Help Haiti

Back to Home Print This Page Email This Page
Help Haiti Volunteer Donate Read Our Blog Haitian Children

"Jessica Limpert" Posts

Why donate your time and/or money to Haiti?

..because you can make a difference. 


Items that you throw away can be used. Blankets that have a huge rip down, multiple small tears, stained, wash them and donate. Families of all sizes are at the point where they have nothing to cover themselves with, clothes they have been wearing since January all stained and soiled. 

I am going to be collecting items that my coworkers can help deliver to the people on their mission to Haiti. We (AGH SEIU) would like to collect items such as old or new, tents, sheets, blankets, sleeping bags, coats, jackets, socks, underwear, shoes, tshirts, tank tops, sweat shirts, sweatpants, jeans, shorts, soap, toiletries, food, formula, pedialyte, diapers, wipes, towels, feminine products, bags, eye glasses (perscription/non) and of course first aid kits. 

Of those people who are fortunate to donate money and or medical supplies we will absolutely accept! Money donations will go to the supplies listed (most likely collected from thrift/second hand shops/stores due to ability to purchase more) and to purchase medical supplies such as (and if available) tube feedings (ensure), pads/chucks, IV tubing, IV solutions, creams, meds, gauze, ace bandages, blood pressure machines, thermometers, alcohol swabs, flushes,- just to name a few. 

Everyday at work just by looking at nonspecific supplies it reminds me of those in Haiti. It seems so insignificant to us in the U.S. to throw away extra alcohol swabs, tubing from IVs, IV solutions, and tube feedings and what an impact it would make in Haiti at this time. I know Project Medishare has a lot of supplies and great people who donate but they need more. 

Hopefully the volunteers can help to try to get the supplies out to the people of the city. As we collect supplies here and create the travel/donate bags we will be striving to get the supplies to where they are truly needed. 

If you have seen from my prior posts of pictures, people are sleeping on cardboard boxes, their homes are made out of a torn sheet, they are filling up buckets for water, and are walking barefoot. Do your part- can't go to Haiti? No problem, donate your time. Communicate with your friends and neighbors about collecting supplies and money, contact me to find out where you can bring the donations, I will even meet you to get them. Let's send our volunteers off with supplies for the people (and themselves) so they can fulfull their mission and be successful. As the phrase seems to have stuck in the U.S. ("YES WE CAN") applies in this situation; Yes, we can make a difference and it starts with you.

 

Posted By: Jessica Limpert on 2/23/2010 12:46:00 PM

comments (0) Jessica Limpert

Last shift in Haiti- until my next trip
Really sad that I wish I could stay much, much longer. If I didn't have all the bills I do now I would commit to months, honestly. These people need help. Not only medically but they need to learn how to care for themselves rather than letting Americans, or anyone for that matter take care of them. I've learned that through these people- and its spoken from their own mouths. Talking to the translators, transporters and our drivers they have shown me there is the will to make better but they need the help to get the drive to be successful, and we are trying to do just that.  
I was talking with a boy who drove some of us to the UN compound for dinner friday night- the place is packed but he saw me and went to find me a chair to sit with him. I sat down, he takes my picture- immediately, he wants to know where I'm from, what kind of work I do and every minute he is smiling. He then shows me my picture and continues to show me all his pictures on his camera of every volunteer at Project Medishare that has impacted his life. He goes on and shows me haiti before and after the earthquake, I see his truly beautiful house with large, stone cylindar posts in the front, and him standing there surrounded by beautiful bright pink flower bushes. And then I see a picture a few photos later of various stone piles, rubble and trash all mixed together and a upside-down 4x4 jeep crushed and flattened. This was the after photo of his home and one of his 3 cars that were all crushed, torn and totaled within minutes and taken away from him and his family. Inside his house was his cousin. 
He was so humbled and so absorbed in faith that god will have an answer for him that he expressed a true acceptance for what has happened and is focused on the future. And he is still smiling when he tells me he lives on the street. And he is okay. 

This boy is so mature and smart and works hard everyday serving the people who volunteer with medishare. With every dollar he earns as a tip he buys something for someone else who needs the help. Reminds me of the saying, pay it forward. 

He will be taking me and 5 other of my friends that I've made here out tomorrow morning for a final tour of the city. His car is not working but as he told me tonight, I will rent a car for you- ill make time to take you out. Don't worry he will be taken care of by us all very generously. 

