Crystal Lake Doctor Returns From Haiti Earthquake Zone

This article was written by Amber Krosel and published in todays issue of the Northwest Herald serving McHenry County, Illinois.

When Dr. Lawrence Lavine left Haiti last week, he returned home feeling a sense of hope.

“Things are getting better,” he said.

The Crystal Lake anesthesiologist served on a two-week medical mission to the country, which continues to recover from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

Lavine, 65, worked 12-hour shifts day and night. Toward the end of his visit, he often pulled double-duty as the only anesthesiologist at Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti.

“I had to catch sleep whenever I could,” he said.  But the experience was “absolutely positive,” and Lavine wants to return in April.

Although Lavine isn’t new to mission trips – he began with trips to the Republic of Panama 12 years ago – Haiti was different.  Arms and legs were amputated during the first few days of Lavine’s stay, accounting for about 300 initial cases. Caesarean sections and appendix removals also were performed.

Lavine’s team rested in tents and sleeping bags in a large room at Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti, which offers free services to its patients and also serves as a public feeding center.  Lavine chronicled his two-week stay there through private journal entries, which depicted area scenes of deteriorated buildings, military presence, and death.

“Imagine having your home collapse on your family,” Lavine wrote in his journal. “Imagine having your spouse die, some of your children becoming severely injured, and some of your children dying.  “Some such widows are seen in our emergency room,” he continued. “They are so overcome with grief that they no longer care to feed themselves or their children.”

About one-third of the local nurses and orderlies themselves had lost family members to the earthquake. During Lavine’s first meal in Haiti, one of them passed him a thank you note written in English. The author asked that he always keep it on his person for good luck.  It is that gratitude – along with the constant pouring in of supply donations from all over the world – that helped keep Lavine motivated. Although he expects relief efforts to continue for more than a year, he wants to be invited back.

“It is my belief, and I have faith, that despite the trials and tribulations we receive in life, we are all blessed by a goodness provided by God,” Lavine wrote. “When we allow our better nature to come forth, we make the unbearable bearable.”