Saving Lives in Haiti

Just now able to get out my first post since arriving in Haiti. This is from an article for a London publication.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Transformational Development Agency's team has just left an area of Port-au-Prince where a family asked them to help recover the bodies of three loved ones buried under their house when it collapsed in the January 12th earthquake.

There is nothing the team or anyone else can do to remove the thousands of pounds of rubble without the heavy equipment still needed to clear much of Haiti's ruins.

Since Sunday, TDA's 40-member team, comprised mostly of doctors, nurses, paramedics and EMT's, has been performing surgeries and other medical procedures on victims severely injured in the earthquake that killed more than 150,000 people. "Initially you just try to stop the bleeding," said Los Angeles, California paramedic Dane Melberg. "Then you go from there."

Despite initial safety concerns, the team has not encountered any violence, nor have they seen riots over food shortages, corpses left to burn in the streets, or machete-wielding gangs looting properties as portrayed in the media.

Touring some of Haiti's most heavily damaged towns today, the team is finding that critical medical needs are stabilizing. Dr. Ian Armstrong, a California neurosurgeon, credits his colleagues with saving lives that would otherwise be lost more than two weeks after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Armstrong said the intervention of one of TDA's doctors meant the difference between life and death for a one-year-old boy named Jerry suffering from a possible skull fracture.

"She absolutely saved that boy's life," he said of Dr. Jolie Pfaler of St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. Pfaler found that the boy had never been x-rayed or assessed and was able to get him immediate surgery at the main tent hospital at Port-au-Prince airport.

"Haiti destroyed."
Amidst the tragedy in Haiti, the team celebrated reuniting one of its members with his family, whom he'd not seen since before the earthquake. Edison Senat traveled with TDA from the United States to serve as an interpreter.

On January 12th, he had received a text message from his father: "Haiti destroyed," it said. "We had a terrible earthquake." While several friends and two cousins were killed, Senat was able to hug his three sisters for the first time in nearly a year when they were able to meet him at a TDA medical clinic.  "I know God protected my family," Edison said.

not just broken bones
TDA's team includes several non-medical volunteers as well. They have been instrumental in offering comfort and encouragement to earthquake victims, particularly orphaned children.

Bree Bailey, a Production Manager at California's Lionsgate Studios, said she came on the trip because, "A doctor may come here and fix a child's broken bone, you may come here and fix a child's broken heart."

TDA team leader Rikki Alakija is already looking to future involvement in Haiti as the country begins the long rebuilding process. He plans to bring construction teams within the next month or two and expects TDA to help develop employment opportunities to help those left jobless as a result of the quake.

As the team prepares to return to the United States, Alakija summed up their feelings, saying, "When everybody leaves here, they will take a little bit of Haiti with them and leave a little bit of themselves in Haiti."

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From Hollywood to Haiti

Haiti response team en route to Port-au-Prince

Just a quick note to let everyone know we're on our way to Haiti! We left LAX this afternoon and we're now in Florida where it's 3 am.

Our team will fly out in phases over the next 24 hours on private planes owned by Joe Gibbs Racing. The former Washington Redskins coach sent three charter jets to transport relief teams to Haiti since the Port-au-Prince airport is still closed to commercial flights.

It's been a ton of work transporting 40 people and supplies but Delta Airlines ended up letting us check everything for free to Miami. That helped since we each have large packs carrying our own food, sleeping bags, clothes and necessities.

The doctors, nurses, EMT's and paramedics will leave first to take medical supplies and treat victims. I'll go on the next flight with other members of the media and support staff. The team is made up of about 32 men and eight women.

If we can get Internet, I'll be posting updates at www.tdaafrica.com.

Thank you for your support!

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Packing for Haiti

Dr. Yodi Alakija, TDA's founder, has overseen the relief mission since the January 12th earthquake

Hail, torrential rains, exhaustion and other hurdles were the order of the day as we packed for Haiti. Our group, Transformational Development Agency (TDA) posted these photos.

Not even the weather could stop volunteers from donating and packing medical supplies, water and food for Team TDA's trip to Haiti tomorrow.

About 50 doctors, nurses and paramedics will be setting up a medical clinic at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. I'll be working as a journalist and helping with logistics.

Rikki Alakija, TDA's leader, takes a call while project leader Melissa Herman packs medical supplies

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get Internet in Haiti but will post updates when I can. Thanks to everyone for your support, encouragement and most of all, prayers.

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Hindrances to Haiti

"Search teams refuse to abandon hope after two children were pulled alive from the rubble." AFP

I write this post not knowing if I'll have to cancel my trip to Haiti in these hours just before take off. I'd had a sinking feeling when our departure was delayed several days that other deadlines could prevent me from going.

