The world gets smaller

NEWS & COMMENTARY

The world gets smaller
E-mails from Haiti





	On a Mission

January 22, 2010
Commentary: Buzz Cayton

My best friend Dr. George Peterson retired some time ago and moved back to his roots in Salt Lake City Utah. Three days ago I received this email (below) about his son who had served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons) some years ago in Haiti. Part of that experience encouraged him to become a doctor. I remember Chuck as a little boy who used to announce his name, if you asked him, "Charles Smith Peterson." Chuck is now a doctor. How time flies and how small the world has become with air travel and communication.

All of the men in the following account served missions in Haiti for the Mormon Church and as a result speak their language. They are flying on a private plane and taking all of their own provisions so as not to cause any more burdens for anyone. Not only did they give two years of their life at their own expense as missionaries years ago, now they are giving their time and money and risking their lives to serve again.

Here is the email chain:

First Message:

Early this morning our son, Dr. Chuck, and several other doctors who have served LDS missions in Haiti boarded a charter flight at the Provo UT airport and took off with a load of medical supplies. The doctors all speak French and Haitian Creole because of their mission experience. There was also a young woman with them on the plane. She was headed for a damaged orphanage in Port au Prince to try to rescue 130 homeless little orphans. I helped load the plane and then watched them disappear in the dense morning fog as the plane taxied out to the runway. The doctors all have close friends in Haiti who have died or are injured and homeless. We all will be grateful for your faith and prayers in behalf of all who have gone down there to help and in behalf of the suffering people of Haiti.

Two day later I received this message:

Text messages from Haiti

Instead of a detailed e-mail I got three short text messages. I'm thankful for the good news.

Text from Chuck and Craig in Haiti:

Amputated the little finger and side part of a hand on a 15 year old boy and 2 - 4 (I'm not exactly sure what this means, fingers maybe) on a 60 year old lady. She had maggots crawl out during prep and 1 during the operation.

We're on Australian News--look it up, search for Haiti, Leogane, etc. We're doing so much good and working hard.

We are safe. We met the stake president, mission president, and missionaries. The church is strong and well. No buildings fell.

More detailed Email from late Tuesday night

How can I describe what happened today...

1. Teamed up with Cubans

2. Australian Reporter

3. Guy died in Gary's arms

4. Chuck and Steve cut off a bunch of fingers

5. Really really tired

We started off the day by deciding to set up a clinic at a location other than the LDS Chapel here in Leogane. We went over to where Chuck and Steve had been yesterday where there was a small team of Cuban doctors on their way and a lot of people needing help. We found the Cubans were there and had plans for a pretty nice setup. While Chuck and Steve got things going, Gary and I decided to run back over to where Doctors without Borders (Medicine Sans Frontiere - MSF) was working with the Japanese team. We (Gary and I) wanted to connect with someone so we could help with more acute medical situations. We needed Xray capabilities and possibly even surgical or amputation abilities. When we got there the Japanese and the MSF were fighting and there was a news team from Australia there trying to find someone to help them get a good story about the needs. So I grabbed them and we took them back over to where Chuck and Steve were setting up. They hung with us for about 3 hours or all morning. They interviewed Gary and Chuck and Steve and I and they took about 1 1/2 hrs of video - promised to send it to us!!! They wanted to get a story or two about children receiving attention in dire or difficult situations. That was pretty easy. They took the most footage of Steve and Chuck putting a body cast (hip spica) on a little girl named Beauvais with a femur fracture. She was really in bad shape - imagine having an 8 year old daughter break her leg - her femur and then just sit around for a week. The whole operation (if you could call it that) was done on the ground or on cinder blocks with a large group of Haitians surrounding us and holding her.

We were setup in an old school with a number of buildings and rooms with old desks or chairs in them - nothing was even close to sterile let alone clean. Gary was over in another part of the compound helping to administer drugs to people in post op situation.. The Cubans were performing amputations - probably 6 or 7 - and Gary helped them with pain - he is really good at that. While helping Steve and Chuck with a few things and talking with the reporter - Pete, Gary came running over to us and asked for an ambu bag or battery/hand operated suction. When I got in there he was holding a guy about 20 years old who had just had his leg amputated. Because he aspirated his own saliva and Gary had no way to get the stuff out a pretty healthy young guy died (other than just undergoing an amputation of an infected leg with sepsis without anesthesia).

Chuck is telling me about a 2-month-old baby whose mom died on top of her and she survived but was trapped for quite awhile - who knows exactly how long.. The baby had some pretty bad mental issues - moving but not very well, eyes continuously crossed and uncrossed, weak cry, etc., either hypoxic or intracranial bleeding.

Chuck and I are trying really hard to keep laughing we both just discovered that the tears will not stop once they start - it's a good thing he's such a goofball.

GRAPHIC STUFF - Chuck and Steve spent at least 45 minutes amputating a little boys left pinky. It was burnt and had bone sticking out. They had to put a tourniquet on him to stop the bleeding and Chuck got some spine instruments to cut the bone.

Then they spent at least an hour helping a 60+ yr old lady whose pointer, middle and ring fingers were completely destroyed and rotten. I put a couple extra tournequets on her because she kept bleeding...There was an extremely comical moment - if you can get over the sick, twisted, disgusting nature of it. As Steve was taking off bandages and beginning to cut off rotten fingers, there were maggots falling out. Steve was very gentle and helped all the maggots out carefully with his scalpel - he said, "move along little doggies." After a lot of manipulation and cutting she is now much much better off and can easily do a hang ten.

Edgar's niece (Edgar is Chuck's best buddy and former 1st Counselor in Leogane Branch) was in school with 34 kids/students. She is one of two who survived. She had a bad leg and it was splinted by a local doctor. It was an open broken tibia and fibula everything was swollen and infected. She needs amputation. She is getting XRays tomorrow because she might have a broken femur too. Edgar is family. Chuck couldn't talk it hurt so bad. He told Edgar and his brother that she needed her leg amputated. The little girl's Dad - Edgar's bro said to Chuck - no problem you can cut off both legs if needed, she is alive and for that we are grateful. Please do not be overly concerned. The good that we are doing here is amazing. We could go home today and be totally fulfilled. The needs here are overwhelming but every person helped is another opportunity to live a long, healthy life. The people have no idea that their situation is so bad and therefore for them it isn't. They are happy and tough and resilient - seriously when you see the ugly or painful situations that little small children are in and then they smile it all melts away. Thanks for letting us come and thanks for dealing with the consequences - I know that Heavenly Father loves these people. I feel it every time I get one of those smiles. Your prayers are being answered. Keep up the good work at home! Oh yeah we're pretty tired - Gary already took some sleep meds and crashed.

Craig, Steve, Gary and Chuck

May we all offer our prayers for these young men and those that they serve.