The Cholera Chauffeur--January 2016

 Carlos (Photo by John Carroll–January 25, 2016)

This is Carlos (not his real name).

Carlos and his family live in Park Cadot #2 on the Haitian/Dominican border.  There are approximately 285 families in this camp and 110 families in the adjacent Park Cadot #1.

Carlos told me that he used to be the motorcycle chauffeur for people who had cholera in the camps. And his wife told me that he took “many” people with cholera from the camps to the Cholera Treatment Center (CTC) in Anse-a-Pitres during the months of November and December, 2015. (Park Cadot #2 had significantly more cholera than did Camp Cadot #1.) She stressed the fact that Carlos took people at night who were very ill.  They would just prop up the sick and weak person with cholera in the middle of the bike with Carlos in front and a family member of the cholera victim providing support from the rear.

Carlos charged 10 Haitian dollars (one US dollar) for this three mile life saving trip on the rocky road heading south into Anse.

However, on Christmas Eve, Carlos wiped out on his motorcycle. He was scraped off the road and  transported to Pedernales by family. His wife told me that the Dominican aduana did not ask to see any “papers” because Carlos was a medical emergency. (Carlos and his family are “undocumented”…)

Upon arriving at the public hospital in Pedernales, an x ray was obtained which showed a serious injury of his left knee. His left knee joint was fractured. (Displaced tibial plateau fracture involving the lateral one-third  of the tibial plateau.)

Carlos’ Left Knee X-Ray (Photo by John Carroll–January 25, 2016)

Carlos needed surgery, but this was not possible at this hospital–the only public hospital in Pedernales. So the hospital staff put a long cast on his injured leg and sent him back to his camp the same night.  He did not receive any pain medication.

When I asked his wife if Carlos was treated “for free”, she laughed and said no. They paid in Dominican pesos an amount that would be approximately equivalent to 30 dollars US.

Carlos now sits under an awning in front of his shack in Park Cadot #2. His kids play around him in the dirt and he smiles approvingly at them. And his wife runs a little wound clinic there where she cleans and dresses minor wounds that occur all the time in the camps.

I did not tell Carlos that his chances of ever walking well without pain are zero. His knee joint is not going to heal well—the tibial plateau will be uneven and he will be left with severe arthritis. He needed surgery right after his accident (open reduction and internal fixation) to put his knee joint back together the right way.  But this was not an option for him in Haiti or the Dominican Republic.

Like most of the people in the camps, Carlos is patient. The number of cases of cholera has decreased since December, so his opportunity for work would have diminished anyway.

So he sits and waits.

Carlos (Photo by John Carroll–January 25, 2016)

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org