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Local doctors aid Haiti quake relief

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Staff


BY JUSTICE WARREN

Courtesy of the
Carrboro Commons

For weeks now, Americans have been bombarded by images of disaster and relief efforts following the earthquake in Haiti. Two Chapel Hill doctors have experienced these images firsthand.

According to Drs. Pat Guiteras and Frank Tew, though, media images only tell part of the story.

“These people lost everything … and yet there they were, carrying on every day, helping other patients,” Guiteras said. “They were doing what they had to, to get by. They were very, very tough people and of good cheer.”

The doctors worked as volunteers in Jimani, Dominican Republic, a border city that is about 40 miles from Port-au-Prince. From Feb. 14-20, they worked in an 80-by-40-foot tent that had been erected by relief workers, helping 29 patients recover from injuries. Their work was sponsored by the International Medical Alliance of Tennessee, a volunteer medical relief organization.

Most patients they saw were postoperative, and many were amputees. Infection was a big concern.

“It wasn’t like what you’d expect at a hospital here,” Guiteras said. “There was a dirt floor, rickety beds and flies everywhere.”

The rock-laden ground served as the location for rehabilitation sessions and bedridden patients often had to use bed pans, lacking the luxury of doors or curtains for privacy. Women who had suffered injuries to their upper legs were often left exposed in the tent. A basin of water outside served as the only place in which to bathe.

Tew was impressed that, despite the difficulties, most patients remained positive, and many greeted him every day with an ear-to-ear smile.

One such patient was Lucson Jean-Baptiste, a 27-year-old who taught American history. Tew said Jean-Baptiste was fascinated by U.S. history, and his favorite presidents were Washington and Jefferson. Though Jean-Baptiste had suffered a severe crush injury to his leg, he always remained in good cheer.

“You look at the smiles, and they have nothing, absolutely nothing,” Tew said.

Kids in the area played soccer during the day, many of them barefoot in the rocky field. At night, the women in the tent sang hymns and the men clapped along.

Guiteras and Tew both praised the efforts of everyone they worked with. They said they were happy with the way the Dominican Republic assisted the victims from Haiti, despite the 300 years of bad blood between the two countries.

“I was very impressed with the Dominicans’ response to the needs of humanity,” Tew said. “They don’t have enough to take care of their own people, but they took those folks in and allowed them to be treated there.”

Neither man spoke Creole, the native language in Haiti, so they needed a translator. A Dominican man translated the Creole into Spanish for Guiteras, who then translated what had been said into English. Guiteras and Tew said that when they gave the translator pesos for his services, he broke into tears of joy.

They also lauded the efforts of the doctors and nurses, who came from all across the country at their own expense to help out. Guiteras said that some doctors were forced to work 18 to 20 hours a day. He said that every person played a crucial role in the relief process.

Guiteras, a physician for Chapel Hill Family Medicine, and Tew, a retired cardiologist, have been friends since they met at UNC medical school in 1965.

Guiteras said an acquaintance told him about the International Medical Alliance’s relief efforts. Tew at first was reluctant when Guiteras suggested going to the Dominican Republic, but his friend “said something rather poignant,” Tew said. “He said ‘I hope to learn something about myself.’”

Both said the experience has changed them for the better. After seeing people with so little express so much joy over what they had left, Tew and Guiteras said they learned to never take what they have for granted.

“I think we got as much out of it as what we gave,” Tew said. “Maybe more.”

Justice Warren is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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