THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507260157 SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Cover Story SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
``THERE'S AN OLD Creole saying,'' said Chesapeake physician Patricia Raymond: ``After the mountains, there's more mountains.''
Like the mountains that loom over the Haitian landscape, the country's problems seem large and plentiful. For every problem in this country, one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, there are more lurking in the background, she said.
``Its population doubles every 29 years,'' she said. ``They are faced with problems of a poor fresh water supply, little to no sewage and garbage collection, poor quality health care and illiteracy. It has a high infant mortality rate and the average adult life expectancy is about 54. Those we saw seemed to be so used up with living; they all looked about 20 years older.''
She said the population has had little experience with democracy or politics, parts of Haiti are an ecological disaster, all of its light industry is gone and most of the wealth is in the hands of a few powerful families.
Yet, Raymond said, she earned a lot during a week as a visiting doctor about life from the dignified and ebullient people of Haiti.
She visited the country from June 17-24 as a visiting doctor under the auspices of the Norfolk-based Physicians for Peace program.
Joining Raymond on the trip were Chesapeake resident Dr. Suzanne Walters, a senior resident at the Eastern Medical College of Virginia, and Dr. Edward Lilly of Norfolk.
The three were sent to the Hopital Sainte Croix, a 120-bed general hospital in Leogane owned by the Episcopal Church of Haiti. The facility is about 30 kilometers west of the country's capital of Port-au-Prince.
Raymond said she and her other colleagues traveled to Haiti at their own expense to bring new medical equipment and to teach its use, observe patients and teach new medical techniques to the staff.
``Unlike other worthy, bigger-name efforts that operate temporary clinics in Third World countries, this one is low-key and operates on a one-to-one basis,'' she explained. ``But we also teach the physicians there new techniques and knowledge so they can improve their own expertise and health care. This is more of a continued relationship and not like some Great White Father coming in, curing a few people and then leaving.''
The Riverwalk resident is with Gastroenterology Associates of Tidewater, which has offices on Battlefield Boulevard and in Norfolk. She is the president of the Chesapeake Medical Society and a member of the Chesapeake General hospital medical staff.
A graduate of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Raymond is a gastronentologist, specializing in the body's digestive and waste systems.
``We take care of everything from the mouth to the anus and anything in between,'' she explained. ``We're somewhere between surgery and internal medicine. We usually detect and concentrate on things like ulcers, colon cancers and abdominal pains.''
After spending a trying time at the less-than-adequate airport at Port-au-Prince, the Virginia group was met by Dr. Jack Guy Lafontant, medical director of the Hopital Sainte Croix.
Lafontant took them on a 30-kilometer ride to Leogane, which took more than two hours because of terrible road conditions.
``It was so hot and humid that we all collapsed in a heap after we arrived at the hospital,'' Raymond said. ``That Saturday we were pooped, and the following Sunday we went to the Episcopal church service at the hospital, which was conducted in Creole. After Haiti, any summer weather here - even this hot spell - seems like a walk in the park.''
After church, Raymond and her colleagues jumped right into their work.
They unpacked the equipment they had brought, went on a tour of the hospital and began to examine patients.
``I treated patients and then, in my crummy French, asked them questions,'' Raymond said. ``But usually, I had to work with an interpreter. During my examinations, we went from English, to my lousy French and then Creole and back again.''
Raymond said her experience in Haiti was very different from practicing medicine in the United States. Not only do the Haitians have to make do with a minimum of medical tests and pain-killers, but she ran into diseases she's never experienced before.
``They have a whole different set of diseases there,'' she said. ``I've never seen a case of malaria before I came here. But there's not much internal medicine here. The hospitals do a lot of surgeries because the people suffer so many accidents, particularly machete accidents.
``Coming to Haiti was getting back to the roots of practicing medicine. The bedside part of medicine, the interaction with the patient here is so important and vital. It's amazing how much power you have over people just because you have a stethoscope. The amount of faith and belief these people had in us was unbelievable. They were so grateful just to have us.''
