Emails from the Doctors in Haiti

My mom emailed me these today and it really touched me and gave me a little perspective. I thought I would share these emails with you....

Email from my mom:
To all my children, I am sending you some very special e-mails from Uncle Evans relative. Uncle Evans wife, Aunt Jean has a sister and her name is Irene. Irenes Son-in-law, Chuck Peterson was able to be one of the doctors that went to Haiti to care for the people. He sent home e-mails to his family and friends about some of their experiences. Uncle Evan and Joanne shared them with dad and I. I hope you will all take the time to read them, and Pray for these good people that are helping the people of Haiti. Some of them get very graphic and it is hard to keep the tears back. It is good to know that our doations that go to the church are helping these people and blessing there lives.


Email #1:
Chuck is Irene and Daryl's Son-in-Law and really a fine Dr. He helped me a lot while we were in Mesa. He is a General Practicioner and a Sports Medicine Specialist.
He just finished before this trip to Haiti as the team Dr. of the USA Ski Team. They live in Mesa. I thought would enjoy his trip of several Dr's who went down there by helicopter.
Chuck filled his mission in Haiti about 20 years ago.
I have enjoyed your e-mails. Thanx for all of them. If you get this message but not the rest
please let me know but here goes I will try.


Your Bro. (The ugly one) ENS


Email #2:
Hi Everyone,


Hope you are all having a great Monday. You can read Gayla's email below. I think you will be interested, and I will forward the others as they come in this week without any further explanation.


Chuck was in Deer Valley all last week as the Dr. for the US Ski Team. He flew straight from there. I knew he would be going, because he loves the Haitian people and has been there several times in the past years with routine type medical missions.


This whole effort was financed by a church member from St. George, plus they have received thousands of dollars in donations. I am sure it will be an unbelievable experience for Chuck and their group. They will certainly be in our prayers along with our prayers for the devastated people of Haiti.


Much love,


Irene

Email #3:

From Chuck:


It's midnight in the D.R. We made it to Santo Domingo, had the circus ride to the hotel in taxis, only to learn that our reservations weren't there. Luckily there was a hotel across the road with room and we lugged all of our stuff--personal gear, search + rescue, and our medical supplies. We're still inventing this as we go.


We met some Haitians who got out. Port is a mess, Carrefour is destroyed. She heard Jacmel is 70% leveled, Leogane 90 (where I lived for nearly a year). I fear for their safety. She left upper Delmas because they were afraid to sleep in the house and the smell of death was too strong.


The plan is to board helicopters and enter Haiti. We may spend most of our time in Jacmel, but I need to get to Leogane too. These destroyed province towns have not had much aid yet. It should be safer here too.


In Ft Lauderdale we saw Mildor and Perpignon, a couple of Haitian friends. If we can we'll try to help Mildor's wife and baby.


I'm overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers and support from family and friends. I love to be associated with such good people.


Please pass along this email to any who may be interested. My contact list hasn't carried over well here.


We are all well and safe. I'll keep you informed of developments as I'm able. I love and miss you.


Chuck
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry


Email #4:

Gayla,

2 helicopters. In Jimini in DR on border refuelling. Next stop Jacmel. Heard couple of docs there doing amputations without any anesthesia. On way with supplies meds, skills. All well, all safe. Spirits high, faith strong. Hearts full of love for Haitians and our families. We and others guided, feel hand of God moving us on. Jeremy Johnson is a savior to the Haitian people-so grateful for his efforts. He piloted our chopper as well.

I love you!

 Chuck

 Please pass along

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Email #5

This is from Craig Nelson. I think that Chuck's phone only works in the Dominican Republic and not in Haiti. I'm so happy that I heard from them and that they are safe and doing well. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Please forward to everyone! We are in Leogane. We went to Jacmel first and landed with at least 12 - 15 other doctors from Houston with more expected soon. We had heard that there were a lot of problems in Leogane without a lot of doctors and Chuck's dreams were answered. Chuck was Branch President here 20 years ago. My best guess is that we treated around 30 people today. Each individual needed procedures - fractures, dislocations, head trauma (including a sweet little girl who is a member of the church - 8 years old - with exposed bone and infections all over her head).

There were a number of individuals whose infection was beyond our treatment level and needed immediate surgery (amputation) but we cannot do anything other than clean and give antibiotics and pain meds. Everyone we saw needed a lot of help. We are setup right in the LDS Chapel here in Leogane. Chuck Steve and Gary were incredible. We feel extremely fulfilled and tired.


