first days in haiti - fond parisien

After 2 days of almost continuous travel, our team made it to our destination in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Although this is the first time Operation Smile has sent a team for disaster relief, they are really prepared. They came with every supply imaginable (except for pens and paper, which are at a premium right now). Our team consists of 17 people - 2 orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeon, 2 anesthesiologists, a pediatrician and the rest nurses. We replaced the first team who arrived about 2 weeks ago, and were very tired and ready to return home. We received a quick hand off report from them before they all loaded on a bus. I had to wonder what was in store for me in the next 10 days as their bus pulled away. Almost immediately, the first of many helicopters arrived to deliver patients to our field hospital.
We're stationed at an orphanage called "Love a Child" which has been very accommodating about having a few hundred people camping on their property. It is truly amazing to see how many Haitians have been affected by the earthquake. At this site, there are 9 rows of tents with 7 to 8 tents in each row. Each tent has 2-4 patients plus family members which makes it extremely crowded. Each of us are assigned specific roles - there are O.R. nurses, PACU nurses, and then wound care nurses - of which I am one. We have been assigned a certain row of tents and are responsible for all of the dressing changes in all of the patients in those tents. The first day was chaotic. I would go into a tent with a translator and find out about their injuries and try and get a history. I would then start changing their dressings - while all the other patients and family members looked on. Not to mention, that many times as I was changing a dressing, a big wind gust would come up and dust would get all over the sterile dressings and the wounds. It's impossible to do almost ANY sterile procedures here, outside of acutal surgery - which is housed in 2 igloo type of buildings which have been set up and are completey insulated.
As the day wore on, the temperature in the tents had to be in the high 90's (at least) and it was almost unbearable. I don't know how the patients sit in there all day. In the row I'm assigned, there are many patients with external fixators (put on by the surgeons on the US Comfort, or other various places around Haiti), amputations, crush injuries and burns. Most of the wounds are infected and the many of the patients are receiving IV antibiotics. One of my patients has an AKA (above the knee) amputation AND a pelvic fixator. Sometimes I'm in one tent for over an hour to get everything done. The amazing thing is that the Haitians never complain and are so gracious and appreciative. It makes me remember why I like the Haitian people so much.
There are a couple of tents with "unaccompanied minors" - children who lost their entire family in the earthquake. There is a team from Ecuador here who is doing a fantastic job have the two tent rows with most of the kids.
The Operation Smile O.R. team has been going non-stop. Today they did a couple of amputations, debridements, skin grafts, stump revisions and dressing changes,(the really big ones that need to be done under anesthesia). They worked in a cramped, hot O.R. and it doesn't look as though the surgery schedule will be slowing down anytime soon.
I'm truly in awe of how resilient the Haitian people are.