Medical Mission: June 2007 (week 2)

Five medical doctors, two dentist, three nurses, two college students, five adults, and four teens traveled to the remote mountain village of St. Suzanne, Haiti, this June. Eleven hired Haitian interpreters assisted the medical team who saw over 2000 patients in 4 ½ days. The two dentists pulled more than 570 teeth in that short time. The medical staff worked past exhaustion in the extreme heat and gave all they had to serve the poorest of the poor.

Three Haitian nurses were hired to teach hygiene and health classes. The patients were required to attend these classes before they could see a doctor. All patients were dosed with worm medicine after the class. Care packages of vitamins, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, eye drops, small toy, and over the counter pain reliever are some of the items that were distributed after each class was over.

The pharmacy was the last stop, where the team members worked hard to fill all the medical prescriptions that the doctors ordered for those patients. Many of the medications were donated in the US. Peanut butter, collected in Tampa and shipped to Haiti, was given to those most malnourished and to as many as possible.

The birth of baby Christian was joyous. The team also did several minor surgeries. All were exhausted at the end of the trip, but felt that they had done what they could to make life a bit better for the villagers.