Home - ENA Members Respond to Haiti

6/1/2010

The Gift

ENA Member Gisela Chrisman, RN, DCH, shares her story of how a team of dedicated volunteer medical professionals, working under severe conditions at a Haitian orphanage, provided the gift of healing to earthquake victims. Read the full text of her account here.

Click on any of the photos below to view as a larger image.

Posted at 4:06 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of May 31 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (27)

5/27/2010

'I Will Never Forget Them'

Disaster nursing frequently includes response to an associated pattern of injuries and/or disease as seen in the earthquake related trauma of Haiti and secondary health impacts such as infection. Helen Sandkuhl, RN, MSN, CEN, FAEN, nursing director of Emergency Services at Saint Louis University Hospital, and a member of the Missouri-1 DMAT, describes her deployment experiences in Haiti here.

Helen’s excellent recounting and photos include adult and neonatal sepsis/tetanus (miraculous 5-day-old Jefferson), orthopedic injuries and GSWs among others, along with the challenges and successes in a resource-poor environment. She demonstrates that “necessity is the mother of invention” in developing an aluminum foil-lined incubator and the multiple uses for an MRE box. Thanks Helen.

How creative have you been on your deployment to Haiti or in a previous disaster?

- Knox

Posted at 5:34 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of May 24 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (35)

5/12/2010

‘Only One Nurse’

ENA Member Leanna Cossman, RN, writes of her second deployment to Haiti. Three months post-earthquake she had expectations of progress but describes lack of coordination, continued despair and deaths most likely preventable. She reflects on the earthquake’s significance and impact on humanity but finds a renewed appreciation for those in her life and resources otherwise taken for granted.

– Knox

Please click here to read the full text of Cossman's article.

Posted at 2:08 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of May 9 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (43)

3/24/2010

'The Most Rewarding Work You'll Ever Do'

Rose Johnson Spirograph

Rose Johnson, RN, an emergency nurse at Springhill Medical Center in Springhill, Louisiana, recently returned from a deployment at a hospital in Jimani, Dominican Republic.

“I never had a second thought about going to Haiti and have already made plans to return,” she writes.

Johnson shared that many medical resources were scarce and had to be allocated. Examples included having only one nurse to four ICU beds and the use of dial-a-flows, if and when they were available. Incentive spirometers did not exist, so they were “hand-crafted” (see photo). Only minimal labs were available—no vancomycin peaks or troughs, no blood types and cross-matches.

— Knox

To read the complete text of this article, please click here.

Posted at 12:39 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of March 22 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (33)

3/16/2010

'Their Faces Will Stay With Me Forever'

I met recently with Dee Grimm, RN, JD, who presented at the National Emergency Management Summit in Washington, D.C., just after her return from a deployment to Haiti. She debriefed some of her observations and issues from the Haiti response. Here are a select few observations and issues:

Scope of Practice—There will be things you never anticipated or were trained for. We had no pharmacists, so nurses pulled and mixed their own meds. Add to that med packages and labels were in French.

Physical Environment—Humidity was so bad you could not wear gloves for long. Post-Op was in a tent as most patients were terrified of being in a building. IVs were sometimes hung from trees (see photo).

Boy With IV

Resource Allocation—Dedicating scarce ICU resources to one patient who eventually died highlighted the need for crisis standards of care planning and the ability to triage scarce medical resources.

Resource Management—Not having someone to sort through, manage and track the tons of supplies and stuff delivered every day.

Stress Debriefing—While there were several chaplain-types around the hospital, I saw no formalized process for staff to debrief or just plain talk. After working through "exhaustive hours, aftershocks and bodies left on the hospital steps, there was never any debriefing process."

Highlight—"Traveling to a mountain orphanage and vaccinating 125 children whose faces will stay with me forever."

Final Puzzle—If you dropped a new $400 company-loaned iPhone down a third-world toilet, would you go after it?

Don't think I would.

Thanks Dee.

— Knox

To read the complete text of this article, please click here.

Posted at 1:31 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of March 15 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (34)

3/2/2010

Telling the Story

Matt Luce in Haiti

ENA member Matt Luce, RN, who just returned to his home in Washington after a two-week deployment to Haiti, offers a news report recounting his story here. This site also includes more photos and Matt’s personal essay describing his experiences and perspectives.

Matt sums up with, "The experience was the most horrible, horrific, saddest, uplifting, inspiring, greatest thing that I have done." He recounted his Haitian interpreter’s request to “tell our story." ENA can help.

Matt Luce in Haiti 2

– Knox

Posted at 12:41 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of March 1 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (63)

3/1/2010

Nightshift in Haiti

Disaster deployments can be rewarding, but mentally and physically demanding. Relief workers can wind up needing the relief.

Pattison with kids

Among her many experiences, emergency nurse JoAnna Pattison, RN, describes her OB-GYN night shift in the Hospital (a tent with 12 army stretchers and a tarped area for OB/GYN issues).

