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The last couple of days have been a blur for me.  Ended the trip on a low point with a patient who underwent IM rodding Sunday evening then probably threw a pulmonary embolus postop.  Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our anesthesiologist shackled with limited resources, the young man expired early in the morning a couple of hours before we left for the airport.

Travelled to the terminal uneventfully in the hospital ambulance with red light flashing.  Stood in line for over 4 hours waiting for our boarding pass then embarked on the journey back to Los Angeles via New York.  The circuitous itinerary was courtesy of Delta Airlines as American Airlines still was not flying in and out of Port au Prince.

Had my initial bout of GI distress in LAX, an hour later in Redlands all hell broke loose...I couldn't keep any fluids down.  Thankfully, our surgery center anesthesiologist, Jeanie Sprengel, stopped by the house, started an IV on me and pumped in 3L of fluid before I started to feel better.  I'm currently back in the office seeing patients and am almost good as new.  I'm most grateful for her intervention and even more thankful that I survived the majority of the trip without illness.

Hopital Adventiste's parent NGO, Adventist Health International,  recommended this past weekend that all expat volunteers vacate the premises by today (read more from Jessica Scott) due to escalating civil unrest. Scott, Terry and Jeannie were planning to leave by this coming weekend although I'm waiting to here more of their updated plans.

I didn't get much of chance to post a more detailed summary of our trip with case highlights but will try to due so with a couple of "retroactive" posts over the next few days.

Good to be home but I'm filled with mixed emotion as so much has been accomplished from an orthopaedic surgical standpoint at HAH since the Big Quake and the potential was great.  My fear is now that with Haiti's deepening election crisis after two leading presidential candidates rejected a proposed recount of last month's disputed vote that enthusiasm for volunteer involvement will begin to wane.  I hope and pray that my concerns will not come to fruition.