Photo by Matthew McDermott

Americares team members Bret and Carol meet with Dr. Richard Salnave, head surgeon of the Canape-Vert.

Carol Reflects on Haiti
Carol Shattuck
02/24/10

Carol Shattuck, our Chief of Staff, recounts her experiences from AmeriCares relief efforts in Haiti. Carol brings over 10 years of experience with AmeriCares, including dozens of relief missions. Read her latest report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Carol recently left Haiti after spending almost two weeks there.  These are her parting reflections...

I feel like I have been to a war, but one without the shooting. Massive loss of life, massive injuries and massive destruction to this city of three million. Port-au-Prince is wrecked. Some of the dead are buried in mass graves; others are buried under the rubble. They will never know the exact death toll...but it could well be more than 200,000. The injuries to the living were horrific - many amputations, crush wounds....injuries you would expect when buildings came down in seconds. 

Medical teams from around the world worked with Haitian doctors and nurses, performing miracles in terrible conditions. A seasoned doctor I met from Ohio said it was the worst disaster he had ever seen. Another doctor described the early days in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake as like "Gettysburg" – the American Civil War’s bloodiest battle. Many of the hospital and clinics were destroyed or severely damaged. Yet the medical teams continued to treat patients in the ruins and outdoors surrounding the hospitals. I am in awe of these professionals who run to help people in trouble. Help AmeriCares Save Lives in Haiti »

AmeriCares also runs to trouble with the medicines and the medicals supplies to sustain the medical teams.  As we set up our base of operations, doctors came to us for antibiotics, pain medicines, bandages, gauze, bandages and so much more. And then they came back for more - or we delivered to them - as they used the medicines and supplies more quickly than they could ever imagine. AmeriCares will continue to meet the immediate needs of the healthcare community for as long as needed but at the same time we are already working on a plan to help Haiti rebuild. 

As I prepared to leave Port-au-Prince, I saw early signs of hope for the future. The hospitals were seeing fewer first time patients with severe injuries from the earthquake. Their focus was turning to post-op care - wounds that were infected or secondary injuries - and the potential for a public  health crisis with hundreds of thousands living in makeshift camps around the city - with little water, sanitation or food.  It will take a concerted effort to avoid a second crisis. 

Another hopeful sign were the bulldozers beginning to clear some of the rubble. But how do you clear destruction of this magnitude?  I visited many sections of the city where there was near total collapse of the buildings. For as far as the eye can see, you see rubble on top of rubble. I pray that there aren't more aftershocks - bringing more buildings down or shifting the rubble.

Haitians are remarkable people who have been dealt a tough hand over and over again. The poorest country in the western hemisphere, the health, nutrition, education, livelihood challenges are huge. But Haitians are resilient people. Those I met were calm, gracious and getting on with their lives as best they could.  It is clear that they will need help for years and years to come. But the help is coming ...from all over the world. Hopefully out of the death and destruction will come a better tomorrow and a future for the children.

While in Port-au-Prince, we hired a young man named Valery to drive us to hospitals, clinics and meetings. His English was excellent and he was vastly overqualified, but he was grateful to have a job. One day Valery asked "When will I forget the earthquake?" I don't believe he will ever forget the tragedy that struck their country.  Hopefully Valery and the rest of the Haitian people can find a way forward that brings them hope for their future.

As I said goodbye to my AmeriCares colleagues - Rachel, Bret and Brian - I was torn leaving them. They are amazing people: serious, smart and dedicated. We functioned as a very good team and supported each other. In the evenings we would talk about what we had seen that day and would try to process the tragedy. Most of all, we would plan the next day and strategize how we would reach more and more people with the lifesaving medicines we were delivering.

I am grateful to all our donors, those who donated medicines and medical supplies to us to deliver to Haiti and to our financial donors who helped make our response possible.

I know I have been impacted in many ways by what I saw and experienced. I am sure I will be processing this for a long time.  But most of all, I come away enormously grateful for the opportunities AmeriCares has given me to help people around the world, most recently in Haiti.

My thoughts and prayers remain with the Haitian people. They will need all the help they can get for so very long.  But it is a good feeling to know that AmeriCares will be there helping them recover and rebuild.