The members here in Leogane are very helpful too. I think there are probably 200+ people living here in the chapel - right now we are in the same room where we did all the work today, it is the chapel and multi-purpose room. There are 20 kids/people watching a church movie on a TV. There are two or three families asleep in the middle of the room and there are a bunch of people milling around - thats just in here. There are at least 100+ sleeping out in the front area or parking lot. We just had dinner - they made us rice and beans with chicken sauce!!! We are going to sleep in the Sunday School room where they put up drapes and mattresses. There is a generator but Gary still doesn't know how he's going to take a shower! - no running water.


Flying over Port-au-Prince and Jacmel and Carrefour and Leogane was tough. There were a lot of really pancaked houses and there were tons of people displaced. The sad thing is, it didn't look that different except the really affected houses, etc. These people have endured so much, we were all on the verge of tears so many times today - seeing the kids was especially hard. We love you and will try to keep communicating. If I had time I would spend a couple hours and write about every one of the little kids that Steve and Chuck and Gary put casts on or reduced dislocations or stitched up. There was even a 3 month old that Chuck put a cast on his right ankle which was broken - this is almost one week after his house fell on him and busted it!!!


Love you all


Gary, Chuck, Steve and Craig - I wrote and they made fun


Email #6:
Gayla,


We have great security is Leogane, locked in the Church behind gates. The Bishop is a lot like Bishop Kroff-awesome. Edgar and Maxia are alive. Food is tough, but the ward made a wonderful dinner for us and say they will each meal, without asking for money. We are going to use a part of the donations to get this ward up and running. Literally 90% of Leogane is damaged, many houses pancake flat, people underneath. All the schools collapsed with students inside. Hardly a family was not touched somehow. Eddy, my ward clerk from back in the day, lost his 10 year old son. It is so shockingly grim, tragic, and sad that I can't explain. It's an insane situation, but the people are very calm and gracious. They are courageously strong. This was one of my most fulfilling days in my life, just today makes the trip worth it. So many people are broken and cut, many badly infected. Some will require amputation. I love you and miss you. But I'm where I'm supposed to be. This is why I went to medical school.
I love you,
Chuck


Email #7:

Instead of a detailed e-mail I got three short text messages. I'm thankful for the good news.


Text from Chuck and Craig in Haiti:


Amputated the little finger and side part of a hand on a 15 year old boy and 2 - 4 (I'm not exactly sure what this means, fingers maybe) on a 60 year old lady. She had maggots crawl out during prep and 1 during the operation.


We're on Australian News--look it up, search for Haiti, Leogane, etc. We're doing so much good and working hard.


We are safe. We met the stake president, mission president, and missionaries. The church is strong and well. No buildings fell.




Email #7:

How can I describe what happened today...


1. Teamed up with Cubans


2. Australian Reporter


3. Guy died in Gary's arms


4. Chuck and Steve cut off a bunch of fingers


5. Really really tired


We started off the day by deciding to set up a clinic at a location other than the LDS Chapel here in Leogane. We went over to where Chuck and Steve had been yesterday where there was a small team of Cuban doctors on their way and a lot of people needing help. We found the Cubans were there and had plans for a pretty nice setup. While Chuck and Steve got things going, Gary and I decided to run back over to where Doctors without Borders (Medicine Sans Frontiere - MSF) was working with the Japanese team. We (Gary and I) wanted to connect with someone so we could help with more acute medical situations. We needed Xray capabilities and possibly even surgical or amputation abilities. When we got there the Japanese and the MSF were fighting and there was a news team from Australia there trying to find someone to help them get a good story about the needs. So I grabbed them and we took them back over to where Chuck and Steve were setting up. They hung with us for about 3 hours or all morning. They interviewed Gary and Chuck and Steve and I and they took about 1 1/2 hrs of video - promised to send it to us!!! They wanted to get a story or two about children receiving attention in dire or difficult situations. That was pretty easy. They took the most footage of Steve and Chuck putting a body cast (hip spica) on a little girl named Beauvais with a femur fracture. She was really in bad shape - imagine having an 8 year old daughter break her leg - her femur and then just sit around for a week. The whole operation (if you could call it that) was done on the ground or on cinder blocks with a large group of Haitians surrounding us and holding her.


