Friday, Feb 26 Story from Kris Darby

Kris Darby & Dr. Ted Flaiz
Sherry Wiedeman, Ron Tilley, Dr. Flaiz

Dr. Scott Welker

On my first day in Port-au-Prince I was working with Dr. Hooper's team at a mobile clinic when a two year old girl arrived in the arms of her parents and had uncontrolled salivation. Dr. Hooper examined her and found her to have a partially obstructed airway of unknown etiology. He stated that the child needed to go to the nearest hospital and wanted me to take her. I looked at him and asked him where the hospital was. His answer was, "I don't know, I don't live here, but you need to find one." I looked at my interpreter, Leo, and asked him where the hospital was and he stated, "I'm not from this part of Port-au-Prince, I don't know." Dr. Hooper then stated that the child needed to go now before her airway became completely blocked. Leo picked up the child, I grabbed my jump bag and we began to walk into Port-au-Prince.

During this time the child began to drool more and had further difficulty breathing. After about 1/2 hr of walking we finally were able to flag down a taxi. After Leo negotiated with the driver he loaded the three of us, and the child's parents into a beat up Honda and drove us to a small hospital. As we got out of the taxi the driver demanded to be paid. I told Leo to tell him we would pay him AFTER he took us back to the mobile clinic since we were both lost and would not be able to find our way back.

At the hospital there was a pediatric surgeon and a general surgeon who took over care of the child, whew...we had made it and the child was now in good hands. The taxi driver took us back to the mobile clinic and I paid him six US dollars for the taxi ride. We really made a difference in that child's life, who knows what would have happened if care had not been given and my interpreter Leo really shined for me. Quite an adventure for an American in Haiti...find a hospital indeed. We did........