Lincoln Westfall stands in front of a nursing college that, like many other buildings in Haiti, collapsed during the Jan. 12 earthquake.  Officials estimate that over 500 nursing students died in this building when the quake destroyed it.

Local resident doctor spends two weeks in Haiti

BY JAMIE HENNEMAN
Special to the S-E

Although many Americans have recently gotten involved to help the earthquake victims in Haiti, few could actually go to the island nation to lend a hand. So when second-year resident physician Lincoln Westfall of Colville was given the opportunity to volunteer with medical teams on the ravaged island, he eagerly joined efforts with Heart to Heart International, a non-profit humanitarian group.
Westfall was in Haiti for two weeks in February, nearly a month after the 7.0 magnitude quake devastated the country of 8.7 million that is roughly the size of Maryland, killing over 250,000 and making millions homeless.
Westfall was able to offer medical services in the profoundly affected areas of Port-au-Prince, the densely populated capital, and Leogane, where the destruction is rated by the United Nations at 90 percent.
“It was a great opportunity to serve the Haitian people and it means a lot to me that people so far away from the suffering are willing to sacrifice to support aid efforts like this,” he said.
Westfall worked in a field clinic where he saw up to eight patients an hour whose medical complaints ranged from infections and dysentery, to fractures, stomach pains and aching bones from sleeping on the street. Treating afflictions like dehydration and anxiety was common, as well as giving patients a one-time dose of anti-parasitic medicine. The medicine was administered to rid patients of the parasitic worms that could suck away up to 30 percent of their nutritional intake.

Dust an issue

“Dust was also a major irritant for people, along with the smoke from garbage being burned in the streets,” Westfall recalled on his blog http://lincolnwestfallinhaiti.blogspot.com/. “In Port-au-Prince, the surrounding mountains were beautiful... but the widespread destruction made my soul ache for the nation.”
But despite the destruction, Westfall said he was impressed by the way the people were reacting to the crisis.
On attending a church service after the government mandated Days of Mourning in February, Westfall said there was a feeling of gratitude.
“There were probably 1,000 Haitians present (at the service), most completely homeless, and I was amazed at the intense gratitude and praise expressed by the people’s singing and dancing and praying despite what they had been through,” he said. “Every once and awhile, I noticed a Haitian spontaneously lay head in hands and just start bawling. I could only imagine the horrific losses that weighed on their souls and I could not help but just cry with them.”
Along with being able to treat conditions not commonly seen in Colville, Westfall also made a personal effort to learn Haitian Creole so he could better communicate with his patients.
“I got to the point of conducting about 60 percent of an interview in Creole and it was special to connect to these grateful and resilient people in their language. I told every one of them ‘God bless you’ and pray they will be a little better off for my seeing them,” said Westfall.

International
support

The many nations that have come to Haiti’s aid and were making a visible difference during Westfall’s time in the country, from Canadian crews cleaning away rubble to Cuban teams providing medical assistance.
Oftentimes, the challenges for the medical crews were similar to the challenges faced by homeless Haitians: having to sleep in tents, being exposed to the elements and fighting off malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Although Westfall’s medical crew did receive special support from other aid workers in the area by way of meals and access to electricity and water, many of the places they traveled were infested with “tarantulas, centipedes, scabies, bats and mosquitoes.”
Westfall related that especially in the outlying communities,” DEET, Malarone (anti-malaria medication), tents, mats and mosquito netting were our great friends.”
Westfall’s transportation from site to site was one of the ubiquitous “tap-tap” pickups used for transportation.
“A tap-tap is a small pickup truck with its bed covered by a partial camper top, no tailgate and a rail grating on the sides,” he explained. “People ‘tap’ the roof when they want off. But because the roads are the craziest obstacle courses ever and there is not much to hold onto, you have to be careful not to bruise your arms, beak a rib, knock your head on the roof or fall out the back.”
Aside from the transportation and environmental challenges, Westfall said he was also humbled by the realization of the limitations of outside help.
“I saw a middle-aged woman who was pregnant with her sixth child.  She asked me to end her pregnancy because she has nothing and can’t stand to give this horrible life to another child,” he related.
“I could hardly keep from crying. All I could do was testify for God’s love for her and her family and told her I believed that things would get better soon for them. I gave her prenatal vitamins and treated her anxiety and insomnia and wished the best for her and her children. Once again, I felt quite helpless facing the overwhelming needs in Haiti.”

The future

Although updates about Haiti have begun to decrease in the news media, Westfall said that people shouldn’t forget about Haiti too soon.
“I am still having dreams and thoughts about all the people needing help, but there was no way to get to them all,” he said.
Westfall recommends that people get involved with reputable organizations like Heart to Heart International in order to continue the flow of help to a people who so desperately need it.
“My heart continues to ache for the seemingly unending suffering rampant through Haiti. I returned to see so much frivolousness in our world and I’m reminded that we in our nicely developed countries have so much. I hope we will avoid wastefulness and idleness and work for the good of others and share with those who need more.
“Haiti has made a lasting impression on me and hopefully we will all change for the better forever as a result of this tragedy, through I’m sure we imperfect humans will need plenty of reminders,” he added.
Westfall said he wants to give a special thanks to the Colville Northeast Washington Medical Group and its CEO, Ron Rehn, for their donation to help cover some of his trip costs.
Any further contributions to help defray Westfall’s trip expenses will be much appreciated and can be sent to Lincoln Westfall, 1200 E. Columbia Ave, Colville, WA 99114 or contact Westfall at lincolnwestfall [AT SIGN] gmail [DOT] com.

  Dr.Westfall was seeing up to eight patients an hour while in Haiti as medical staff did their best to care for quake victims.