Haiti airport/customs was fairly easy to navigate. Of course my large suitcase was the last one to be found.... The Project Medishare representative met us and quickly got us to our vans and we were headed to Bernard Mevs Hospital within 45 minutes from landing.

I am happy to report that Port-au-Prince looks a little better than a year ago. I was excited to see that that the tent cities which lined the streets through much of the Caribbean side of the street through PAP were no longer there (I later learned that they were simply relocated further down the road some think to give a nicer illusion to the progress being made in Haiti. The problem in that is that they were moved to a location which has no public transportation hence no opportunity for employment, hence...)

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Bernard Mevs Hospital. Where to begin... I don't want to cause alarm but when I say that it makes Hospital Lumiere look like the Ritz, there is some truth to this. The hospital is a series of decrepit one story concrete buildings contained behind a gated barbed wire wall. The entrance is guarded (and I mean with security packing shotguns, which as I write I am learning that they disarm incoming patient/visitors so on any given day, the security have a wide range of guns hanging on their body). In order to gain entrance through the gate, Haitian patients have to tell their story to the guard who then get an EMT who decides if the issue is something this hospital handles. If yes, the gates open and the injured/sick/wounded patient and family members sit on a bench waiting for triage.

Triage is an outdoor three-walled shack with a curtain providing "privacy". One bed and two chairs make up triage.

The ER is a small four-bed suite on the other side of Med/Surg A which has eight beds with just enough room in between for family members to set up space. And as was the case with Hospital Lumiere, the family members bring the linens, food, bath for their family member, and keep vigil through the night sleeping on the floor.

The ICU is also just a few beds. There is a spinal cord ward (almost all from shot gun wounds) currently occupied with eight patients – some quads and some paras. Also there is an HIV/AIDS/TB ward.

More concerning is the number of cholera victims being admitted each day. Yesterday there were 3-4. One very young little girl whose family waited maybe too long and was brought in severely dehydrated, emaciated and almost unconscious. She did let out a meager cry when an IV was started. This was in triage and she took priority over the another being worked up for a MI. And by that I mean, the EMT literally told the MI patient to get off the bed or slide over enough to make room for the little girl.

You may be wondering why I know this in detail and the answer is that that the three of us after finishing doing some PT on a few babies, a little boy with osteomyelitis and a few adults, were observing at the gate waiting for the van to take us to the UN for dinner when the shit hit the fan and suddenly there was an influx of very injured people talking their way through the gate. It was clear the staff needed help so the three of us went into "let's be medics mode" and started doing intakes, vitals, flushing out huge open wounds, other assorted semiskilled tasks. The jaw dropping moment was the man coming through the gate holding his arms up in the air with no skin on either one. Yes, the skin was "dripping" off of him. He had been burnt by an electric spark that went off (perhaps on the back of a tap tap bus?). His heart was in irregular rhythm and the triage nurse was running around trying to get the right equipment to stabilize his cardiac issues. We functioned as medics for an hour or so and then went to the UN for dinner. More about the UN in a later update.

A few notes about our living conditions. We are in an anteroom with four beds which enters in to a main room with eight beds. one bathroom with a toilet which isn't working and when it does, no toilet paper allowed. The shower has the water width of 1/16" and of course is only cold water.

So much more to write and describe but time is ticking and we need to get day two started. We are working well together, like brother and sisters and are happy to be here.

Love to all,

Jen