Sources: HCJB Global, Samaritan's Purse, Associated Press (written by Ralph Kurtenbach)
With each faint scent or sound of life beneath the rubble, rescue workers call for total silence, but their hope of hearing a tapped or shouted reply is fading with each day following the Jan. 12 quake that shook the Haitian capital.
Already, noisy earthmovers in northern Port-au-Prince have carved out mass graves on a hillside where the site manager said he had interred thousands of corpses—including many children’s bodies—in a single day.
Amid the stench of death, civil chaos looming, and heart-stopping aftershocks, an HCJB Global Hands medical team from Ecuador continues saving lives even as patients’ limbs are lost to amputation after crushing injuries.
Team leader Sheila Leech and Ecuadorian orthopedic surgeon Leonardo Febres have returned to Ecuador, but their five colleagues who also arrived at the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) hospital on Jan. 15 are staying on for a few more days. Working tiring days, they witness terrible tragedy at many turns. Nevertheless, they persist amid suffering and sorrows within this haven of hope—a hospital where patients and their relatives hear the gospel.
For a week now, the Ecuador team of HCJB Global Hands has assisted at BHM where local chaplains and those from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) circulate among the patients. The chaplains comfort those grieving and share the news that God is love, even in times of trial.
For the Haitians, many whose lives are marked by financial struggle, this love is palpable and within grasp, even if worldly wealth is not. Many embrace the biblical account of a Savior who, by Western standards, was born, lived and died poor. Amid the suffering, the Haitians smile; they sing; they busy themselves with alleviating the pain of others.
Observing the Haitians, physicians, chaplains and support staff blending to form an effective Christian body, water engineer Martin Harrison arrived at two summarizing words: resilience and improvisation.
“Many staff have lost family members and close friends,” he wrote in a quiet moment. “Yet they have not downed tools since the first day, as they seek to help others live. The surgeons, doctors, nurses, water engineers and caretakers each play their own vital part, tirelessly working from dawn until late into the night, improvising with whatever comes to hand as certain medical supplies run low.”
With two operating rooms now treating patients at BHM, surgical plates, pins, casting material and other supplies are all needed, along with blood. German physician Eckehart Wolff donated blood to one patient, Alexis, during a surgery he was performing. It helped her survive . . . but only for a short while longer. To extend scarce supplies, staff members have begun cutting the pins in half.
Reports indicate more than 400 makeshift camps have sprung up near Port-au-Prince with nearly 400,000 people in shelters bed sheets and clothing scraps stretched over tree branches. U.N. assessments claim a significant percentage of this population continues to lack access to clean water.
The city’s airport can now receive nearly 200 flights per day, but the flow of aid flights bottlenecks on the ramps as truck transport of supplies to the city is lacking.
The risk of epidemic runs high with camps overcrowded and unsanitary and shortages in both medical care and clean water. Public health officials are closely monitoring this risk.
While being prepped for surgery at BHM, 14-year-old Marcelus was evangelized by Cesaire Elusmond, a Haitian chaplain, and BGEA’s Jack Dowling. “Then and there,” Harrison recounted, “just minutes before going to surgery under HCJB Global surgeons, he prayed and gave his life to the Lord. As doctors were saving his life, Jesus was changing his heart.”
“We give thanks for the miracles God is working each and every day,” the British engineer added, “not only saving lives, but changing hearts.”
HCJB Global Press Release For more information contact:
Jan. 20, 2010 Michelle Sorak, Communications Director msorak@hcjb.org; 719.388.2227
Aftershock Rattles Haiti as HCJB Global/Samaritan's Purse Team Continues Work
Sources: HCJB Global, Baptist Haiti Mission, World Gospel Mission, Associated Press, BBC (written by Ralph Kurtenbach and Harold Goerzen)
A 5.9-strength aftershock early Wednesday, collapsing already-damaged buildings, but the HCJB Global Hands emergency medical team working at the Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM) hospital in Port-au-Prince reported they're all fine.
The seven-member team continues working 12-hour surgical shifts, treating those injured in the Jan. 12 quake that devastated Haiti's capital.
