Haitians still need help months after quake, local paramedic says
News
Posted By PETE FISHER, NORTHUMBERLAND TODAY
Posted 1 month ago
It's a catastrophe the world has forgotten, but as Northumberland County paramedic Rebecca Thomas can attest, thousands are still in need of help.
For three weeks in June, Thomas traveled to Haiti at her own expense, using up her vacation time from work to help some of those affected by the devastating earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians on Jan. 12, 2010.
Thomas works full-time as a Northumberland County paramedic and part-time for Hastings-Quinte EMS. Along with the basic necessities, she brought $1,500 in items donated by Hastings-Quinte EMS.
Thomas has traveled to Africa and Cambodia on missions to help those less fortunate than her, but nothing in her 14 years as a paramedic prepared her for what she experienced in Haiti.
She first got the idea of traveling to Haiti after conversing through e-mail with a Halton Region paramedic who had moved his family there. (He has since returned to Canada.)
"I've traveled to Cambodia (in 2006) and Africa (in 2008). I was starting to feel the urge again to go somewhere and help," Thomas said. "When the earthquake hit I knew that would be the place I was going because I knew they would need help for many, many years."
Spending $1,200 of her own money, trading shifts with some of her co-workers, Thomas took her vacation time set off for Haiti.
The 75-acre compound Thomas traveled to was called Mission of Hope -Haiti, about a 45-minute drive from the capital Port-Au-Prince.
The non-governmental Mission of Hope -Haiti was established since 1998. Since the Jan. 12 earthquake it has delivered more than six million meals, treated more than 4,000 patients, handed out more than 2,000 tents and provided rescue and medical teams.
There are still 400,000 children without parents in Haiti.
Each day, sponsored children go to walled compound that has armed guards at the entrance to attend school.
Thomas says she strongly believes giving children an education is an invaluable source for the country's future, as they will be able to teach others what they've learned.
Each week at the compound up to 60 children from the Mission of Hope orphanage would attend movie night.
All the children wanted was to be held, Thomas says.
"So many things in Haiti were so heartbreaking to witness."
While Thomas says she's "not overly" religious, she simply feels it's her calling to help.
"Ever since I was a little girl I've wanted to help people and go to places that need help."
Traveling to Sudan was extremely perilous, she says, adding Haiti also had its share of danger.
"Whenever I went (outside the compound) in the ambulance, I was not allowed to roll down the window," she recalls. "I rolled it down once and the driver yelled at me.
"People are desperate. There is nothing there. It's like a war zone in Port-Au-Prince.
"Haiti was a Third World country before the earthquake," Thomas says. "Now it's a Third World country with a massive natural disaster upon it and it's not in good shape at all."
Thomas says there are still bodies buried in the rubble.
Thomas worked hands-on, treating the injured sometimes 14 hours a day. People injured in the earthquake six months ago were coming in for the first time to have their injuries treated.
"There is a lot of malnutrition, infection because of the unsanitary conditions, and the big worry now is hurricane season has started and all these hundreds of thousands of people are living in tents," Thomas says.
"They are anticipating another wave of deaths."
Thomas believes most of the world has forgotten Haiti, as it does after other disasters fade from the headlines.
"Before I left, one person asked me if they still need help down there. Another asked if I was going on vacation," she says incredulously.
"People have the idea they are still re-building, but they are still trying to clear away the rubble."
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and have been living in tents for six months.
"Haiti is a forgotten tragedy now the media isn't covering it," Thomas says.
"I went by the Presidential Palace and it looks like it's been cut in half."
Thomas got little sleep on a two-inch-thick piece of Styrofoam. If the generator went off, the power would be cut and the one fan in her room would turn off.
Regardless, the power was turned off at 5 a.m. each day, but in no way does she complain about the conditions she had to live in when she witnessed thousands of families living in tents huddled next to each other.
Given the poor food conditions, Thomas relied heavily on bottled water under the blazing sun.
Each day she would write in her journal the stories of survival from the Haitian people.
One of the images seeded in her brain is the image of a 12-year-old girl with a bone from her arm protruding at the shoulder. It is an image Thomas will never forget.
The girl's parents had sold her to a couple who used her as a slave and beat her so badly with sugar cane that her upper arm was fractured. That was in December. The child had walked around for six months without having her arm treated, without any pain medication and still working for the couple.
An orphanage rescued her and she was brought to Mission of Hope in June.
"When she was brought in, her arm was completely swollen with scar tissue and infection," Thomas recalls.
It was necessary to remove part of the bone because "it had been eaten away by bacteria," Thomas says.
"It looked like a piece of wood that had been eaten by termites.
"It was awful, but I saw so many heartbreaking stories; people coming in with wounds and fractures that hadn't been treated from the earthquake."
Periodically, Thomas would travel by ambulance through areas such as Port-Au-Prince.
When she was lucky enough to have a day off, she helped volunteers from the University of Miami move patients from their temporary tents to a permanent hospital.
"I moved 19 patients in five trips and hope I never had to do that again," Thomas recalls.
"On the first trip there were 13 people in the ambulance."
Thomas also visited a mass grave on a hill where more than 100,000 people are buried. A large cross was placed just above the grave.
Although many people Thomas treated, including children under 10 years old will still die as a result of the January earthquake, she says every minute of her trip was worth it and she wishes more people would help.
Despite the dirty water, unhygienic living conditions and not enough food, Thomas is already trying to find a way to go back.
The reason is simple: "They need help."
And while the victories of survival sometimes are sparse, they give her the strength to carry on.
Thomas recalls seeing a seven-month-old boy carried in by his father.
"He had no life in his eyes and was limp.
"I could feel all his bones and it looked like he was going to die."
The baby had lost his mother in the earthquake. He lived in a tent with his father and two siblings aged nine and five years.
In Haiti, women tend to the children, so the father was very much out of his element.
"The baby looked like he was ready to give up," Thomas recalls.
After giving the baby formula and a wash, staff told the father to bring him back once a week.
Clinging to hope the baby would survive and wanting to help the children's father, Thomas went around the camp gathering up as many supplies as she could for the family.
"The morning that I left I went out and looked for him and there he was in the front row," she says.
She ran to get an interpreter and asked the father how the infant was, but she could visually see the child was much better.
"The baby had life in his eyes. He was holding his head up. He gripped my fingers really well, and even the father looked better."
Thomas stayed with the father and taught him basic necessities, such as how to change the infant's diaper, how to give formula and how to wrap the baby to keep him warm.
Thomas gave the man the items she'd collected for the family, and says the father's smile and embrace spoke volumes.
Over the course of her three weeks in Haiti, many hugs were given to Thomas and others who traveled from across the world to help.
"These people aren't stupid. They realize we traveled a great distance," she says.
"Even if I did something minor they appreciate the attention you paid to them and that you are there."
As hard as it was to witness the human tragedy, Thomas was said when she had to leave.
One young girl she'd befriended had become so attached that a worker at the orphanage had to hold her while Thomas left.
"It was very hard for me to come back (home)," Thomas says. "I'm already trying to figure out how to get down there, but I have no vacation time left."
After visiting Third World countries across the globe, Thomas says she found Haitians to be the most resilient people she's seen.
"You can throw them anything, like hurricanes or earthquakes, and they'll just get right back up," she says. "It's truly amazing.
"These trips give me a great appreciation of what we have in Canada."
pfisher@northumberlandtoday.com
