Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Hero SARAH my neice not my daughter

Below is an excerpt from Larry Miller's update:
Day 9 - December 22, 2010
Best day ever
We got up at 5 am to pack for our trip to Chantel, a small village on the Southwestern end of the island of Haiti. We were contacted by one of our Vidacare Clinical Specialist who had word of the Catholic sisters’ desperate plight fighting Cholera. Several patients had died because they could not start an IV and they had no doctors or others to help them. We agreed to make this part of our mission to deliver EZ-IO technology to their small clinic.
The flight gave us a spectacular view of the island and the contrast between the slums of the cities and the beauty of the mountains and Caribbean Sea. The sisters were waiting for us at the airport and drove us to pick up our translator in Les Cayes. They did not speak English and I do not speak Creole. Our translator, Sarah, was a 17-year-old American who can only be described as spectacular. She took over and worked like she had been part of our team for years.

The sisters invited us into the nunnery for a fresh fruit drink and snack, when suddenly a call came to rush to the clinic. A baby was dying of dehydration and nurses could not start an IV after more than 30 minutes of trying. They grabbed me and placed a needle in my hands, crying for me to start the IV. I told them I had something better, but they and the parents were afraid, never having heard of drilling into the bone. They elected to make several additional attempts without success. Finally, Sarah our interpreter told them, “It’s time to let the doctor save this child’s life”. I was ready. I paced an EZ-IO in a few seconds and began administering lifesaving saline. They were astonished. What better way to introduce new technology than to actually use it to save a life, even before I had a chance to show them anything.

We took the baby into the main hospital in Les Cayes for further treatment. Nurses there were also in shock about the EZ-IO but immediately asked me to place an EZ-IO in a vomiting newborn, whose mother had Cholera. They baby was not morbid, so I decided I should meet the medical director and get permission before barging into her emergency room and taking over care. She had never heard of the EZ-IO and only knew about the rare complication of osteomyelitis (bone infection) that she thought surely would result from such a “barbaric” procedure. Then Sarah stepped up to the plate and offered to be a volunteer for a live demonstration. That convinced the director and the other doctors of the safety and ease of using the EZ-IO. They converted to enthusiastic advocates. We sped back to the airport to catch the MAF plane back to PAP before the afternoon thunderstorms grounded us for the day.

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