Everyone Counts in the Slum

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Everyone Counts in the Slum

Everyone Counts, October 5, 2012
(Photo by John Carroll)

Do four-pound babies in one of the worst slums in the world really count?

It seems they do.

This precious little girl was born on Friday morning but was having trouble breathing by mid-afternoon.

So the nurses in the OB Ward wrapped up this baby, handed her to her sore sixteen-year-old mom, and told her to go to Pediatrics.

Mom carried the baby alone as she ambled over to Peds which was in a different building about twenty yards away.

A Peds nurse unwrapped the baby and pronounced the baby dead. She was cyanotic and not breathing or moving.

Another "health care provider" grabbed the baby and administered "bouche-a-bouche" (mouth-to-mouth) resuscitation.

The young mom watched showing no emotion whatsoever.

The little baby with no name started to breathe and move and she turned pink. And parents in the Pediatric Ward stretched their necks and watched from their own baby's miserable cribs.

A tiny nasal prong was taped into the newborn's nostrils and attached to a huge five-foot paint-peeling oxygen tank nearby. Three liters of oxygen streamed into her airway.

A tiny bore nasogastric tube was passed and the baby's abdomen was decompressed to help her diaphragm work easier.  A 24 gauge IV was placed on one attempt into the back of her right hand. Sugar water dripped in.

The baby opened her left eye and looked around.

Her respirations were fast but her color was good and pink.

Throughout this effort, the Haitian nurses and doctor talked like usual, even joked, but no one screamed or yelled or went crazy. There was definite respect for this little life on the edge.

Life is important in the slum.


John A. Carroll, MD
www.haitianhearts.org

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Monday, October 08, 2012

Respect for Life in the Slum--Updated October 8, 2012

Respect for Life Baby in Soleil
October 8, 2012
(Photo by John Carroll)

You may remember the little baby in trouble on Friday afternoon.

Well, here she is today (Monday) with no oxygen requirements. She is breathing easy on her own. This is good because there are no ventilators at St. Catherine's Hospital in Soleil.

The baby is getting intravenous antibiotics ampicillin and gentamicin. She is not out of the woods but she stands a chance.
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St. Catherine's is being repainted. It looks better than a few weeks ago.

This hospital is run by the Haitian government. But you know what? It needs to be torn down. The people deserve much more than this.

Just think if it were demolished and rebuilt in the middle of this horrible fetid slum. Just imagine a nice big hospital in this place that could provide basics for hundreds of thousands of people.

It could be a great teaching hospital because the pathology of hundreds of thousands of people nearby would keep it busy and full all of the time. The amount of heart disease, infectious disease, and trauma is incredible here. And most importantly the people of the slum would benefit.

Haitian medical staff has to be paid fairly. They work very hard and CARE for each other. The Haitian government needs to do the same.