A Hospital is Born

With their children safely transported to the United States, American missionaries Troy and Tara Livesay were able to fully concentrate on helping the people of Haiti.

Shortly after the earthquake, the head of Heartline Ministries called together the staff. They prayed urgently, "Lord, what would you have us do?" They were a small band of people, less than 10 Americans, and fewer than 20 Haitian employees of Heartline.

What do you do in the aftermath of an earthquake --total apocalyptic chaos--when EVERYTHING is needed? The Haitian people needed water, food, medical care, housing,and supplies of every kind. Buildings were in ruins everywhere and roads were blocked by rubble. Many of the dead were stacked out on the streets.

The Heartline staff discerned they would try to help with medical care. Not one of them was a doctor or a nurse, but the Heartline staff knew that they had contacts in the medical community who would help. One of Tara's best friends was a emergency room pediatrician. Tara called Dr. Jen Halverson in Minnesota and in hours "Dr. Jen" had cleared her schedule and was headed for Haiti.

Heartline has been working in Haiti over 20 years, so they have a group of people in the USA who have come to know and support them. Heartline put out the word, "Tell everyone you know, we need doctors, nurses and EMT's. We also need people who speak Creole and can act as translators. We need people who can get to Haiti within two days and stay for as long as possible."

Their emails and phone calls for help were answered abundantly. It was a logistical nightmare to get people and medical supplies to Haiti but through tons of hard work and lots of prayer support, they managed it. In two days Heartline turned some of their buildings into a hospital, staffed with medical people who had never met or worked together before.

Many other charities and ministries were sending help to Haiti too--but the need was completely overwhelming. Beyond overwhelming. Everywhere, there were wounded.

The poor of Haiti do not have cars, so how could the injured people get to a hospital? Many people remained in their own neighborhoods, sleeping on the ground next to the rubble of their former homes. Heartline used their vehicles to go find the injured and pick them up. By the grace of God, Heartline had just purchased a large truck. The truck was supposed to be used for transporting visiting short-term mission teams from US churches when they came to Haiti. The truck became an ambulance that could transport almost a dozen injured people at a time.

Troy and the men of Heartline drove into the poorest neighborhoods of Port au Prince to find the wounded. These are places the United Nations would not even send their armed troops because they feared violence. The Heartline men and medical staff had no trouble with crime or violence--their problems were figuring out who was wounded the worst and therefore most in need of transport to the hospital.

In was now about a week after the earthquake. Anyone with a television saw the horrible injures after the Haitian earthquake and Heartline Hospital got them all: fractures with the bones exposed, deep lacerations, limbs needing amputation, crush injuries. I quote from Tara Livesay's blog.

"It seems that lots of folks were treated at home or by a friend or in some sort of make-shift clinic in the early hours following the earthquake. The problem is, they were not given follow up instructions and now they have major infections. In some cases they were wrapped with an ace bandage when in fact they have a major fractured bone...These injuries are far too serious to treat and send away for good..."

The Heatline non-medical missionaries "disinfected, ran around to get supplies, tried to prioritize patients, took phone calls, did research and tried to stay clear of things that might make us faint," as Tara described it. Many patients were treated on the ground in the yard outside of the Heartline Hospital, for lack of a better place.

Tara writes, "At one point in the day I walked by a guy that needed to pee. He was very vocal about it too. I looked around and found no one to help him ... I was it. Not something I can say I had ever done before today. Helping a non-ambulatory male go pee."

It quickly became clear that some of these patients were so seriously injured they would need around-the-clock care for many days into the future. Heartline scrambled to set up some cots and beds for the patients to use long-term.

Tara continues, "My favorite part of the day was getting to be the one to deliver the news to a Mom that her child did not need an amputation on her broken leg. We prayed and hugged and rejoiced together. A good moment."

Heartline Hospital was born.

Coming soon: Stories of the people who came to Heartline looking for help.