AIDS Issues Update:
The Plight of Homeless Pregnant Women in Haiti
“By now I can say I really wish that I would not hear that any of the patients are sleeping in the streets, especially the pregnant ones,” —Dr. Marie Nomil
Dr. Nomil, an internal medicine doctor who is working at the clinics, has been working with pregnant women in Haiti and recounted the helpless situation they face. “I would have never believed such stories had I not come here to witness it myself. Most that I have met have had little prenatal care, never had a sonogram, and some are on medications that are contraindicated during pregnancy.”
“Three days ago I met a young lady in her mid 20s who came to the clinic with a newborn just four days old,” she continued. “She told me she delivered outside the hospital on the ground because they did not have any room for her.”
Dr. Nomil transported four patients to a field hospital in Miami, two of which they turned away,one of whom was pregnant. “I was told because of volume they were only accepting critical cases at that time.” The pregnant woman, though stable, really in need of a sonogram. It turned out they did not have a sonogram machine.
As it turns out, the Central Hospital doesn’t have a working sonogram either. Dr. Nomil’s patient was turned away there as well, is told that for all of the foreign doctors coming in to volunteer, the hospital has only one obstetrician-gynecologist.
We keep getting feelers, but we still haven’t gotten an OB-GYN to commit to go to Port-au-Prince with us.
And we need more medical volunteers, period—-including pediatricians, doctors, ER and AIDS specialists. We are going to be testing our new relationship with Delta today. We have a navy medic going down tomorrow. We are going to ask permission to send him with 10 checked bags.
We had been hoping to get the second HIV/AIDS clinic opened there this week. But right now we have just enough medical volunteers signed up to keep the two clinics in Port-au-Prince going. Our volunteer pool looks thin at least through next week. This is not just a staffing problem. The only way we have right now to get medications in is through the checked luggage of volunteers. Not only have we run low on antibiotics, but the family health center is starting to run short on pediatric medications again.
Last night, Jose sends me the following update:
The team had a good day today. Dr Nomil and I split clinic today. She covered the HIV clinic and worked at the family health clinic. We saw a total of 69 patients, 67 new and two returning.
We are still seeing some people with trauma caused by the quake. I today saw two patients with severe wounds ,which I cleaned and treated. They are coming back for more wound care tomorrow. They refuse to be transported to the University of Miami Field Hospital because of fears of having they limbs amputated. We urge them to go, but they have heard too many rumors about amputations in the community. This has created fear.
_Dr. Nomil did transport 3 patients to the field hospital. She had 2 with possible fractures and one in acute congestive heart failure. In terms of supplies, we have about one more day of oral antibiotics. We will then have to turn to IV/IM antibiotics. This means we will need IV supplies and needles for IM. We plan on going to the UN with our request for medications and supplies when we come back from St Marc. We are all together heading to St. Marc to assess the clinic space and needs. We will have a full report later tonight.
We will keep you posted. Hope your having a good day.
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Right now, we have 323 patients enrolled in our HIV clinic and 312 patients enrolled in our family health clinic. That includes 11 new patients at the HIV clinic and 47 new patients at the family clinic today. Yesterday we distributed 30 family food kits.
Your inside source for in-depth activism news is updated daily by Staff Writer, Diana Scholl.
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