Honestly? I didn't want to go to Haiti when the head of Transformational Development Agency first asked me to help her team with media and logistics support. 

I'm not a doctor or a nurse or a rescue worker. I couldn't see myself working among dead bodies, surviving in horrendous conditions, facing machete-wielding mobs reported by some news outlets.

But as I saw the destruction and heard of friends' missing loved ones and wept at the suffering, I kept thinking about a quote I'd heard years ago by Dwight L. Moody. 

The world has yet to see what God can do with a life fully yielded to Him.

And so I said yes. Because maybe my life is that one.

My blog's title, Blot Your Lips!, was appropriate when I was writing about the journey to Hollywood - not Haiti. But as I've embraced what somehow feels like destiny, I've become filled with expectation.

Nehemiah rebuilt a wall that should have taken months or years in 52 days because God touched the work. Like the miraculous rescue of the children pulled from the rubble more than a week after the quake, maybe God will put his touch to Haiti.

So even though today brought obstacles to my trip my heart still says, "Yes."

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Fifteen Seconds

Haiti rescue efforts AP photo

As reporters leaving on dangerous assignments, we'd half-jokingly say, "Make sure I get my 15 seconds." 

See, a dead journalist is worth about 15-seconds on network news. Even though it could cost our lives, we were compelled to tell the story...just like now with Haiti.

As journalists, we learn to tell history in seconds. In 15 seconds, an earthquake flattens a nation. an assassin's bullet slays a civil rights leader. a levee breaks. a wall falls. a plane topples a tower.

But I'm Miss Hollywood now. I cover red carpets and wear lipstick. I'm not cut out for sleeping in the dirt and eating cold soup from a tin can.

Yet, something whispers that I was created to walk among the ruins, to comfort orphans, to hold the dying.

Yes, we're afraid for our safety. The head of the medical team I'm traveling with told reporters: "We know we're going into a dangerous situation, but people are dying because nobody is there to help."

Dying now not from injuries but simply because they need water. In an age of wireless networks, 3D and satellite, we can't get a drink to a thirsty child.

At first, I didn't want to go...fear. horrific conditions. overwhelming sense of futility. But as I told friends, "This is a moment in history in which I've been invited to play a role. How can I say no any longer?"

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Destinations

I had a dream that I was trying to climb a steep hill on my bike to get to an important meeting but every few feet the bike's chain would fall off. I'd stop and put the chain back on but a few feet later it would just fall off again.

"You don't even need to explain," my friend Tina said as I told her about the dream. "It's like you're pedaling and pedaling but not getting..."

The last two-and-a-half years since moving to Hollywood pretty much summed up in a dream - no interpretation necessary.

Once I realized the bike was broken beyond repair in the dream, I tried to hitch a ride but the cars were traveling in a different direction on a highway below. I woke up with that panicky feeling you have after dreaming you forgot to study for an exam.

But you know what? I have no doubt I'm supposed to keep heading up the hill one way or another. It's not just me who's trying to get to a destination - it's all the artists carrying a vision to use their gifts for the purposes God intended.

I don't know how dreams work but busted chain or not, this dream needs part two: reaching the destination. It's time. Soon.

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Katie, Come Home

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions but sometimes I make wishes.  This year I wish Katie would come home.

I started blogging because of Katie - her and others whose stories I've covered. I decided to record some of them in case I wanted to use the material to write a TV show about journalists.

Sometimes I feel like Haley Joel Osment's character in the The Sixth Sense. "I see dead people," the boy tells a shrink (Bruce Willis). While I don't actually see dead people, I can't forget names and faces, like Katie's.

Katie Eggleston, a recent college grad with surfer girl looks, was excited to start her first job at Allnet in Portland. It was the last day anyone saw her.

Police found Katie's car near the airport with her purse inside.  Investigators somehow concluded she'd run away with a lover.  I didn't get it - what 20-something woman runs off without her lipstick?


Katie's missing person's flyer

Still, cases grow cold quickly without solid leads. I kept in touch with Katie's parents as tips surfaced but eventually lost contact.

I recently found an old letter from Katie's parents. "We want to let you know how much we appreciate the straightforward reporting you did regarding Katie's disappearance," Katie's mom had written me about her missing child.

I knew I had to tell Katie's story again.  Maybe one day someone will come forward with a clue that sheds light on her disappearance.

A while ago Katie's friend posted a message in the paper in case she's alive: "Katie, it's okay, you can come home now."*

So that's my wish. Katie, come home.

*Bend Bugle, 5/4/2001 

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