Thursday 28 January 2010

Take nothing for Granted...

Conditions are worse than imaginable. The entire city is in ruins. The streets are lined with make-shift tents. Even families with houses that still stand choose to live in the streets for fear of after-shocks. Recently orphaned children sit blank-stared
on sidewalks just lost.

As we drove to the hospital, the smells are
overwhelming. Many bodies remain trapped under rubble...it has now been over 2 weeks.

My first night, I was woken up to
someone from the hospital across the street calling for the "blonde-hair anesthesia". There are two anesthetists (myself included) in our team. I grabbed my new-found CRNA friend and ran next door. There was a stat c-section at the hospital. The conditions are unbelievable. Make-shift ORs with out-dated drugs that I have only read about. But we have an anesthesia machine!

This morning I worked in a public health clinic. 6 of us assessed over 250 Haitian men, women and children. Later in the afternoon I went back to the hospital to help with anesthesia.

Tomorrow more surgeries.

Take nothing for granted.

Emily Zimmerman

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