The powerful aftershock, centered about 35 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, sent Haitians screaming into the streets, collapsing buildings, cracking roads and adding to the trauma of a nation stunned by an apocalyptic quake eight days ago. At least one woman, traumatized by the aftershock, died of a heart attack in Port-au-Prince. The jolt matched the strongest of the tremors since the original 7.0-magnitude quake.
The multi-specialty team, working in conjunction with Samaritan's Purse, a North Carolina-based Christian aid group, arrived Friday, Jan. 15, from Ecuador. While two surgeons, an anesthesiologist, a nurse and two family physicians have worked at the hospital with the BHM staff, water engineer Martin Harrison set up a Water Missions International (WMI) filtration plant that is now chlorinating pond water for use at the hospital compound.
"Supplies are now improving as the WMI unit produces 10,000 gallons of drinking water per day at full output," Harrison said. "We are taking water from a fishpond of all places, passing this through the WMI water filter and filling a cistern beneath the hospital."
Family physician Steve Nelson said the team is giving priority to the most severe cases. "We non-surgical types were out on the floors trying to triage which cases were most likely to get complicated if left longer," he explained. "Sepsis, infected compound fractures and little kids made up our priority list." With more complicated cases, the surgical workers totaled 15 operations in one day, finishing after midnight.
"They are not seeing any simple breaks or fractures," Krys Baker, the hospital administrator, said of the surgical teams. "Many bones are crushed, making surgeries very difficult. They are also seeing a lot of infections. Many people have waited to come to the hospital and as a result they are having to do amputations." Infectious diseases have not shown up yet, according to a BBC report, but tetanus and gangrene are a threat to the injured.
Several days after HCJB Global's team arrived, another 17 physicians and nurses arrived from Samaritan's Purse. Upon staffing a second operating room, the 100-bed hospital can now treat more injured Haitians.
In spite of limitations on fuel, water and Internet connection, the team members' contact with their families in Ecuador has been constant. Missionary Kim Barton said from Shell, Ecuador, that her husband, Paul, "mentioned the aftershock because it woke him up. He was calling to try to find more tetanus [vaccine]." The Bartons serve at HCJB Global's jungle hospital in Shell where Paul is an anesthesiologist and his wife, Kim, is a pediatrician.
Also from the Shell hospital, German surgeon Eckehart Wolff lay on a surgery table to donate his own blood to a patient named Alexis who was suffering from severe internal abdominal bleeding. "The lady was stable this morning; however, sadly, she died this afternoon. She must have been crushed by something in the quake," said Harrison.
There is joy amid such suffering, Nelson said, recounting how family physician Marcos Nelson's patient, a young girl, began to sing even as the physician cleaned her wound. Anesthetized from pain but still conscious, the girl had a wound that revealed something serious enough for her to be placed first on the list for the next morning.
"Then we all heard her start singing," Steve Nelson related, "first in sort of a low voice and later stronger ... and it seemed happier! It was in Creole, so of course none of the Spanish and English speakers could know what she was saying ... but a translator brightened up nearby and said she is singing, ‘I am saved, I am saved, I am saved!'"
The aftershock also rattled the nerves of people at partner ministry Radio Lumière, which only suffered minor damage in the original quake, although three of the staff members were killed while they were away from the station.
"Everyone there was OK [following the aftershock]," said Timothy Rickel, vice president of communication at World Gospel Mission (WGM). "Most people are sleeping outdoors anyway."
WGM engineer Paul Shingledecker helped put the station back on the air Sunday, Jan. 17, enabling the Radio Lumière to aid in communications and send out a message of hope to beleaguered Haitians.
"There is no city power, and it will be some time before there will be any," Shingledecker added. "I've seen lines down all over the city, including major high-tension lines. The station is entirely dependent on back-up generators. Some diesel is available, though not a lot yet. But money to buy it is the major factor."
A call to Radio Lumière's satellite service produced wider bandwidth for the station to stream audio on the Internet. "This is a major praise," said Rickel.
An HCJB Global engineer and others working at Radio Lumière when the Jan. 12 quake struck decided to "ride out the earthquake in the building," according to David Russell who heads the HCJB Global Technology Center in Indiana.