We were setup in an old school with a number of buildings and rooms with old desks or chairs in them - nothing was even close to sterile let alone clean. Gary was over in another part of the compound helping to administer drugs to people in post op situation.. The Cubans were performing amputations - probably 6 or 7 - and Gary helped them with pain - he is really good at that. While helping Steve and Chuck with a few things and talking with the reporter - Pete, Gary came running over to us and asked for an ambu bag or battery/hand operated suction. When I got in there he was holding a guy about 20 years old who had just had his leg amputated. Because he aspirated his own saliva and Gary had no way to get the stuff out a pretty healthy young guy died (other than just undergoing an amputation of an infected leg with sepsis without anesthesia).


Chuck is telling me about a 2-month-old baby whose mom died on top of her and she survived but was trapped for quite awhile - who knows exactly how long.. The baby had some pretty bad mental issues - moving but not very well, eyes continuously crossed and uncrossed, weak cry, etc., either hypoxic or intracranial bleeding.


Chuck and I are trying really hard to keep laughing we both just discovered that the tears will not stop once they start - it's a good thing he's such a goofball.


GRAPHIC STUFF - Chuck and Steve spent at least 45 minutes amputating a little boys left pinky. It was burnt and had bone sticking out. They had to put a tournequet on him to stop the bleeding and Chuck got some spine instruments to cut the bone.


Then they spent at least an hour helping a 60+ yr old lady whose pointer, middle and ring fingers were completely destroyed and rotten. I put a couple extra tournequets on her because she kept bleeding...There was an extremely comical moment - if you can get over the sick, twisted, disgusting nature of it. As Steve was taking off bandages and beginning to cut off rotten fingers, there were maggots falling out. Steve was very gentle and helped all the maggots out carefully with his scalpel - he said, "move along little doggies." After a lot of manipulation and cutting she is now much much better off and can easily do a hang ten.


Edgar's niece (Edgar is Chuck's best buddy and former 1st Counselor in Leogane Branch) was in school with 34 kids/students. She is one of two who survived. She had a bad leg and it was splinted by a local doctor. It was an open broken tibia and fibula everything was swollen and infected. She needs amputation. She is getting XRays tomorrow because she might have a broken femur too. Edgar is family. Chuck couldn't talk it hurt so bad. He told Edgar and his brother that she needed her leg amputated. The little girl's Dad - Edgar's bro said to Chuck - no problem you can cut off both legs if needed, she is alive and for that we are grateful.Please do not be overly concerned. The good that we are doing here is amazing. We could go home today and be totally fulfilled. The needs here are overwhelming but every person helped is another opportunity to live a long, healthy life. The people have no idea that their situation is so bad and therefore for them it isn't. They are happy and tough and resilient - seriously when you see the ugly or painful situations that little small children are in and then they smile it all melts away. Thanks for letting us come and thanks for dealing with the consequences - I know that Heavenly Father loves these people. I feel it every time I get one of those smiles. Your prayers are being answered. Keep up the good work at home! Oh yeah we're pretty tired - Gary already took some sleep meds and crashed.

Craig, Steve, Gary and Chuck




Email #8:
Pretty tough to know where to start. Sorry if this is too viral now - our intention was not to do anything other than keep a journal of a few of the special, memorable stories and let you all know that we are alive and kicking.


Today we continued our efforts with the Cubans. It is a remarkable, comical setup. You have the Mormons the Cubans and the Menonites (the Canadians said that sounds like a joke) - they have joined up with us the past few days and have helped with crowd control and basic medicine and wraps. We are all in a little compound or school with hundreds of people laying around waiting for help. Back in Leogane the Canadians set up in the field where our choppers landed with us Monday. We are starting to see some great cooperation!


One of the most amazing parts of this whole setup is the way we have been supported by the ward here in Leogane. The Bishop has anticipated and cared for every little need. We have a great, secure place to sleep with the generator running (most of the time) so we have fans. When we need drinks, the members go grab them and they are there so the boys don't get dehydrated.. There is a member here with a truck - SUV and he has taken us everywhere we need to go - we discovered today that Frere Eddy lost his 11 yr old in the earthquake. He is the one with the computer that allows me to write this epistle every night. Every night when we come back from a lifetime's worth of stuff in 10 hours, the members have a great meal ready for us - Gary is now begging for rice and beans and chicken sauce!!! We came thinking that we would provide help for them and they have done nothing but serve us.


Okay just a few stories. Today we were joined by the EMTs and nurse from St. George and Dr. Ray Price and Dr. Creig McArthur from the church's delegation that came down Sunday. I think we entertained them completely.


