21143: radtimes: SMMC nurses find medical mission trip to Haiti to be humbling experience (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

SMMC nurses find medical mission trip to Haiti to be humbling experience

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11245208&BRD=1441&PAG=461&dept_id=155395&rfi=6

By Lisa Waterman Gray
April 05, 2004

Imagine what it would be like to work at a hospital that doesn't have
oxygen, suction, towels or syringes.
Lesley Pike, RN, BSN, and manager of neonatal services for Shawnee Mission
Medical Center, and Suzie Stadler, RN, from SMMC's neonatal intensive care
unit, participated in an eight-day medical mission to Haiti, in January,
where they experienced these desolate conditions.
"My biggest lesson from this trip was that our resources and technology at
Shawnee Mission Medical Center allow us to do things well because we have a
health care system that runs professionally," Stadler said.
Pike and Stadler accompanied neonatologist Stanley Shaffer, MD, and his
wife, pediatrician Kathleen Shaffer, MD, along with a group of medical
students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and theologians from
Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. Participants saw first-hand
why Haiti has an infant mortality rate that is 10 times that of the United
States.
"The overwhelming poverty hit me the most," Stadler said. "Four-year-olds
were working as hard as the adults, such as carrying water."
Pike noted that the country has almost no infrastructure.
"There is a rutted road and squalor in front of the presidential palace,
and there is no clean water," she said. "Yet the Haitian people have these
huge smiles and they have an incredible religious commitment. The people
and the medical staff were very receptive.
"It was extremely humbling. I think we were the people who gained the most
from this trip."
Most Haitians are 25 years old or younger. One in five Haitian children
dies before the age of 5, and the average life span is 50 years. The
country's antiquated health care system plays a large role in this issue.
The mission group assisted with medical clinics through the HELP (Haitian
Episcopal Learning Partnerships) Foundation that Stan Shaffer helped found;
worked on "Maison de Naissance," a birthing home that will open this fall;
and taught neonatal resuscitation to pediatric medical residents in the
country.
"Haitian medical personnel don't even know basic steps that could save a
lot of babies," Pike said. "One goal of the trip was to do an educational
video for them about neonatal resuscitation in their own language, French
Creole. The Shaffers will distribute copies to teaching institutions in the
Haitian health care community, when they return...
"The Shaffers have been going there for 20 years, but they're pretty humble
about it. Their children have gone with them many times, too. One is in
pre-med and another is a medical student."
Both Stadler and Pike plan to visit Haiti again, despite the personal cost
involved. Stadler was so enthusiastic about her first experience that, the
next time she goes, her nurse husband will also participate.
Pike's husband donated his video expertise to create the neonatal
resuscitation video, and he will create another video the Shaffers can use
when they make presentations about the work in Haiti. Pike's daughter has
created a Web site about the medical missions - www.maisondenaissance.com -
that also provides information.
After the trip, Pike started an "Adopt a C-Section Program," which would
provide expectant Haitian mothers with the $35 physician/hospital fee for
delivery and a $35 c-section kit that is required to have the procedure. On
average, Haitians earn $365 per year.
Pike is collecting bulb syringes for the Haitian people. Shawnee Mission
Medical Center has also donated emergency carts for medical equipment,
labor and delivery beds, a surgical table, suction machines and at least
100 pounds of medical instruments to the mission effort.
"We could see very tangible things we could do to help (while we were
there)," Pike said. "I'll never take our resources for granted again."

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