Church members have returned from a week of working in a Haitian clinic where they performed surgery and attended to medical needs.
Doug Hodges, director of Daystar Baptist Missions, said the team included about 20 medical staff and assisstants from the Huntington area.
“It can’t be described in words or pictures; it’s that bad there,” Hodges said.
About four people went to Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, and described it as a war zone. The people crowded into the streets because they had nowhere else to go, Hodges said.
“Where we were wasn’t as damaged by the earthquake,” Hodges said. “We only saw houses and things that were destroyed.”
When the team arrived 12 days after the earthquake, they didn’t see the people who needed emergency help, Hodges said. By that time, people had either had amputations, surgery or died. The team did have to perform some amputations and redo some surgeries that became infected because of poor conditions and not sterol conditions they were done in originally,” Hodges said.
Hodges said his team took in 21 patients who had gone into the Dominican Republic looking for medical attention and help.
“Some of those patients had some severe injuries, and there were a couple of amputations we had to do,” Hodges said.
The team also set up a clinic to tend to the people of the community who had less severe injuries. A nurse who was with them even delivered a few babies, Hodges said.
“We saw in the general clinic about 600 to 800 people but those were not serious injuries,” he said. “In the hospital, I would say dozens of surgeries were performed.”
They probably had the best equipped team and were able to meet many needs other than just the trauma surgery that was required in the beginning, Hodges said.
“We will be going back in the near future,” he said.
A member of his team received an e-mail that day asking if they knew anyone who could help an orphanage of about 40 orphans that had no water, food or shelter, Hodges said.
"They were asking for food and I offered for some clothing to be sent to the orphanage,” Hodges said. “So we will probably be responding in that way.”
There has been a tremendous response from the medical community in Huntington. Doctors are giving up their weeks to go to Haiti, Hodges said.
There are two Marshall University graduates who have been in Haiti for the last week, Hodges said.
Gary Hale, Marshall graduate, and his wife are missionaries in the Dominican Republic. They have responded by taking a team of missionaries and people from the Dominican Republic to help a church and school, Hodges said.
Chad Justice, who attended Marshall as well, was on that team. Hodges said he thinks they’re back in the Dominican right now but planning to continue to help to reconstruct the church and school.
Hodges said they have some money left over from the recent trip, and he is making sure it is set aside to go toward the next trip to Haiti or go to the people there who really need it.
Kate McCloy can be contacted at mccloy@marshall.edu.
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