Chuck did toes two and three and Steve did toes two three four and five. Chuck and Steve turned a guy into a shooter - thumb and pointer remained.


Probably the most amazing story of the day is a follow up to yesterday's story about Edgar's niece. Today at about 4 o'clock a haitian group came to our compound and had space for 6 people to transport to Port-au-Prince to receive immediate surgery. We had a bunch of people with open fractures that we wanted to get on there. I quickly thought of Edgar's niece - she is the little girl who was one of two survivors in her school class of 34. Edgar had been with us earlier but it is impossible to get in touch with anyone here. Cell phones are spotty, etc. As I walked over to see if he was still there, a smal suv pulled up and it was her!!! I can assure you that there is no explanation for timing like that other than prayers. She got on the truck!


While Steve and Ray Price (it was fun for us to have Ray join the team and jump rt in) were cutting off toes 2,3,4,and 5 - sorry Stan and Tim!!! A really nice German doc came over and held the flashlight for them for at least an hour so they could finish - yes we were doing surgeries in the dark... we had good flashlights!


There was an 18yr old girl who was home when the earthquake hit. her whole family died except for her - she was hit in the head and has brain damage. Her body was writhing and she has extension posturing in the right side of her body, she continually yells out and hasn't slept in five days. Because her whole family died her classmates from school have taken her in and cared for her, trading off day by day. Imagine someone requiring constant attention and not being able to sleep but they stick with her.


One of the funnest stories of the day was when Jan - the nurse who came today with the EMTs - part of the St.George team, delivered a baby. The mother found us with an IV and everything totally ready to go. Jan discovered her as the baby was coming and delivered her. When she came out she wasn't breathing so Gary grabbed her and - as he said, tossed her around a bit then held her in the air and everyone cheered!


Today we saw reporters from Time, People, BBC and Chuck talked to the Swedish reporters - Chuck is fluent in Swedish Chef.


Gary has been helped every day by a girl from Connecticut who is here on vacation. She has become his personal translator - yes I have been replaced - it is amazing, she keeps returning to help and she is very useful.


These are such great people - Gary has remarked many times how the kids and the people love to touch you - shake hands, hand on shoulder, hold your hand, etc. They are very endearing. The kids don't care that he doesn't know the language they love to follow him around and smile at him, etc. We have tons of pictures, hopefullly we can remember some of the faces and put them with the stories...


Love you,


Craig Chuck, Steve and Gary

PS the aftershock got us out of bed early this morning but wasn't too scary...




Email #9:

Dear Everyone,


This is the end of the saga. We just spent 3 1/2 hours at Chuck and Gayla's listening to the incredible experiences they had and to the things they were able to do. We appreciate so much Craig Nelson who was Chuck's missionary companion in Haiti and the person in the group who has done the communicating and arranging so the doctors could take care of medical needs. Chuck said that he was invaluable with his business and language skills. They were taken care of by the ward there and for the most part ate one meal a day and didn't even stop to drink much, but they were not hungry. Chuck's language skills, (French, Haitian Creole, Spanish, a little German and Swedish) all came into play. Interestingly, Craig's phone was the only one that worked in Haiti, another thing that we are very grateful for.


Chuck said that they basically got the Germans, the Cubans and the Mennonites all working together because each group had different equipment and skills. They even taught others medical skills. One Haitian return missionary sister who spoke English basically became the OR nurse even though she hadn't had any medical training. Chuck said that she was fabulous, tough, and knew just what needed to be done. When he left, he gave her his stethoscope and told her she needs to be a nurse.


Chuck plans to write a synopsis as soon as he can which we will send on. The group plans to put together a Blurb type book with pictures and their experiences. That may take a while.


We are so grateful for their safe return. Chuck says they tried to use good judgment and never felt unsafe. He promised one of the doctor's wife who was petrified that he would bring her husband home safely.


Chuck wanted me to thank you for your interest and prayers which they definitely needed and felt.


Even though Jeremy Johnson got them down there and wasn't able to bring them back home, Chuck says that he is doing many good things and Chuck will ever be grateful to him. It worked out better that they were able to help the orphans get out because of their language skills, their medical skills and just being able to be in charge of the children.


I am going to quit rambling and hope all of you have a very good week. We love you.


Love,


Irene and Daryl


P.S. They got a lot of publicity and people kept asking them what organization they were with. They finally came up with a name -- "Docs without Names" -- a takeoff on the world organization of "Docs without borders."