A year ago today, the country of Haiti was turned upside down.
A massive earthquake struck the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere just before 5 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2010, about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince the country’s capital — killing about 250,000 and leaving 1.3 million homeless.
Almost immediately, volunteers and hundreds of aid groups flowed in. One of these volunteers was Alison Childs, a registered nurse with 12 years of experience who is now employed at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. She has traveled to Haiti three times since the
quake and is currently there, helping in a cholera center at St. Damien’s Hospital, right outside of Port-au-Prince.
“Sadly, I see that there are still a lot of problems,” said Childs, when reached by telephone in Haiti on Tuesday. “They need more support internally from their own government to start fixing some of the problems that came out of the earthquake.” (Story continues after picture)
A political standoff continues in Haiti after the disputed Nov. 28 presidential election, as international observers are waiting on Haiti’s president to accept a report suggesting his party’s candidate be eliminated from a contentious election to choose the quake-ravaged country’s next leader.
She said the word is that there will be some kind of announcement about the election after the anniversary.
“As far as internally, there just hasn’t been a lot that this current government has done to get rid of the rubble,” she said.
She also noted the thousands are still living in tents. “It is really sad.”
There has been some cleanup and many nonprofit organizations have established more health care and cholera centers. She said St. Damien has really grown since the earthquake, allowing it to treat more people and house more orphans. She said the neonatal unit has been “saving all kinds of little babies” and the maternity unit is a place where many babies are born each day into a healthy environment.
“This place is a great success story, but the rest of Haiti, it is really hard to say … I think the Haitian people would love to have some hope, something that they can hang on to.”
“It is really hard for them to believe in their government anymore, especially after this past year with so much tragedy, now cholera and the riots.”
“They are not feeling like they are going to have a clear and fair election,” she said. “My Haitian friends are discouraged.”
“But it is good to be here, it always good to be here.”
Childs will be working today and attending a memorial service in the afternoon at a large burial ground, where many who died during the quake have been laid to rest.
She said the Rev. Rick Frechette, who is the head of the nonprofit that runs St. Damien, has been devoted to giving people a proper burial and has gone regularly to the burial site, Titayen, to bring people who had died at the hospital and some people who had been collected from the public morgue.
“It feels like an honor to have been asked to come back; for me it is great privilege to be part of the good things and positive movements in Haiti,” she said.
Childs went to Haiti for the first time last January, working at the St. Damien’s Hospital outside of Port-au-Prince as part of the disaster relief effort. She was there for the one-month anniversary of the quake.
She worked in the maternity and neonatal unit for a month, which was created after the quake at the pediatric hospital.
For the first few weeks, Childs worked 13 or 14 hours each day, and said she phased back to 12 hours each day during the end of her visit. She said she could see tents everywhere when she looked out her window. She said beyond the tents she could see the hospital, which was one of few buildings built to withstand an earthquake.
“It was just rubble, so much rubble just everywhere for miles around,” she said.
Childs returned to Haiti from Oct. 14 to Nov. 10 and forged a new connection with Partners in Development, a nonprofit based out of Ipswich that has been working in Haiti for decades. She also volunteered at the new adult hospital, St. Luc’s (affiliated with St. Damien), which was born out of necessity following the earthquake. She has seen the lack of medical care available to women, especially with regard to reproductive health, and children, and is now working to apply for grant funding to fill that gap.
Right now, she is back in Haiti working at the cholera center, but she has also assisted in several surgeries since she went back on Jan. 5.
On one of her first days back, she observed a patient who had just died and “people were wailing and crying, inconsolable.”
“It was a shocking entrance,” she said, on her blog where she has been documenting her experiences in Haiti.
She has spent some of her time working in the neonatal unit. She was asked to assist in an emergency cesarean birth of a baby that was coming at 30 weeks. She said she tried to explain that she wasn’t an experienced neonatal nurse, but they just told her to come in five minutes for the surgery. She put on a gown, got sterilized and prepared herself for the surgery. “I watch the cesarean with trepidation, praying like I have never prayed,” she said. “The baby comes out tiny and bloody and she cries right away … a sure sign that she is not dead.”
“I muddle through an exam, wipe her off, suction her tiny mouth and nose and clutch her to my chest.”
Childs also assisted in another surgery on a woman, Giseline, whose face was disfigured when she went into a house to try to save her sister during the earthquake. Her sister was already dead, but while trying to save her, a wall fell on her face, knocking her unconsciousness and severely cutting her lips and nose.
As a result, she has been very self conscious, unhappy and doesn’t want to be seen in public. After a year, there is now some help for her in an Italian doctor whose father is a plastic surgeon. “She has put her trust, and her face, in the hands of these people.”
“It is truly exciting because this surgery is not just about emergency, or life saving, but about improving the life of this woman.”
The surgery took about five hours. “It was fascinating and exhausting.”
The doctor removed part of her face that was severely scarred and made a whole series of cuts and stitches and put it all back together, she said.
Childs sat with her after the surgery and, when she awoke, she was very afraid, especially after she saw the swelling and stitches. “She is an incredibly brave and sweet person and I told her that mostly she is beautiful on the inside and that is what counts.”
“I showed her how my nose is crooked and I have a scar inside my lip from when I fell on my face in the driveway.”
“She smiled for the first time since the surgery,” she said. “I am excited to be part of this trend of empowering women in Haiti, enabling them to feel strong and have choices.”
Childs will be in Haiti until Jan. 20. But this will not be her last trip to Haiti.
“I am going to try to come every six months for the rest of my life.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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