Story posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Return To Haiti Planned
Glenview Group On Mission Trip Springs Into Action Moments After Quake Strikes
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
When a major earthquake shook the small island nation of Haiti to its core earlier this month, a group of nurse practitioners, medical students and other volunteers from the Glenview-based humanitarian organization Little By Little (LBL) were already on the ground, swinging into action to treat the injured.
The group is back home at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Glenview, preparing for another trip at the end of February.
Within just a few hours of the initial shocks of the massive 7.0 quake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, LBL volunteers arrived at a hospital, found it lacking in electricity, staff and supplies, and brought a truckload of drugs and fresh medical supplies from their base about 12 miles from Port-au-Prince to the hospital.
"It was an amazing miracle we were there and helped 100 people who might have been left on the side of the road," said LBL founder Sue Walsh.
The night of the quake the team treated about 100 severely injured Haitians at the small hospital and treated over 1,000 through the following week already suffering malnutrition and dehydration when the quake struck.
LBL's base is in a small mountain top encampment called Mountain Top Ministries (MTM) near the village of Gramothe about 12 miles from Port-au-Prince. It was not affected by the quake.
Walsh and a group of about a dozen LBL members were walking down the mountain near the camp when the earth below them shook. The sound of rocks falling into a nearby sounded like an avalanche.
"I heard a loud sound like a bomb or a freight train, it sounded like a hurricane and lasted about a minute," said Walsh.
Walsh and her group did not immediately know the severity and scope of the disaster. She welled up with tears as she recounted what happened next.
A man rushed toward the team carrying an unconscious five-year-old girl severely bleeding from the head. The team put the girl on a four-wheeler and drove her to the hospital five miles away as Walsh gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Once at the hospital the team saw more of the full scope of the devastation caused by the quake. The small hospital had one doctor, one doctor in training, few supplies and no power. Team members returned to MTM gathered a truckload of supplies including pain medications and antibiotics and brought them to the small hospital.
Walsh and her team worked frantically in unsanitary conditions that would be "incomprehensible" at a medical facility in the U.S. until 1 a.m. the day of the quake. She said she applied used sponges and even a dirty T-shirt picked up off the floor on open wounds because that was all there was to use.
The team returned to that hospital in the days following the quake treating treat over 1,000 patients some of whom walked miles for treatment.
When it was time to return to the United States, Walsh initially did not want to go but was comforted when making her way back to the small airport at Port-au-Prince to see the many disaster relief workers arriving.
Once back in the United States volunteers were evaluated and offered treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Glenview residents who made the trip to Haiti were Sue and Brian Walsh, Stacy O'Brien, Kristen Borth, Anne Unger, Mary Muhall, David and Annette Vander Ploeg, Sandy Mc Breen and Sparvim Nazarof.
Another group from LBL will return to Haiti with another group of medical volunteers next month.
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