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Dr. Gwen Dean’s skills as a pediatrician were indispensable in the earthquake’s aftermath.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Gwen Dean counsels diabetes patients for Baton Rouge health care management consulting company eQHealth Solutions. She also has extensive training in pediatrics and is a veteran of several previous medical missions. She agreed to share some excerpts of a journal from her mission to Haiti, which was not associated with The Greene Team’s.

In an Instant

On Jan. 17, 2010, I received a call from Joan Liverpool, executive director of Deskan Institute Training … organizing a medical mission to Haiti. I had accompanied Dr. Liverpool on previous missions to Guyana, South America, following the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, which claimed the lives of people living on the northeastern coast of South America. I immediately said yes.

Day Two

We joined the tent camp site located across the street from the hospital on the grounds of Operation Hope for Haiti’s Children.

Volunteers in the camp were from all over the world, giving a one-week-long commitment of service. Native Haitians worked as volunteer translators and community security. The native language of Haiti is Kreyol, not French. One must learn the language of a people to truly help them.

Both the rich and poor are experiencing homelessness, hunger and thirst in Haiti. We all slept in tents, just as the people of Haiti are sleeping in tents on the neutral ground of the streets. The people do this because they fear sleeping in buildings that may collapse and entomb them.

Dr. Gwen Dean and fellow volunteers treated thousands of patients each day in Haiti.

We were awakened each morning by the crows of Haitian roosters, followed shortly by the prayers of the people in the hospital tent city across the street.

Day Three

I remained in the base camp. I know that I made a difference in the lives of several of the 80 patients that I saw in this clinic, 68 of them less than 18 years of age. The line for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 a.m., never ends. We saw upwards of 500 patients in the base camp on both days. The total number of patients served averages 2,000 daily.

“Doctor, will you come and see this baby?”

She was 6 1/2 months old, weighing less than 6 pounds; a lifeless baby girl with eyes closed lay beautifully dressed across the doctor’s lap as both parents sat waiting for help. Removing the clothing revealed a malnourished, dehydrated infant. The initial thought was to get intravenous access; however, in a child so extremely malnourished and dehydrated this would be a very difficult task at best. I decided to try oral rehydration using Pedialyte and a 10 cc syringe. After the first 10 cc, her eyes opened. After the second 10 cc her mouth opened, and after the third 10 cc she began to fuss and cry as if to say, ‘I’ve been waiting for you, what took you so long!’ The baby passed three large diarrheal/starvation stools as I held her in my arms. She was then taken to the hospital across the street in the arms of the physician.

I was in my element. I learned that my knowledge, skills and abilities as a pediatrician were uniquely suited to this infant, at this time, in this place.

Amputations are numerous in Haiti after so many were crushed by buildings that collapsed in the earthquake.

Day Five: The Journey Home

Getting out of Haiti proved more difficult than getting into Haiti. We waited five hours outside the airport on the tarmac trying to get a private chartered plane back to the United States. Our scheduled flight had been canceled. Some people had been waiting two days for a flight to anywhere in the United States. Then it happened. There were three seats on a private plane to Fort Lauderdale, which was where my car was parked. We had just prayed for a flight, and in less than two minutes the prayer was answered by World Compassion Network.

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