Kees and his Team will do an excellent job in exposing you to all the various elements of Emergency Relief.

We hope you will join them for this FANTASTIC event!

David and his Team will do an excellent job in exposing you to all the various elements of Emergency Relief.

We hope you will join them for this FANTASTIC event!

The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Many notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the main gaol.

Among those killed were the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, opposition leader Micha Gaillard, and the UN Mission’s Chief, Hédi Annabi and many UN staff.

RescueNet International rapidly responded to this event with a team of nine international members comprised of the following: 3 Nurses; 3 EMTs/Paramedics; 2 Wilderness First Responders; 2 Trauma Counsellors and 2 Logistical – some members had double qualifications. These members came from Europe (4); the US (2) and Australia (3).

The staging ground for the team was Miami Florida, where we exhausted every avenue possible to gain entry into Haiti for approximately two days. We finally snagged a chartered flight which we later found was one of the very first civil flights allowed entry into Haiti, due to the US Military control over the airspace after the Haiti control tower was damaged – whereby US Military aircraft were being given priority.

We immediately registered with what remained of the UN and were invited to set up operations inside the UN compound.

The next day, whilst several members began attending UN briefings, other members were asked to assist with medical activities at the Haiti Community Hospital. What we were confronted with was almost overwhelming. Hundreds of badly wounded casualties lay everywhere, in the courtyards, hallways, verandahs…..anywhere one could lay.

Sadly as was reported, very little or no anesthesias were available, meaning that body parts were needing to be amputated using only nerve blocks, maybe some Morphine and/or local anesthetics. As one doctor told me, “You give ‘em a bandage and tell ‘em to bite down hard. If you are dead lucky, they’ll pass out and then you can go for your life.”

Daily redressings of these amputations and other painful injuries were often completed without anesthetics and often patients were forcably held down while bandages were removed. Our team decided to soak off the bandaging – often using their drinking water, as Saline was also in short supply – as was antibotics, Tetanus injections, etc.

As time went on, these much needed supplies slowly trickled in, as did more professional workers – anesthesiologists; paediatricians; orthopaedics; surgeons; etc. Many times however, these specialists left, sighting the poor conditions or the overwhelming nature of the event.

For several days, RescueNet joined forces with Mercy Works (a sister department of our parent organistation), and together we worked at a street clinic based in a Police compound exactly opposite the Presidential Palace that had collapsed. On one occasion, ten days after the initial shock, a person rushed into the clinic claiming that they had heard a voice buried in the rubble.

We dispatched a team of four which included a doctor, and together with the assistance of an Israeli Search and Rescue team, they managed to extract the person and have him taken to a local hospital, where three days later he was released!

Throughout our time at the UN compound, we help ’shoehorn’ a team into Haiti who we understood to be doctors and paramedics that wanted to join our small team. Whilst they later proved to be doctors and paramedics, this time around they were a team of mercenaries, hiring themselves out to larger groups as security. Due to former contact and positive input from our parent organisation, these mercenaries took our team wholeheartedly ‘under their wing’ and provided us with all the food, water, medicines, etc that was needed.

The University of Miami initially set up a clinic inside the UN compound, but they later relocated with the assistance of this mercenary group, to one end on the side of the international airport runway. There they established four huge circus like tents – one for doctor and nursing accommodation; one for an operating theatre and recovery unit; one for general injuries and ongoing wound care and one for stores.

Having worked with the Uni on several occasions when it was originally in the UN compound, we were invited to come in with them and assist with the ongoing wound and patient care. We soon earned great respect from the other medical staff, to the point that each of us were strongly sort after. We were even invited to ‘man’ their only specialist wound care re-dressing table, where finally we not only had all the medical supplies we wanted, but we also had our very own anesthesiologist! – such a blessing!!

Our team dealt with every injury imaginable from amputations to rectal cancer, from breakages to crushes, from savage avulsions to deep lacerations, to massive infections to, to, to…………

Sadly however, our time in Haiti was to be cut about a week short. Several members had to return to work, but the head of the mercenary group received very high up intelligence that 6,000 prisoners loyal to the former Aristide regime had escaped from the collapsed gaol. It was also reported that a further 35,000 people who were also loyal to this regime had gather with the 6,000 and together they were mounting an insurgency in the mountains surrounding Port au Prince.

The mercenary group leader had regular meetings with us toward the end and he strongly advised that we should leave Haiti as the intellegence reports he was receiving indicated that the insurgency group would be mounting an attack “any day”.

Due to contract complications, the mercenary group was also leaving the city, which gave us little choice but to follow suit. On arrival back in Miami, we were warmly greeted by a fellow RN member (Sue Hanson) who debriefed us as a team the follow morning.

My very sincere thanks go to the very best team I’ve ever worked with! Every day, this team faced grievous wounds, conditions and screams head on, and each person performed brilliantly! I am so very proud of each one! I am likewise very grateful of the financial, prayerful and logistical support from so many without which, the many people we helped would have certainly suffered longer or even died.

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