Alan Good had traveled to Haiti on Jan. 6 to work on the station's FM, Stereo 92. "He spent two nights there following the quake, awaiting news from his Haitian host family," Russell said. "It turned out that they also escaped injury."
With help from a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot, Good re-established contact with Russell and was flown back to the U.S. on Sunday.
HCJB Global Physicians Arrive in Haiti for Relief Work with Samaritan’s Purse
Sources: HCJB Global, Samaritan’s Purse, World Gospel Mission (written by Ralph Kurtenbach and Harold Goerzen)
As relief teams attempt to reach earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, a multinational medical and water sanitation team from HCJB Global Hands in Ecuador is praising God for its arrival in the Haitian capital Friday, Jan. 15.
“The situation is really desperate, and safety is an increasing problem as people get more frantic for water, food and medical help,” said Martin Harrison, a British water engineer on the seven-member emergency medical response team in Florida, on Thursday. “We want to get on with the job but we’re are daunted by the very serious nature of the situation. Please pray for the team and that God would protect us and get us there in his perfect way and timing.”
“We are certain that the medical people we are slated to relieve are so very tired after this now 48-hour marathon in the hospital,” said family physician Steve Nelson on Thursday as the team waited to catch an emergency flight at the airport in West Palm Beach, Fla. The team arrived in Port-au-Prince Friday morning.
Another ministry, Samaritan’s Purse (SP), is sponsoring the HCJB Global team in Haiti and handling its logistics. SP is centering its medical relief efforts at a 100-bed hospital in Port-au-Prince operated by a local partner, Baptist Haiti Mission. The hospital, 20 miles from the quake’s epicenter, suffered only minor damage and has electricity from back-up generators.
Members of the HCJB Global team include Ecuadorian surgeon Leonardo Febres, German surgeon Eckehart Wolff, U.S. anesthesiologist Paul Barton, U.S. family physicians Steve Nelson and Marcos Nelson, Harrison and International Healthcare Director Sheila Leech, a British nurse who heads the group. Most have assisted after previous disasters elsewhere such as in quake zones of Indonesia and Pakistan, Lebanon after war, and flooded areas of Mexico and Ecuador.
Likewise, the SP team consists of veterans of many disaster responses, but even they were shocked by what they encountered upon their arrival. “The streets are full of people who have no homes to go back to,” said Dr. David Gettle, a medical adviser. “They’re running out of food, fuel and water. The situation is desperate and tense, and there is tremendous suffering.”
A cargo plane chartered by SP has made several flights to Port-au-Prince since Wednesday, transporting 11 members of its own disaster team along with rolls of plastic for temporary shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, jerry cans, flashlights, water purification sachets, water purification kits and two community water filters.
The primary goal of HCJB Global’s team is to bring medical aid and clean water to the injured while also addressing the spiritual needs of the Haitian earthquake victims. “This is an opportunity to show God’s love in a tangible way,” said HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson. “We feel privileged to play a small part in this emergency operation.”
The 7.0-magnitude quake struck on Tuesday, Jan. 12, even as an HCJB Global Voice engineer was in Port-au-Prince to do technical work for partner ministry Radio Lumière. The engineer and three others (two from the U.S.) escaped injury.
World Gospel Mission (WGM) is sending Paul Shingledecker to Haiti on Saturday to assess the damage at Radio Lumière, get it back on the air and meet with church and radio leaders to begin building a long-term strategy for assisting Haiti. Shingledecker, who served as a missionary in Haiti for 23 years, will also be checking on radio staff members, some of whom are feared dead.
“The station is still standing,” said Tim Rickel, WGM’s vice president for communication. “It is structurally sound, although many things have fallen off the shelves. All of the radio towers are also standing.” He said the station has back-up generators to supply electricity, but they are dependent on diesel fuel which is in short supply.
Radio Lumière, a WGM partner ministry operated by the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti, consists of nine radio stations and a television station. It covers 90 percent of Haiti with the message of Christ’s love.
Another HCJB Global cooperating ministry, radio station 4VEH, operated by One Mission Society (formerly OMS International) in Cap-Haitien, was undamaged.
