As all of the patients within the hospital compound were trauma patients PTSD was not unexpected. However, two clinics were started near the hospital for the uninjured, and there volunteers saw evidence of PTSD among earthquake survivors. Volunteers organized to open a clinic across the street from the hospital, as well as at the Adventist university just up the street. An unoccupied building was used across the street, but a large tent became a clinic at the university.
Angela (ICU-UCSD) working in the tent.
This was done to meet the nonsurgical needs of the tent city that had sprung up at the Adventist University as well as the surrounding community. Volunteers found that Haitian parents asked for their children to be examined who had no obvious injury; they needed reassurance that their children were okay.
Jesse (Anes. UCSD) and
Melissa (CRNA LLU) examining children
The volunteers found that people needed reassurance and that vitamins or stickers went a long way in providing it.
Thursday after we returned we spoke by phone with a psychiatrist who is part of a group headed to this clinic and several orphanages. He and his wife, who speaks French, will be sorely needed.
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