HAITI: The Kaiser Permanente Experience—Part 2: Personal Stories

Editor’s note: In the Fall 2010 issue of The Permanente Journal, we published HAITI: The Kaiser Permanente Experience— Part 1, a collection of commentaries that discussed: the political relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, vector-borne diseases and the role of the Malaria Emergency Technical and Operational Response (MENTOR), the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), disaster readiness, and other crisis issues from the perspective of some of those who went to Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. In Part 2, in this issue, we share the personal stories, challenges, triumphs, and failures of other medical volunteers whose lives were forever changed by: walking the line; “Next”; bandaids to stop a hemorrhage; everybody got something; “Good afternoon, my friends”; fear of eating fish; the place where vegetables grow; girls in frilly dresses and boys in their Sunday best; a four month old with hydrocephalus; medicine in the supine position with nose pinched; a 20 year old with supraventricular tachycardia and a creatinine of 7; children’s Tylenol, creams, pills, and Vicks Vaporub; and things you’ll never again take for granted. — Sarah Beekley, MD