“We want to be able to show the face of Jesus as we work with our hands. We trust the name of Jesus will be lifted up in all that we do,” said Steve Nelson.
Support of HCJB Global’s efforts will help provide medical supplies and basic necessities such as sleeping bags, flashlights, tents and emergency water filters. Plans are under way to send additional teams in the weeks to come.
Emergency Medical Response Team • HCJB Global Hands sent a seven-member emergency medical response team from Ecuador to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, arriving the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 15, to provide medical help to survivors. The team, which worked in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse, left Haiti on Jan. 25 and returned to Ecuador the following day. The team, led by International Healthcare Director Sheila Leech, was based at a 100-bed hospital in Port-au-Prince operated by Baptist Haiti Mission. The hospital, 20 miles from the quake’s epicenter, only suffered minor damage and has electricity from back-up generators. • Team members: o Sheila Leech, British nurse o Dr. Leonardo Febres, Ecuadorian surgeon o Dr. Eckehart Wolff, German surgeon o Dr Paul Barton, U.S. anesthesiologist o Dr. Steve Nelson, U.S. family physician o Dr. Mark Nelson, U.S. family physician o Martin Harrison, British water engineer • While the primary goal was to bring medical aid and clean water to the injured, the team also addressed people’s spiritual needs. Support of HCJB Global’s efforts included medical supplies and basic necessities such as sleeping bags, flashlights, tents and emergency water filters. • Samaritan’s Purse chartered a DC-3 cargo plane from Missionary Flights International (MFI) to transport supplies such as water and water filters, food, shelter materials, medical supplies and other emergency needs to Port-au-Prince. • The first two to three days were largely in the hands of search and rescue personnel, finding and freeing those trapped and injured, and they in turn are flooding the available medical facilities. • Team members were out of their element with the languages in Haiti being French and Creole. • A second team will depart for Haiti on March 13 and stay for about two weeks with the possibility of rotating in more teams in the future. Some 15 Ecuadorian physicians have expressed an interest in helping on future teams. • The most recent news can be found at www.twitter.com/hcjbglobal.
Haiti • Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere • 95% of Haitians are Christian (75% Catholic, 22% evangelical, 3% other); 75% of Catholics are actively involved in voodoo, a development of West African spiritism and witchcraft. (Source: Operation World) • 80% of the population cannot meet their basic daily life needs.
Radio Partners
Radio Lumière • Website:(http://www.radiolumiere.org/ • The largest Protestant radio network in Haiti. It maintains both AM and FM stations across the nation. The main station was temporarily knocked off the air by the quake, but suffered only minimal damage. It went back the air on Sunday, Jan. 17. • Operated by local churches affiliated with Mission Evangelique Baptiste du Sud d’Haiti (Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti) • Established in 1959. • Broadcasts are within hearing range of 90% of the people of Haiti. • In many rural areas, it is the only radio broadcasting available to the local people in either of the two local languages, Creole and French • Has a network of 9 radio stations and one television station (as of 2007) • Reaches out to nearly 3 million people (entire network) • Can be heard throughout Haiti and into Dominican Republic • HCJB Global has had a cooperative ministry relationship with Radio Lumière for many years. • In the past two years, the mission has sent technical teams to Haiti to assist this partner with renovation of a medium wave network affiliate station and to perform studio upgrades at the network hub in Port-Au-Prince. • In the spring of 2009, SonSet® Radios were distributed through Radio Lumière (in cooperation with Faith Comes by Hearing founder Stanley Stankovich) • In November 2007 staff from the HCJB Global Technology Center and other ministries helped replace old, failing equipment at Radio Lumière’s station in LaJeune and converted it to digital. Engineers also held training so the staff could conduct their own repairs in the future. This classical music station aims to reach the upper class of Haiti with the good news of Jesus Christ and inspire them to have compassion on Haiti’s poor people. The station programming also includes teaching and information about when specialized doctors will be at a local clinic, making it possible for people to be informed about getting medical care. • In years past, technical missionaries David Sawatzky and Warren Griffin from Radio Lumière went on to serve at Radio HCJB in Quito. • An HCJB Global missionary engineer traveled to Haiti last week to help with the computer-based radio automation needs and training of station staff and was in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake. • The quake struck while an HCJB Global engineer Alan Good was in Port-au-Prince to repair an automation system for partner radio station Radio Lumière. The engineer and three other technical workers, including a professor and student from Taylor University, escaped injury.