I've enjoyed my experience beyond any expectation I ever could have dreamed. I worked ICU,OR and with sometimes 5 critical patients between myself and another nurse we did great. We were our own pharmacy, mixed our medications, made fentanyl, propofol, versed, mag drips, figured out drip rates (no pumps), we were our own blood bank and did the type and screens for all units, and so much more. Today I trained an army medic today so he can help out for the next few months. We are using anyone who has the drive to want to learn and wants to do good- that's all it takes. 

I've learned to improvise with what's available; an old lab coat for bed chucks, bandages, tourniquet, wash rags, linen. Using a sandwich baggie to create a clean and covered colostomy- so many creative and innovative ideas we had were useful and effective. 
________
I am happy to say I was a part of this mission. These are experiences I can write down- but you will truly never, ever understand. Some things will be left out of my stories, others you will be able to imagine. Going back to a industrialized nation where every and anything is at my fingertips will be a large adjustment and I think part of me will always compare to the people of haiti, and I thank Haiti for that.

http://Jessicatravels2010.blogspot.com for more stories of haiti

 

Posted By: Jessica Limpert on 2/10/2010 10:50:00 PM

comments (0) Jessica Limpert

Getting aquainted
Wow the nights are hot but the days are hotter. Surprisingly I'm getting acclimated quickly. The VET is no longer working with Medishare (she just stopped by to help last night) so I am training/showing the ropes to a new nurse tonight. She's really nice- a big organizer so her mission is to keep our supplies in some kind of order (and to help her stay awake, she doesn't normally work nights). 

We still have the amputation/tetanus pt, the other tetanus case was flown to the US today. We now have a potential brain dead pt (from a car accident) who underwent a crani and has a make shift EVD (created from another pts shunt tubing). (EVD is an external ventricular drain (sits in a ventricle in the brain)  that drains cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) from your brain to divert the flow of CSF and prevent increasing ICP, or pressure of the brain causing more damage). His buritral is not to monitor or at a specific level- open to draining bloody CSF. His head is bandaged with kerlix and with all the typical signs and symptoms of head trauma. This is is 18. He survived the earthquake, and may end up dying from a MVC.  

I used the young boy volunteer haitian translator  to communicate with his father. I explained how serious this is and what may happen. The father just looks at me with swollen, reddened eyes, smiles and opens his arms up and says "I leave it up to god, he will know what to do" and he smiles again and thanks me unconditionally. 

If there is one thing I have learned already it is that the Haitian people look toward a higher power to get them through. They accept what they can not change, easily. They don't argue with the nurses when given bad news, they accept the news and pray. They have a lot of faith in us as well and its a lot of responsibility- but we all want a better outcome and we work hard to help produce that. 

Its difficult to care for these patients especially in this case because we don't have a CT scanner, we can't go for MRI as we do back home. We can't check his ICP (intracranial pressure), and we can't do  as much as I wish we could. But what we can do is assess him, treat symptoms, keep him cardiac monitored and prevent secondary complications. Sadly he has lost corneal reflexes and unresponsive to painful stimulation. We are using all the equipment we can to help this boy.

As I said before we are using cots to place the patients on and you can't raise the head of bed to 30 degrees to prevent aspiration, or to decrease ICP, you have to make do with what we have and create a way to raise their heads. Luckily we have one VERY old hospital bed that this patient is in, and we were able to take a needle box closed and lift the rubber mattress up to elevate the head of bed. 

Another pt arrives- MVC (motor vehicle accident) rolled over him, tossed him out of the vehicle. He was driving a transportation vehicle. In the ER he has. GCS of 15, a number system comprised of the pts ability to open eyes, follow commands, speak. He has bilateral pleural effusions and major trauma to his face arms and legs. By the time he reached ICU he was losing his airway, not opening eyes and no longer following commands. 
There was also blood build up behind his left eye causing it to protrude out. The blood was evacuated by performing a sub-retinal hemorrhage evacuation. 

We intubated him immediately. And began to irrigate his wounds. With the lack of supplies we used a burn dressing to protect and cover the wounds. He received bilateral chest tubes- only one set up to a Pleur-Evac and the other a old milk jug, I know, creative! 

It's been a busy day. We ended the day with 4 critical patients. Another large problem we are having are the flies. We have Fly bags hung to catch them but no such luck. I am going to look for cheese net or mosquito nets to cover the pt.'w with because we have flies all over the oral airways, on and in the wounds, its horrible. We won't eat a hot dog or a hamburger if a fly lands on it, so how it is okay for flies to infect and land on wounds?

