the house is ok.
Then we drove around to the palace. Just every bit of the way, we were astounded at what we were seeing. The beautiful palace is a disaster! It is unrepairable!
On our way back, we saw a lady sitting on a board and guys trying to stop someone, so we took her to a hospital. Being as it was probably a couple miles away, it is needless to say how grateful they were. It just felt like there was so little that we could do to help.
I had taken some Herbalife protein packages and pediasure along, so we would hand them out to moms with little children. We had to be very careful though, because we would get bombarded if people saw it before we got away.
We saw people around a hole right in the city – burying their dead. At least they were getting a burial. MANY are still lying in the streets, waiting for somebody to pick them up.
With no food, gas or other supplies, there’s going to be a lot of suffering. I’m trying to imagine help coming in. I have no idea how emergency relief feeds several million desperate people at once….. We don’t have gas to go to Port again, but even if we did, I’d want to stay out if possible. Today was ok because people were still in shock and not so desperate. But who knows after 2 or 3 days?
Since a lot of the staff have gone home to check on family, it’s time to go organize tonight’s sleeping arrangements. Not an easy thing to do with the children’s hyper feelings.
Keep praying for Haiti! A lot of people are suffering. The parks and any available space, including the prime minister’s yard are full of people sleeping out tonight.

p.s.
we're still feeling tremors

Miracle

Do we serve an awesome God or what!!!!! Do you really REALLY believe in a God of miracles?

A few days ago I wrote about how tiYoldy can see (maybe it was on facebook, not here). She was scheduled for eye surgery on the 18th. What I didn't know till today was that while getting ready to go to the hospital, she told big Yoldy (who's taking care of her) that she could see. When she held two fingers tightly against her good eye, she could see her fingers. She went in anyway, and the doctors couldn't believe it!!! They said it could only have been a miracle!!! tiYoldy told people "we prayed!" And people there have been asking about Canaan... So yes, she's able to see, but she's not had a surgery yet! I guess God knew we didn't have all the money yet! I don't know the exact story - whether she'll still need the lens change, whether she can see well or not, but this is a miracle!

So today (Friday) was an interesting day. There are pastors in Citi Soleil that have been wanting S. Gladys to come visit them. So today she, P. Henri and I went to see where the churches were and if it's really as bad as they say. Citi Soleil is like a suburb of Port au Prince, considered the most dangerous area, though presently it's not so bad or dangerous. It's a place where the kidnappers would

 hide out, poverty is rampant, and it smells like a pigpen (seriously and literally). There's trash and kids everywhere. I think that place produces children by bulk (hope that's not too crude:) - and they all have huge bellies, but they're so cute even dirty. Imagine a baby just crawling naked in the dust. His whole bottom, front and back and legs, are covered in dust. And the mom is just standing there. The houses are set so close together, and sometimes not bigger than the inside of a truck. They're made of sticks, or wood or blocks (broken and otherwise) and sometimes have a roof, although most of the tin was red from rust and broken, and sometimes the roof was missing. Some place had houses that looked a little better - small houses made by USAID or some group like that. They're concrete, about 6X10 maybe, with two to one building.                                                 

Houses are side by side

There are so many children everywhere!

It smells like the pigs everywhere, even where there are none. 

And flies galore!

The walls were broken out during the 3 year uprising because this is where the bad guys were hiding.

Water is scarce - one church had two bio-sand filters, which are really heavy, but he had to chain them up so they wouldn't steal them. A rare and special commodity!! 

Several of the churches try having schools - some actually had adult chairs for the kids to sit on. Others spread things on the floor for them.

Now my minds racing, wondering how I can manage a clinic there. If nothing else, to give worm medicine to all the kids!!! It's amazing how big some of those bellies were! There's got to be so many diseases! I'll admit I was surprised to not see so many really malnourished kids, but we're finding families will often keep those out of sight because of embarrassment.

From there we stopped in to see P. Henri's mom, and you see the total opposite. She's 'bujwa' (the rich, elite class), not a christian. She has a beautiful house, lots of trees and plants, maids, white leather furniture... OK, something a lot of you probably have, but here it just feels so very elegant! What a difference in lifestyles here!!!!

OK, I better let you go, but here's a few pictures from kids here at Canaan. Internet actually allowed me to upload them!!! 

This fellow below is our Navedson. He's about 18 months, and has been at Canaan since July. He's the little fellow that was left on my clinic steps. What a difference since then!! He was dehydrated and malnourished. Now he's learning it's faster to walk than crawl. With eyes like his, he wins people over with no problem!

Rolancia is 2 months younger than Navedson, but was quicker to walk. She has a peaceful disposition and everybody loves her, even our construction workers!

For Thanksgiving, some of the kids prepared some skits. Here you have King and Queen Nebuchadnezzar

Canaan

I've been getting comments that I haven't been writing much, so I'll see if I can write something before the kids come back from devotions.

First, I'm all better. Thanks for praying!! Wether it was a non-falciporum type of malaria or just the Influenza, guess I'll never know. Symptoms are similar. Feels good to have energy again. 

Which I needed today, because I got 73 boxes of medicines and other assortments from CAM. They had some extra stuff, like a standing scale!!!! I am so happy for that one, but now I have the daunting task of teaching my staff to use it (yea, it's not automatic that you know that)

My latest "YUCK" has been lying awake listening to a rat in my wastebasket. I know it's there because I saw it run under my bed yesterday morning. The problem at night is there's no light so I don't want to get off the bed! One of the missionary guys here had one run over his chest twice in one night. So now I'm trying the Rat Zapper. We have one of those here and it's going the rounds of the houses. Do you know those things cost $52.00 on ebay??? And here I had hoped to order me one for my house.

A blessing this sunday was - we had 3 fans set up in church. Only those that have been here can understand that blessing fully. It was connected to an inverter/battery system. YES!

I'm still doing French lessons. Need to start using it more though. It's an interesting language - such a mixture of Creole and Spanish. 

OK, this blog hasn't been sent yet and it's already the 19th. I'm over at Leslie's so am even trying to put up a few photos. (Nope, not working!)

So Yoldy's eye surgery was for today. Hopefully everything is going OK.

God bless you, till next time!

Elsie

Yoldy

GOOD NEWS about Yoldy!! 

The doctor says the retina looks intact!! If that's injured, they can't really repair the eye. He has high hopes that her eye can be fixed. She has something like a cataract which has to be removed, and the lens has to be changed. However they have to wait 3 to 4 weeks for her cornea to heal.

Now the bad news!

This is going to cost a pretty penny!!! Doctor estimates at least $10-11,000.00. Are there enough of us out there willing to share some of what we have to give a little girl her vision back? Her other eye isn't too good either, so she needs this one also.

If you can give some money, please send it to Chris Hlavacek and designate it for Yoldy's surgery. 

www.canaanorphanage.org

Chris Hlavacek 
1034 Thornrose Way 
Wake Forest, NC 27587 
(417) 263-2240 

 Thank you so much!!!

Praise the Lord!