Alex Boerner

PHOTO ESSAYS: HAITI: After the Earthquake

These photos were made while following a group of volunteers from the Treasure Coast of Florida who traveled to Haiti to provide medial relief following the earthquake in Janaruy 2010.

Photos and story by Alex Boerner

Petit Goave, Haiti - "Déyé mon, gen mon," a Haitian proverb roughly translated meaning "behind mountains, more mountains" expresses the difficulties being endured by the people of the small country the size of Maryland followig the powerful earthquake in early January of 2010.

In response to the catastrophe, a group of 15 people, including 10 current and former Treasure Coast residents, flew out of the St. Lucie County International airport the morning of Friday, January 22 to go move as many mountains as possible.

The team was put together in under 5 days by Gary Uber, co-founder of Private Family Care in Hobe Sound, and Bryan Irvine, Chaplain for the Martin County Sheriff's Department.

Irvine's brother, Dan Irvine, lives in Haiti and is area director for the missionary group Global Partners. He has been working to mobilize medical teams to reach the people affected by the earthquake.

"I asked Dan what he needed, and he said he needed some help. The next day we talked a little bit further and he asked if we could put a team together and that's how the plan came to be."

Also enlisted in the assembly was Bryan and Dan's brother-in-law, former Treasure Coast resident Kevin Jones. Jones gathered manpower from Marion, Indiana where he now lives, adding 5 more members to the team.

Upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, the group was driven to the Wesleyan Church Mission Guesthouse. It survived the earthquake and was being used as the logistical center of operations. They were met by Dan Irvine.

"I'm almost ready to have faith in humanity again," stated Dan during a greeting to everyone shortly after they had arrived. He is closely connected to the area and became emotional when speaking about the influx of manpower and supplies that have been flowing into the country from all around the world.

The next morning, a three-hour ride in the back of a truck brought the group to Petit Goave, about 50 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince where a makeshift field hospital had been assembled on the grounds of a mission built in the 1950's. There they met with an existing team of 16 that had been operating at the field hospital since a week prior, raising the number of the entire group to 31.

"Our team was just phenominal," Bryan Irvine said. "Nobody had to tell them what to do. Brian (Ridgely) the P.A. (physician's assistant) walked right up to the table, put gloves on and said 'OK, here we go.' "

Over the next four days the group would see more than 1,000 visitors with varying degrees of problems. Priority was given to people with wounds that needed dressing, babies, children and the elderly. The volunteers were working in less-than sterile conditions that demanded improvisation and patience.

"Someone asked me why I don't wear a mask? I said 'I've got 12 fleas in this open wound and they're crawling all over my istruments,' " said Dr. Shawn Swan, an obstetrician and gynecologist from Marion, Ind.

The group continued to work under the threat of another possible large earthquake, and more than 40 aftershocks. There were many successes.

An infant with meningitis was helped to survive long enough to be transported by military escort to a hospital where he was treated and released along with his twin sister who was in much better health.

But there were also setbacks.

A 12-day-old baby with pyloric stenosis, a narrowing of the intestinal tract, was born on the day of the earthquake, the same day his father died. Named in honor of his father, Emmanuel Cadet and his mother, Esthere Francois, were scheduled to be evacuated by helicopter to the U.S. Comfort hospital ship. The team did what they could to keep him alive long enough to reach the ship, but Emmanuel died before the helicopter could leave the ground.

On the morning of the group's final day in Haiti, they were awoken by the sound of soft voices. Walking from the back of the mission, around the corner of the building to the front revealed no less than 250 people, already there at 7 am, lined up, all waiting to be treated for something, and all singing in unison.

Everyone there has a story. Everyone there has lost someone they knew. Everyone there will continue to climb mountains, and there are people here dedicated to knocking them down.

A wasp lands on a leaf overlooking Petit Goave Bay on the morning of January 24, 2010.
   
Nearly all the structures surrounding the Wesleyan Mission in Papette, Haiti, were damaged by the earthquake. Here a young girl waits to be seen at the mobile clinic established on January 25, 2010. Workers at the clinic saw 86 in one 4-hour visit.
   
Children collect water at the pump near the school at the Wesleyan Mission in Papette which was completely destroyed.
     
  
At the gate to a small terminal at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fort Pierce resident Belanges Belizaire, 51, hands out supplies he brought with from Fort Pierce while travelling to pick up his wife, Elicienne Belizaire, who was held back in the Haiti and couldn't leave without him.
   
  
A tear rolls down the face of a girl as she sings "God will take care of you," in Creole during a service Sunday morning at the Wesleyan Church.
     
  
Outside the U.N. compound in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
   
Four children are medically evacuated from the Wesleyan Mission Field Hospital in Petit Goave Sunday January 24, 2010.
   
People wait on benches in a makeshift waiting room to be seen at the Wesleyan Mission field hospital in Petit Goave, Haiti. The hospital opened Tuesday, January 19 and the staff saw more than 200 patients a day.
     
