Reflections from Jay Tew - 8

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.

June 4, 2012

Today is a great day – everyone works the day through like a well-oiled machine. We are picking up orthotic pediatric patients every day. We had two more today for night splints, and one of the children was a little girl. She was nine-years-old, but about the size of a four-year-old. She was a sweet child with nothing but smiles.

One of our prosthetic practitioners, Alex, hurt his back at home. I believe it to be compression fracture of the lumbar (lower spine). He saw a doctor at the hospital and he said to brace it and don’t lift anything for a few weeks. This was a perfect time for him to learn about custom lumbar sacral orthosis (LSO). We all got together and casted Alex for his LSO. We filled, modified it, and instructed the whole way through the process using a broken branch from a tree, two pieces of a ½ round rasp and electrical tape. The guys learned the basics of bracing, above and below the injury. Then we pulled the LSO and trimmed it out to fit Alex. I only explained what and why we were doing the steps but the technicians did all the measurement, modifications, fabrication and fitting. The LSO fit very well and Alex is pleased and very proud of the work.

  

Reflections from Jay Tew - 7

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.

June 2 -3, 2012

This weekend I have off, so I have time to meditate and scout around the town and countryside. I take long walks and visit my friends down the corridor of Deschapelles. A group of friends are going to the public beach and ask me to come along. I agree and we take a tap tap to St. Marc then to Armani beach. We sit most of the day talking and enjoying our solitude. The UN soldiers are here and having their r & r. It all seems so normal to be here; I never thought I would be doing this in a million years. Then I remember the guy walking down the wall behind me whistling, twirling a shotgun and it merrily brings me back to reality; I think he’s the security guard.

Reflections from Jay Tew - 6

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.

June 1, 2012

Today is another consistent day of patient flow. It consisted of adjustments, walk in patients, a new bilateral below-knee patient, and a new above-knee patient. Our pediatric population is growing; we had three more knee-ankle-foot orthosis night splints for the hospital today. Rickets, a disorder that leads to softening and weakening of the bones, is still commonly seen here.

Reflections from Jay Tew - 5

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.

May 30, 2012

Today we fabricate most of the day and see a few walk in patients. One of the big projects of the day is reorganizing components, mainly feet. We have a great deal of boxes of feet from Physicians for Peace that we need to organize in the bins. If we don’t take time to organize, things will not flow when we’re busy.

May 31, 2012

Feet, feet and more feet! We try to finish our feet project today; even Roselean and her friend are helping. We finally finish later in the day. We spend most of the day talking about our objectives for the future. We go over orthotic principles of control and stabilizing of the body. We have mainly seen amputees in the clinic, but now we are starting our orthotic objective.

Reflections from Jay Tew – 4

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.


May 29, 2012

Today the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) brings a van load of patients from Port-au-Prince. We see mostly adjustments of below– and above–knee amputee patients with a few new castings, just like a normal orthotics & prosthetics clinic.

We finish up our humeral fracture orthosis and go to hospital to fit the patient. Joel took charge of this case. We modified and he independently did the rest of the orthosis. I feel confident he will be able to handle the next one on his own. Everything went very well with the fitting; the patient is stabilized and in more comfort than before.

Reflections from Jay Tew – 3

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.


May 28, 2012

Well, Haiti is still hot! I start my day as always – totally drenched in sweat early in the morning. It usually takes about three days for my body to acclimate. As I walk to Klinik Hanger I see my old friend along the way. I walk in and it’s like being home. Joel, Tchoe, Alex, Cira, Roselean and Yvener are all as before, sustaining the clinic.

For my first day our patient load is a consistent flow of below– and above–knee amputees, and now, pediatric patients in need of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs).  

We get a call from the hospital about an unstable humeral fracture in the ER. So Joel and I are off to evaluate and treat. We arrive at the ER and the patient has a left spiral fracture of the proximal humorous (also known as a broken shoulder) and distal break, so we cast and start fabrication immediately.

Reflections from Jay Tew - 2

Jay Tew recently returned to Haiti for a fourth rotation as lead clinician at Klinik Hanger. The next several blog posts are reflections from Jay about his most recent trip.

May 27, 2012

I arrive in Port-au-Prince to be greeted by Josef Dobler, a German prosthetist from medi who is the current lead clinician at Klinik Hanger in Haiti. I get settled into our new home, Kay 11. It’s a little different than our last accommodations, but I’m thankful to have it. We live in the general volunteer area now and share our home and meals with all the volunteers from around the world. I like the change – it’s nice to live and learn with people from many different walks of life. My roomies are from Switzerland, England, Haiti and Germany.

Josef with a Klinik Hanger patient.