Team Kaiser Permanente

Nancy Broderick and Ann Napton recently volunteered at Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti.  They were both part of a 17-member team from Southern California Kaiser Permanente.

Nancy wrote, "Wonderful experience but part of the reason was due to the amazing team I went with.  The politics was the negative but we were there to serve."  She stated that she wished she had brought "more types of food, freeze dried, mixed nuts, trail mix and Powerade.  We craved salt."  She noted that she wore scrubs most of the time and indicated that there were plenty of them left over from previous volunteers.  She added that "The patients were like sponges absorbing everything you are doing for them."  She closes with "It was one of those wonderful life experiences that is very hard to put into words."

Nancy, on the left, teaching how to do a dressing change

Ann submitted the following report:

Hi there, we came back from Haiti last Sunday, Mothers Day. What a great day to come back and be with my family. Your resident, Hasan, what a great man he is. He is a wonderful human being and a great doctor. He always had a smile on his face. I am on OR nurse. We had an orthopedic surgeon, an OB Gyn surgeon and a general/vascular surgeon with us. If I had to do it over again, I would bring another team of OR nurses. The only problem with that is that there are only 3 ORs and with the LEAP, ortho and general surgeons there wouldn't be anywhere for the other surgeons to work.We worked at least 16 hours a day then the emergencies would come in at night. It was a very rewarding experience, even with all the political transition going on. We were in very short supply of sterile gowns and drapes. We were told not to bring any supplies. That was very frustrating, we were trying to do a c-section with no gown for the assistant!! There wasn't anyone to help us. I felt like we were on our own, which was OK but it took us longer to find things. Also, I questioned the sterility of the packages. Some had steam and gas tape on them! I wanted to organize the place but we didn't have time. We didn't see much of the outdoors, only when the power went out because they ran out of fuel. We had a great team with an engineer and ortho tech, ortho PA, PT, there were 17 total. They were the best to work with. One thing which seems small that I would bring are earplugs so we don't have to hear the roosters!! Also, I would bring more food. We all lost weight which is not a bad thing but the lunch they were supposed to provide was gone by the time we got there. These are pretty petty things I know, but maybe it will help the next volunteers be more prepared. I'm grateful I was able to this. Ann. I would suggest bring goodies for the kids. they loved that we gave them food each day.