Radio 4VEH • Website: http://radio4veh.org/ • Operated by cooperating ministry One Mission Society (formerly OMS International) in Cap-Haitian in the northern part of the country. The station was not damaged in the quake. • In 2003 HCJB Global installed a satellite-based radio distribution system for them, and have provided significant amounts of broadcast equipment, technical consulting, and training. • As recently as Jan. 3, 2010, the station experienced difficulties with its satellite feed and Internet streaming. This was restored early Tuesday, Jan 12, shortly before the quake hit.
HCJB Global, Samaritan’s Purse Join Efforts in Haiti After Massive Quake
Sources: HCJB Global, Samaritan’s Purse (written by Ralph Kurtenbach and Harold Goerzen)
A quick response by HCJB Global Hands has put an emergency medical response team from Ecuador en route to the devastation on the Caribbean nation of Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 12.
In response to Samaritan’s Purse’s request for a medical help, International Healthcare Director Sheila Leech immediately began assembling a seven-member medical team including surgeons, family physicians, nurses, an anesthesiologist and a water engineer.
A registered nurse, Leech is heading the group as she has done in previous disasters around the world such as in 2005 when a medical team from Ecuador helped in quake relief efforts on Nias Island, Indonesia.
Samaritan’s Purse is centering its relief efforts at a 100-bed hospital in Port-au-Prince operated by a local partner, Baptist Haiti Mission. The hospital, 20 miles from the quake’s epicenter, only suffered minor damage and has electricity from back-up generators.
The hospital’s director of operations, Kyrk Baker, called the situation “overwhelming” with patients lining the floor. “There are big box vans coming in with people to see a doctor,” he told Samaritan’s Purse. “It’s just unbelievable the amount of people that are lined up trying to get basic medical care.”
Samaritan’s Purse has chartered a DC-3 cargo plane from Missionary Flights International (MFI) to transport relief supplies to Port-au-Prince. The first flight on Wednesday carried items such as blankets, plastic to build shelters, solar-powered flashlights, two water filtration units that can provide 10,000 gallons of clean drinking water a day, water containers and hygiene kits. The first flight departed from Fort Pierce, Fla., Wednesday afternoon. Additional flights are arriving with emergency supplies and personnel.
Family physician Dr. Steve Nelson said search and rescue efforts will be essential during the first few days. “We expect we will be receiving patients with severe traumatic injuries,” he explained. “A lot of the early response will be surgical, yet we hope to be able to manage some of the other kinds of problems that will be seen early because of the lack of water and infectious disease.”
While team members will concentrate on meeting people’s physical needs, their spiritual welfare is also prominent. “We’re going with a team that we know—people who love the Lord and want to share Him in every way as we’re in this ministry situation of disaster response,” Nelson added. “We want to be able to show the face of Jesus as we work with our hands. We trust the name of Jesus will be lifted up in all that we do.”
HCJB Global and Samaritan’s Purse combined efforts after two natural disasters in 2007, including an earthquake that left thousands homeless in Pisco, Peru, and flooding that inundated southern Mexico’s Tabasco state.
The quake struck while an HCJB Global engineer was in Port-au-Prince to repair an automation system for partner radio station Radio Lumière. The engineer and three other technical workers, including two volunteers from the U.S., escaped injury. Operated by the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti, Radio Lumière is a radio ministry with a network of nine stations that reaches 90 percent of Haiti’s population. Radio station 4VEH, operated by cooperating ministry One Mission Society (formerly OMS International) in Cap-Haitian, was not damaged by the temblor.
“Our hearts go out to the suffering people of Haiti,” said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs for Samaritan’s Purse. “We appreciate the close working relationship we have with HCJB Global for this response. Please pray that God will use this relief work for His glory.”
“This is an opportunity to show God’s love in a tangible way,” added HCJB Global President Wayne Pederson. “We feel privileged to play a small part in this emergency operation.”
