After breakfast, I walked around and took a few pictures of the work being done. Lorne has team members helping him paint in the back. The consensus is that it will look great. Yellow and terra cotta. The cement guy is clearing the rubble and cement from a 'roof' area where a couple of pvc pipes are broken. They will replaced in the morning.
Jorel took three therapists went to the Medishare Miami tent and then picked up Mike from the small airport. He is a PT that has been in Cap Haitian with a team from Toronto University spinal cord center to work with the Haiti Hospital Appeal staff.
About 9:30 I started receiving phone calls from driver coming to pick up the therapists going to Jacmel. He couldn't find our driveway. He said he was at 370...I walked up to the road and called him, then waited for several minutes until he found me.
Team members are engaged in activities of some sort in and outside. My thought, somewhat prematurely in hindsight, was that it should be a relaxing day.
9:40. John Earl went to church.
10:00 Jorel returned to take Carmel shopping.
11:30 Jean said to me Madame Gail Big problem can you come please...3 steps out the door and I see a bunch of guys carrying someone down the road, blood covering his face. I raced back into the house to grab first aid kits, and ask for the team Minnesota docs to come. The guy had fallen from one of the buildings- cuts and abrasions and blood, painful, decreased breath sounds...collapsed lung? fractured ribs? He could move all extremities. We now had 4 MD's looking at him since Dr Nau's timely arrival. The other workers were pretty shaken up, standing back quietly but very concerned. It was decided to keep him lying on the door (our emergency stretcher that was conveniently lying right in the driveway), load him into the van and take him to the Miami tent. Several people jumped into the van to assist as well as Rick who needed to be at the airport to catch a 2 pm flight to Peurto Rica for a work project.
By now at 12:30, I realized Jorel hadn't gone back to church to pick up John Earl at noon. I called to Noel and we raced up to Petionville to get him. He was waiting patiently for us to come.
We get him back in time to go with Dr. Nau and the other docs on an outing. The St. Bonaface ambulance had come to pick up Mike and after a quick goodbye, he was on his way.
It was then that I realized I'd missed 13 phone calls and Sue's phone was ringing and then Noel is calling me. It turns out Rick had walked to Miami tent to use Jaime's phone to call me because he had taken Kevins' passport instead of his (and could only get through to security check points) with it.
Jorel and I had to get to airport so he could catch his flight. Once Jorel realized what was going on, we took off. It was Sunday and we can make it to the airport in 8 minutes. I've done it now twice. However, Rick wasn't there....he was still at the Miami tent and his 'ride' back to the airport had left him. So we raced to the tent, picked him up, traded passports, and took him back to the big airport. I guess he made his flight as he has yet to call me to return to pick him up. After getting Rick off, we went back to the Miami tent to pick up the team members and find out what was going on with our injured worker. Possibly/ probably several rib fractures and mild shock along with the cuts and abrasions that really weren't too serious once cleaned up. A very fortunate young man.
As soon as we returned, the last group loaded up supplies and were taken to the small airport to fly out to Les Cayes for a week of prosthetic work.
Now at 4:30, I'm able to sit here and type this up and appreciate having the docs here to assess the fall victim. We had determined he had fallen from near the top of the clinic where they were working to about 20 feet below. He was quite fortunate.
I am able to appreciate our drivers who patiently work just as hard everyday to get our team members from one place to another with calmness, efficiently, safely even with wild rides in emergency situations.
Time for dinner.....
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