Cholera, frequent power outages and 16 to 20-hour workdays await a group of medical professionals from Oilfields Hospital in Black Diamond who are heading to earthquake ravaged Haiti next month.
The devastation facing the group doesn’t faze nurse Cathy Buick.
“Knowing the tragedy of Haiti, knowing the medical needs that exist in Haiti, I personally see this as a rewarding experience,” said Buick.
A group of eight to 10 medical professionals from the Oilfields Hospital will go to Haiti in March to work at a hospital in the capital of Port-Au-Prince.
They are volunteering to work at the Bernard Mev’s Hospital run by a group called Medishare, based out of Miami. They hope to have two doctors and seven or eight nurses going as part of the group and they will be in the country March 19-26.
It’s the first of two planned trips to Haiti, but a date hasn’t been set for the second trip.
Everyone is volunteering their own time to participate.
Whatever happens, Buick said they will be able to rely on each other.
“I think that’s part of the excitement is that we can work together as a team,” she said. “So, whatever we’re faced with we can deal with as a team.”
Buick said she believes their experience at the Oilfields Hospital will be their greatest contribution.
“They’re excited to have us because we have this broad experience, because in rural areas that’s what we do,” she said. “We don’t have just one specialty, we have lots of specialties.”
They have been told to expect to work between 16 to 20 hours a day.
Other than that, nurse Sandra Hawker said they don’t know what to expect once they arrive in Haiti.
“They ask you what your specialty is, but if they’re short somewhere else that’s where they’re going to ask you to go,” she said.
Along with regular day-to-day medical needs, Hawker said there are a lot of people who are still trying to recover from injuries suffered during the quake and there is a baby boom going on in Haiti, so they could end up delivering and treating a number of newborns.
“We could be seeing lots of severely dehydrated patients who have Cholera and we could be seeing varying infections.”
Hawker said they will also be sharing their expertise with Haitian doctors and nurses who work at the hospital every day.
The working conditions will be nothing like Oilfields Hospital either. According to Hawker there is some electricity at the hospital, but it goes out almost daily.
They are bringing medical supplies of course, but they were also given a list of items to bring with them, including headlamps, flashlights, sanitary hand wash and food.
This will be the first medical mission for all of them and it’s something they all said they want to do.
Nurse Trudi Attena said she looked into volunteering after the quake first happened, but didn’t find any organizations willing to take one person.
“I’m a nurse so I know I have the skills that can be used pretty much everywhere,” she said.
Nurse Natalie Clark said it’s an opportunity to see if it’s something she’d want to continue to do in the future.
They are looking to raise about $12,000 to help offset the costs for the trip.
They are also looking for an airline that would donate the tickets, but so far they haven’t been successful.
Whatever they aren’t able to raise, they all say they will happily pay out of their own pockets to help make a difference in the country.
“We’re basically all going as individuals, if we don’t get any funding we’re going to pay our own way,” said Clark. “We still want to go.”
They will be holding a bake sale and raffle in the lobby of the hospital on Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donations will also be accepted at that time.
People can also contact Hawker at 403-933-9119 to donate for their medical mission to Haiti.
