Haiti earthquake diary: At the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, it's Haitians serving Haitians
| Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Tuesday, Jan. 19
Albert Schweitzer Hospital is about 3-3 陆 hours outside Port-au-Prince. There are 16 full time doctors, all Haitian except for one Swiss.
Since the earthquake, they鈥檝e treated more than 600 people, operating 18 hours a day. They stopped taking statistics days ago. They've done more than 150 operations, says Ian Rawson, whose parents founded the hospital 56 years ago.
Ian鈥檚 a kind man whose very blue eyes tear up several times during the morning. He has a heart for Haiti.
One thing he鈥檚 particularly proud of is that it, although some international reinforcements have come, it鈥檚 mostly Haitians serving Haitians at the hospital.
Emmanuel Fran莽ois is an orthopedic surgeon. Since Sunday night, he figures they did 20-30 operations in a 36-hour period, mostly amputations. Normal would be 5-6.
The pace comes with a price.
The young surgeon looks weary, speaks slowly.
鈥淚 try to put myself in the patient鈥檚 shoes, and know that I wouldn鈥檛 want to have a limb amputated. I had a 31-year-old woman, not married and no kids. 'What man will accept me,' she asked, and I told her: 'If you don鈥檛 do this, you鈥檒l die.' It was tough.鈥�
I feel exhausted just listening to the stories here. I have to remember, for myself, too, that this isn鈥檛 a sprint. It鈥檚 a marathon.
---- For all stories, blogs, and updates on Haiti after the earthquake, go to The Monitor's Haiti page.