  
Mireille DuClair, 25, screams as Shawn Swan, OB/GYN, of Marion, IN, Lois Sherry, R.N., of Port St. Lucie, and Navy Medic Gary Uber, of Hobe Sound, perform a debridement on an open wound on her lower left leg Saturday afternoon at the Wesleyan Mission Field Hospital in Petit Goave. Former Treasure Coast resident Kevin Jones, of Marion IN, is holding her hands. DuClair was injured when a block of wall fell on her leg during the earthquake.
   
A woman soaks her infected fingertip in a glass of hydrogen peroxide at the Wesleyan Mission Field Hospital in Petit Goave, Haiti following the earthquake.
   
Lania Tintin, center, turns away as his 3-year-old daughter, Lavada Jean is worked on by Sarah Franklin, left, of Stuart, physician's assistant Brian Ridgley, of Stuart, and nurse Lois Sherry at the field hospital in Petit Goave, Haiti. Lavada was having seizures associated with cerebral malaria and the three were working to rehydrate her so they could attempt to treat her malaria.
     
  
Esthere Francois, 35, left, carries her 12-day old baby, Emmanuel Cadet, towards a jeep in which the two of them would be taken to the U.S. military base where the Combat Logistics Battalion 22, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. established at a compound a few blocks away from the Wesleyan Mission Field Hospital in Petit Goave, Haiti. Emmanuel was born on the day of the earthquake, the same day his father, for whom he is named, passed away. She and the baby were part of a group that were being evacuated for medical treatment to a hospital or the U.S.S. Comfort hospital ship located off the shore of Port-au-Prince. Emmanuel was suffering from pyloric stenosis, a gastric outlet obstruction, and needed a simple surgery that could not be performed at the field hospital. Esthere had come to the field hospital the day prior with her 5-year-old son, Humbert-Léo Cadet and Emmanuel's grandmother, Claire-Doneise Pierre. Emmanuel was treated at the field hospital the entire day for dehydration, and was able to survive through the night. The two of them made it to the base in the morning and were escorted to their departure point, but Emmanuel died shortly before boarding the helicopter that was to take him to the hospital.
   
At the end of the day at the Wesleyan Mission Field Hospital, members of the Wesleyan Brigade dispose of medical waste by burning it up against the brick wall at the edge of the property.
   
Morning chores at the Wesleyan Mission in Petit Goave.
     
  
People begin to arrive at the temporary field clinic set up at the Wesleyan Mission in Papette.
   
Louis Lionel, a member of the Wesleyan Brigade, leads a crowd of approximately 300 in a hymn Monday morning before the opening of the field hospital in Petit Goave, Haiti. The crowd of people had already assembled before 7:30 am.
  
Members of the Wesleyan Church in Petit Goave attend service in the courtyard amidst a backdrop of earthquake-damaged buildings like the home across the street. Service was held outdoors as result of damage to the church and the potential for another earthquake.
     
  
Sunday service at the Wesleyan church in Petit Goave.
   
A man drives by carrying a matress on the back of a motorcyle as members of the Wesleyan Church spill out into the street at the end of the service Sunday morning in Petit Goave.
   
Outside the Wesleyan Baptist Church following service Sunday morning.
     
  
A man walks past the destroyed wall of the Wesleyan Mission in Papette while on his way to the temporary field clinic that had been set up there the day of January 25, 2010.
   
A man rides his bike over a fault that cracked the street and the two surrounding structures.
   
Benita Tesné, 20.
     
  
Evelyn Chery is part of a family whose home was damaged in the earthquake and is now sleeping outside. And as of Saturday January 23, 2010, they had not heard from family member Soeurcine Calixte, 27, who was 9 months pregnant when the earthquake struck. She was in Port-au-Prince at the time.
   
A dog lies in the rubble of a damaged house in Petit Goave, Haiti.
   
Destruction in the town of Petit Goave, Haiti.
     
  
Tents line the streets as people, afraid to sleep in what was left of their homes, created alternative shelter for themselves.
   
Boys play soccer in the morning.
   
Philemon, 13, helps his mother, Rezilia, walk out of the mobile clinic in Papette. She is a single mother with 4 children and now has a broken foot after a block fell on her during the earthquake. She lost 2 relatives and her home in the disaster and cannot work as a result of the injury. "Please pray for me. I don't know how I'll sustain my family," she said. Philemon is the oldest of her children and was given a pep-talk about being responsible for the household when they left the clinic.
     
  
Following the earthquake, Rosemite Belizaire was trapped in a destroyed home in Port-au-Prince for two hours before she was pulled out by neighbors. She suffered wounds to her wrists, arms and legs, and also lost her 23-year-old daughter, Telanie, who was pinned on top of her while they were trapped in the rubble. She is now living in Fort Pierce, FL with her brother, Belanges Belizaier, and his family.