Next team is in place and ready to go. Our travel dates are March 21 – March 30th. This team will travel to Jeremie Haiti. Jeremie is located at the far SW part of Haiti. This was an area that was overrun with refugees after the quake. The team will be seeing a great deal of primary care along with follow up wound care. Please keep this team and the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.
Archive for the ‘Team Member Post’ Category
Tim Ryan (March 2010 team member)
March 3, 2010Traverse City Record Eagle Newspaper
February 24, 2010
Great store about Dr. Jeff Link one of our team members.
Tiffany Busscher RN (Jan 2010 team member)
February 19, 2010
Dr. Andy Latham (Jan 2010 team member)
February 18, 2010
Dr. Andy Lathham was in the News. See links to the write or click link below.
Sarah Jo Ashley RN (Jan 2010 team member)
February 18, 2010
You can read Sarah’s blog journal by clicking the link to the right under the heading Pages or click the link below.
It’s a great story!
March Medical Team – Tim Ryan
February 17, 2010We are now preparing for a medical mission the last week of March. The village of Jeremie has been overrun by refugees and there has been only one medical team there since the quake. We hope to be of service to this area but what we really hope is that other teams will get there before us. If you know of any medical professionals wanting to work in Haiti please let them know of this exciting opportunity. Low pay, long hours, but very rewarding work.
Tim Ryan (Jan 2010 team member)
February 10, 2010
I wanted to share something that happened our last night in Haiti that touched everyone’s heart. Three of our interpreters (Junior, Patrick, and Caudy) came back to the guest house and each one gave a little talk about how grateful they were that we came to Haiti. Normally at the end of trip there is a great deal of hugging and saying goodbye to our friends but this time it was different for both them and us. After they all said something they presented the team with a cake that they had the words written. Thank You
We are truly fortunate to have such great friends in Haiti.
Everyone knows how much I like to keep track of numbers. Since the beginning day of this blog through today we have had 4,795 hits. Our busiest day there were 605 hits. WOW
Beryle Silvernale (Jan 2010 team member)
February 10, 2010
Our team just returned from Hait..we are all ‘tired’ but came away so very
blessed by the spirit of the Haitian people.
Words just do not do the situation there justice..and my heart was ‘crushed’
over and over again as people came in with broken bones..severed legs..feet..
toes..hands which have been crippled..they shared stories of their survival
which sound like they can’t be true…but they are!
Haiti will need our help for years to come…we can’t forget them, they again
and again asked us “please don’t forget us” so remember Haiti in your thoughts
and prayers.
Have a great day…Hugs Beryle
Ron Hoekman (Jan 2010 team member)
February 10, 2010 
As I look out over the mountains of ice covering the Lake Michigan shoreline and the snow-clouded sky, it is hard to believe that only a few days ago our medical team from Holy Spirit Church was sweltering in the heat of Haiti. The comforts of home and a soft bed are nice, but, speaking for myself, I would return to Haiti in a heartbeat. I began on the day after the quake trying to connect with a group going to Haiti who could use an orthopaedic surgeon and gratefully accepted the opportunity to go with the Holy Spirit team. I would be the only Orthopaedic surgeon on a team mostly oriented to primary care medicine. Not knowing precisely what I would be doing or how I would do it was not a great concern for me as I have confidence in my ability to improvise with meager resources.
That said, it was Troy Silvernale who made the connection that make a worthwhile contribution by taking over the orthopaedic clinic at Grace Children’s Hospital. After a slow start on the first day, the clinic was busy almost to the point of overwhelming as the week wore on. Just the way I like it! I had access to decent x-rays which allowed me to assess and treat many fractures and crush injuries not needing surgery and triage others definitely needing surgery to sites capable of dealing with them. What a joy to have Beryl Silvernale as my interpreter for the week. Not only does she speak fluent Creole, but has the compassion to give comfort to the patients and instructions with very little prompting from me. By the end of our stay we were seeing patients sent to us by the Cuban clinic, the Dutch unit, and the University Hospital of Port-au-Prince.
On our first day a 10 year old girl who definitely needed surgery was carried in by a young man who as it turns out was a distant cousin. She had an unstable fracture of the femur (thigh bone).The cousin had found her in the street after the quake and had been caring for her. Her whole family was dead. She had already been seen and treated somewhere, but that wasn’t working. Troy figured the best bet for getting her in the correct hands was at the University of Miami Hospital which was set up under a big circus-like tent on the airport grounds. We all piled in the van and headed to the airport. Getting there and avoiding traffic meant going down some back-streets that were nearly impassable. At one point Troy had to get out and move rocks out of the way so we could squeeze by an enormous pothole. Finally to the airport entrance road we were stuck in a tightly packed standstill traffic jam, still about a half mile from the hospital. Impatient, and no end in sight to the wait, we decided to walk in and carry the child. Inside the airport gates we hitched a ride in the back of a passing pickup truck for the final quarter mile and arrived at the mayhem of the Miami unit. My admission ticket was the child’s x-ray and waving this in front of people I made my way to the back half of the tent which was one big OR with multiple cases going on in the one undivided room. Finding one of their orthopaedic surgeons, permission was readily granted to have her admitted. I made my way back outside to where triage and registration was underway, a Babel of patients, staff, and families under the canopy of some blue plastic tarps. We bid farewell to the cousin and headed back to the traffic jam where we left Beryl and Reuben, the driver. It occurred to me that I would never see the girl again, nor know of her outcome, a thought that would recur during the week and was hard to put away. Then, on our last day in the clinic as our thoughts were turning to the trip home, the cousin came back in to the clinic. He returned just to thank us and let us know that the girl’s leg had been fixed and that she was doing fine.
One child, one story, one smile. There were many more, and more yet calling us to return.
Ron Hoekman
Gary Bissonette (Jan 2010 team member)
February 10, 2010
Please read his personal journal under the pages heading to the right.
http://haitimedicalteam.wordpress.com/gary-bissonette-personal-journal/
