Heartline Ministries in Haiti decided that they would open an "instant" hospital within days of the earthquake. They found, however, there were so many injured people that field triage of the wounded became one of the hardest jobs. The materially poorest people of Haiti had little to no medical care available to them. Heartline Ministries drove their trucks into the slums of Haiti to help the wounded people who lived there.
Fortunately, Heartline and the injured people had help from several volunteer emergency medical technicians who traveled from the United States to offer their assistance. The EMTs could assess the injured,and even get drugs for pain and infections started in the field. Heartline employees like missionary Troy Livesay drove the trucks and translated the essential information from English to Creole and back again. The most seriously hurt were taken to the hospital first.
In one of these neighborhoods, Troy found a young pregnant woman laying on the ground in a clearing with many other injured people. The woman was seven months pregnant and in terrible pain any time she attempted to move her body, but she was not yet in labor. Her name was Collette. The medical volunteers guessed she had internal injuries. However, in the midst of the mass casualty situation, there were many other injured people who appeared worse than Collette. It was getting late in the day, and --although it broke his heart-- Troy had to tell Collette he would return for her the next day.
Collette grabbed his hand and said urgently in Creole, "Please don't forget me." Troy promised he would be back.
When the medical team returned to the neighborhood, Troy was determined not to leave without Collette. He found her. As he motioned for a driver to pull the truck up next to where Collette lay on the ground, she waved her arms in the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! You came back for me. Thank you Jesus!" She had been injured and on the ground for six days. Troy said he nearly burst out crying and could barely choke out the words, "I did not forget you."
So Collette was transported to Heartline Hospital, but she and her unborn baby were far from OK. Colette was diagnosed with a severely broken pelvis. The medical team at Heartline got her somewhat stabilized and controlled her pain. But Collette and her baby were in very serious condition.
The doctors suspected she would need surgery and her shattered pelvic bones screwed back together with metal hardware. Collette's baby would have to be delivered early, but Heartline's quickly-opened hospital did not have incubators or the kind of specialized care and equipment that premature infants need. How could Heartline save both the mother and the baby?
Dr. Jen Halverson, the head of Heartline's medical efforts had heard some rumors and television reports that the U.S. Navy's medical ship The Comfort was close to reaching Haiti. Collette and many other of the Heartline patients needed a level of care that Heartline Hospital simply could not provide--but the navy ship could.
Dr. Jen decided to try to find a way to locate the ship and get the Heartline patients to the star medical professionals there. They loaded eleven seriously injured patients, including Collette, onto four trucks and began driving in search of help. They traveled to an area of Port au Prince near the ocean. They stopped and asked directions from anyone and everyone. They found a road where someone told them they were headed toward some Americans.
They found an American military unit who was just beginning to set up camp. "Can you help us?" Dr. Jen asked them, gesturing to the eleven very seriously injured people in the Heartline trucks. The officer in charge said they had been on land for less than an hour, and they didn't have anything set up, but he would see what he could do. Tara Livesay, who had driven one of the trucks, prayed they had not loaded up these eleven injured people needing surgery and driven them around the city for nothing. Here is the story as Tara told it on her blog.
"All of a sudden out of nowhere a helicopter circled over a time or two ... then swooped in. It landed right out in front of us. Two studly helicopter military guys walked over and said they could take four people. We chose the four worst. They said 'We'll be back in ten minutes for more.' We could not believe what was happening. They came back ... and back. Three trips to the ship for the people of Simon Pele (the low-income neighborhood where the injured came from.) I asked a couple of the patients that I had connected with if they were afraid. They seemed to know that something big was about to happen. How humbling it was to watch the poorest of the poor ... forgotten by most ... be some of the very first patients to arrive by helicopter to a US Navy Hospital floating in the Port. I stood there weeping as they took the last group up."
"We left Heartline on Jen's hunch - with almost no location information and no certainty we would be received - and we found the American base, that had only been in place for 60 minutes, that led to the helicopter coming, that led to hurting people getting help."
"It felt like justice to me. Hurray for justice. Hurray for miracles."
Collette got a miracle. She was transported to the hospital ship where the navy medical professionals were able to deliver and care for her baby. The baby is a girl named Esther, who is alive and healthy today.
Unbelievably, Esther's C-section birth was captured in news photos from the Comfort that were seen all over the world. Collette and Esther were even featured in LIFE magazine. Once her baby was delivered, Collette received the life-saving surgery she needed on her pelvis and will be able to live a healthy and normal life. Both Collette and baby Esther returned to Heartline Hospital after several weeks on the navy ship so Collette could get follow-up care and physical therapy.
This is just one story of how Heartline helped the people of Haiti after the earthquake, acting as the hands of Jesus in an amazing situation. More to come.
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