Another unusual aspect to treating patients in Haiti was the populace's belief in voodoo, she said.
``We met a young boy at the hospital who was losing a great deal of weight,'' she said. ``His parents thought he was under a voodoo curse and brought him here to die. We examined him and found he had what is known as Crohn's disease, a colon disease very rare in Haiti. It's an inflammatory disease that prevents the body from absorbing nutrients. We treated it with the prescribed method of using steroids, and he soon gained all of his weight back. But even after the cure, he refused to leave the hospital in fear of again falling under the curse.''
When the doctors met a patient who was convinced he or she was under a voodoo curse, they informed the patient that the root causing the curse would be removed from the body and should show up in the urine in a few days.
``We then gave them an antibiotic called rifampin,'' she said. ``That simply turned the urine's color orange. After the patient saw this, they decided they felt much better.''
She said during her examinations - which she conducted with the endoscope, a black, flexible latex camera/observation tube fed down the throat and into the lower regions - she mainly saw ulcers, caused not by stress but by bacteria.
``Because there's little or no sanitation or running water, everything is dirty and dusty,'' she explained. ``But all the people who come to the hospital arrive clean and well clothed. They have such a great deal of dignity and personal pride.''
When Raymond and her colleagues weren't treating the local population, they were busy training Lafontant and his hospital staff.
Raymond said one of the highlights of the trip was getting the opportunity to meet and work with Lafontant, who was recently chosen by the Episcopal Church to head the hospital at Leogane.
``His father was an Episcopal priest, and he's the first Haitian-born director of the hospital,'' Raymond said. ``He and many other young, educated Haitian professional we met are trying to make a difference in this wonderful, yet poor country. They're trying to change things a little at a time.''
Raymond said Lafontant is making a difference to the people of his country.
``He will be an important man in Haiti someday,'' she said. ``Just in Leogane he's teaching the people the importance of getting rid of trash, thereby reducing the diseases and infections caused by lingering garbage. He set up regular trash collections, using trash cans throughout the town. It's these little things that have to be taught to help bring the people the quality of life they need and deserve.''
Other young professionals are pushing to install indoor plumbing and public sanitation facilities, find ways to gather clean water using a system of cisterns catching water runoff from roads and houses and reforest the ravaged mountain sides with eucalyptus trees.
When not busy at the hospital, Raymond and her colleagues would meet with and dine with many world health experts to discuss the country's problems.
``We had nice lunches and dinners in the guest house with whatever researchers, doctors and scientists dropped by,'' she said.
In addition, the Virginia delegation went on long walks to Leogane and its environs, hiked in the mountains, went snorkeling along beautiful Caribbean beaches, went on a shopping trip to Port-au-Prince and watched films from the hospital's vast video library.
In the end, Raymond said she gained more than she gave.
``I feel like I brought back so much more,'' she said. ``I have a clearer appreciation of medicine. I learned not to sweat the small stuff, and I have such an admiration for the people of Haiti, the things they endure each day. They have great fortitude. Even in their misery they have hope and a strong artistic spirit that can be seen in their art and music.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
MISSION OF MERCY
[Color] Photo by EDWARD LILY
Dr. Patricia Raymond, center, tends a patient in a hospital in
Leogane, Haiti.
Photo by PATRICIA RAYMOND
Dr. Patricia Raymond worked in Leogane, where she was assigned to
the Hopital Sainte Croix, a 120-bed general hospital owned by the
Episcopal Church of Haiti.
Photo by EDWARD LILLY
Raymond confers with medical director Dr. Jack Guy Lafontant.
Photo by PATRICIA RAYMOND
This boy was brought to the hospital by his parents, who believed he
was under a voodoo curse.
Photo by EDWARD LILLY
Raymond shared a bungalow with Dr. Suzanne Walters, left.
by CNB