– Knox

Relievers Needing Relief

I settled in and had done one feeding and change when one of the relief workers came in and was feeling dizzy and nauseous. She had an IV earlier in the day and received two liters of NS. I gave her an IM injection of Zofran. She was taking fluids PO with the encouragement of her two friends. The woman was asleep. The corpsman was resting on his cot. I laid my head down and closed my eyes as I realized I had been up over 19 hours.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Running

I saw a soldier running up, “I need a stretcher!" Grabbing the other end of the OB litter we took off. Keep in mind, I am a 48-year-old woman without any light source and running down a steep hill with a 20-something at the head with a headlamp on. I yelled for him to "Slow down!" "Sorry ma’am." When another soldier came up I gave up my end of the stretcher and went back to the tent.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resourcefulness and Flexibility

I prepared the “birthing suite” behind the tarp and frantically tried to remember my OB rotation, 12 years ago. Truly an emergency nurse’s nightmare! I started down the hill toward the lights when the paramedic came up to me and handed me a bundle. Yep, the baby. I ran back to the hospital. I unwrapped this small surprise to see a limp, dusky, bloody baby with dirt and grass all over it. I quickly ran and got some saline and 4x4s. Rubbing and stimulating frantically (the “Oh crap!” factor going through my head). "Remember, remember!" Then, like music to my ears, a deep breath and a loud, boisterous cry.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outcomes

Pattison holding baby

I wrapped the newborn in a dry blanket and silver swaddle and went to see where everyone was. They brought the mother up and the OB doc came in. The father sat, chanted and prayed. I handed him his new son for the first time. He cried and thanked me repeatedly. His wife delivered the placenta and was sutured by the OB. She then examined the baby who was doing well.

– JoAnna Pattison, RN

Posted at 5:32 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of March 1 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (81)

2/25/2010

All it Take$$$

The Numbers
The February 18, 2010, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Response to Haiti, Fact Sheet #37, reports 230,000 deaths, 700,000 displaced people, 511,400 estimated departing Port-au-Prince and approximately 3 million affected people. This and other disaster responses are costly. More than $80 million to date has been attributed to medical and health care alone from U.S. agencies, organizations and NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

Community Awareness and Response

The Haitian earthquake and similar disasters require many responder-types, including clinicians, and arguably as important, those who help finance, organize or sponsor care and supplies. Linda Seger, RN, CEN, ENA Emergency Preparedness and Management Committee chairperson for 2010-2011, and American Red Cross, Islands Chapter board chairperson, writes of her response to Haiti with a few highlights below.

– Knox

We…

· Engaged the local paper and radio station.

· Partnered with a local bank with its 18 branches.

· Called local businesses and civic leaders for support.

· Manned the office with extra volunteers.

· Held a quick fundraiser and community meeting at the town’s senior center.

· Found and engaged a local Haitian teacher to share and relate the devastation.

· Talked to people about Haiti and provided a slide show.

· Relayed the implications and potential we have in our own backyard.

· In 14 days, we collected more than $22,000 in our little community.

Please remind everyone that response to disasters comes in many forms. Whether actually going to Haiti, preparing and receiving patients from Haiti, or fundraising. It is all important.

Thanks for all you do, Knox, and keep up the great work.

– Linda L. Seger, RN, CEN

Posted at 6:08 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of February 22 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (80)

2/11/2010

The Couple that Deploys Together...

Karen Ketchie

Hi Knox,

I want to tell you what a BLAST it was working with the PA-1 team! LOVE THEM! Hope they enjoyed our time together as we did.

The PA-1 and the FL-4 contingency replaced the NJ-1/CA-6 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams in the field. After the transitions of teams, we were able to treat an additional 3,200 patients in the Peitonville area. The staff assignments were either in triage or the main medical tent. Additionally, there were Bravo (foot patrol) teams that daily walked down into the refugee tent city (50,000 people) and the Charlie (Humvee travel for further outreach) teams that went into the city or remote places.

Tent Refuge

One of our finds was an 11-year-old with suspected pelvic and femur fractures, being carried around by her mom since the earthquake…now 14 days later. They were taken in the DoD Humvee to the Haiti Community Hospital. In our time there, six babies were born and there were two deaths, both pedestrian vs. vehicle.

My major takeaway is an amazing respect for the resiliency and kindness of the people of Haiti we encountered. I am truly humbled to have been part of the US response effort.

– Karen Ketchie, RN, PMD, Commander, FL-4 DMAT

Tim and Karen Ketchie

Another aspect to disaster is the bonds that are strengthened or built. Karen adds that her husband Tim deployed with her as FL-4 DMAT's communications officer.

– Knox

Posted at 7:06 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of February 8 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (100)

2/10/2010

Situation Update

February 4, 2010, Haiti’s Prime Minister Jean-Max Belleive announced an earthquake death toll of more than 212,000 citizens. Approximately 300,000 Haitians have been injured and an estimated 1 million are homeless. The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) February 5 update reported major concerns for increasing sanitation challenges and sheltering deficits. Disease surveillance is being implemented and occurrences of tetanus, diphtheria and diarrhea are being monitored while vaccination efforts are put into place (www.paho.org). The PAHO Health Cluster reports a decrease in trauma cases but an increased demand for obstetric care.

Characteristics

February 4, 2010, two Florida volunteers died when their helicopter crashed into a Dominican Republic mountainside. Disaster environments are trying, both physically and mentally. Austere settings are uncomfortable and inconvenient at the very least and hostile or dangerous at worst. Essential provider characteristics often cited in a humanitarian disaster response include compassion, flexibility, ability to work in a team environment, and physical and mental fitness, among others.

Humanitarians

A humanitarian response is one that supports and promotes human welfare. It’s good to hear and see ENA members such as Donald, Wayne, Myna, Mary, Dominic and Sue involved and responding as perhaps Florence Nightingale did on the 1854 Crimean battlefields of Turkey, or maybe as Clara Barton responded while rallying to the humanitarian crisis of nearly 200,000 dead during the 1896 Ottoman Empire’s Hamidian massacre.

As of February 8, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) reported approximately 200 people deployed in Haiti relief and support efforts. HHS medical teams have reported seeing more than 27,390 patients, performed 117 surgeries and delivered 31 babies (www.hhs.gov). Many other organizations and ENA members have provided care and are responding to this crisis in various methods. Please share your relief efforts during this crisis.

– Knox

Posted at 6:56 PM by Amy Carpenter-Aquino | Category: Week of February 8 | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (75)

RSS Feed