 

Posted By: Jessica Limpert on 2/10/2010 10:47:00 PM

comments (0) Jessica Limpert

First night in Haiti with University of Miami/Project Medishare


We landed in haiti and were driven by pickup truck and car from the airport to our compound with Project Medishare. Barry (who is from SEIU 1991- we were set to travel together) and I worked  as soon as we arrived at 1am as the coordinators stressed a dire need for nurses immediately.  We gave our bags to people we met in the aiport for them to claim us a cot in the tent for morning and set off to work. He went to the adult tent and I was sent to ICU/OR. 

Not much of an orientation, literally thrown into the unit. To my surpise we had a tarp as our OR door (which was about a foot from the ground preventing a true "seal" for sterility) and to my left was OR1 and my right was ICU.  
There was a cloth separating OR1 and 0R2 across the way was OR3 and OR4. The back of the tent was shelves of medications and supplies. 

The OR pictures will explain everything- The beds made out of 2x4s and a piece of plywood. They were set up as best possible. 

The ICU was amazing and again the pictures will prove just that. I had about a 15 x 12 foot space to fit 3 to 5 patients on cots with air mattresses (if we could find one) along with large O2 cylinders, ventilators, monitors, defibulators, "crash carts", a table of meds/supplies and just about anything you can imagine including space to fit nurses &  doctors to provide care. I am amazed. 

Of the initial 3 pt's I cared for when I  arrived, 2 had tentanus, a tracheotomy (with kerlix as a neck tie), one was intubated with a neck skin graft that didn't take, a leg amputation (where one case of tetanus is suspected), wound vacs, external fixators and a pt with so much mucous that needed to be suctioned constantly to prevent aspiration that it was near impossible with super low suction capabilities. But we made do. 

An FYI to all those who forget to get their tetanus shot- GO GET ONE! The symptoms of tetanus are horrific and ill-treatable especially with other medical conditions coexisting. 

My first night went well. I worked with a VET (yes I said that correctly, not a nurse, but a vet, in an ICU) who did a great job. As an icu nurse you must lose your anal retentive ways about procedures, cleanliness and protocol and have to remember where you are and why your there- use what you can and make what you need. Improvise, open your eyes, work smart and treat the cause. 

Treating my pts was a constant mission. We "charted" on notebook paper that also includes "orders" from the MD. Basically we treat what we see. If we need fentanyl we get fentanyl, propofol? Sure! We were lucky to have the most of the  medical supplies we needed and if not we made something else work. Typically at night there was a float doctor we could grab but we worked as a team rather than the norm. 

The VET- RN left around 630ish to head back to her camp. And around 720ish the next crew came to relieve me in the morning. I gave a "report" of what was most prevalent of each pt and what was used to help calm symptoms, etc and then I was off to find my bags so I could sleep. 

Sleeping is rare as I realized that lying on a cot on top of my sleeping bag sopping wet using my fanny pack as a pillow. 2 hours of dozing in and out isn't too horrible- just find me some water :)

 

Posted By: Jessica Limpert on 2/10/2010 10:45:00 PM

comments (0) Jessica Limpert

Ready, set. go...
I have been asked by SEIU to update a blog when possible on to help keep in touch with friends and family while in Haiti. I am happy to do this.

Packing Medical SuppliesI am in my final packing stages. I received a number of donations from my friends and family to help me purchase my vaccines yesterday along with my food, flashlights and first aid supplies. I also have received the support of 3 stores in the Greensburg and Monroeville area that have donated first aid items including gloves for the nurses, Tylenol for children and adults, gauze pads, ace bandages, etc. 

Not sure what to expect exactly while in Haiti- just got word from my coworker Danielle and the two other girls from AGH are working the night shift and are sleeping within the hospital. I hear they are having a hard time sleeping- not sure if its the adrenaline, noise, or chaos. I will try to remember to pack ear plugs for them tonight. Tawnya a nurse from 5A at AGH is joining me Monday. We just got off the phone to finalize packing arrangements. We're open to the ideas of working in the field with Cece, joining John in surgical and of course the night shift with Ashely, Danielle and Tiffany.

My adrenaline is starting to pump, I am ready to go and can't wait to join our nurses in Haiti to start making a difference.

Look forward to posting when I can during my week journey.

Thank you SEIU for your support in our mission.

Love to my family and friends.

Jessica Limpert

 

Posted By: Jessica Limpert on 1/23/2010 6:03:00 AM

comments (3) Jessica Limpert