A Message from Elaine Knight, President and Founder of LifePaths Global Alliance (LGA)
Bringing Telemedicine to Haiti – Our Fact Finding Mission a Success
When Fatima Haleem, Executive Director of LGA, and I started to organize a medical mission to Haiti shortly after the earthquake on January 12, 2010, we had no idea that our small rehab mission (4 physiotherapists and 1 doctor) would blossom into a long-term initiative. With in our two-week mission, and with the help of Dr. Paul Gahlinger, LGA set the stage for a revolutionary telemedicine system, a solution to the problem of access to health care in Haiti. The reality now is connecting doctors and medical specialists in urban areas to patients in the very remote and rural areas of Haiti.
It has taken me some time to gather my thoughts since returning. The time that we were there seemed to pass by so quickly and now seems surreal at times, like a dreamy memory mixed with so many emotions. To see how the wonderful people of Haiti have to live day in and day out is heart wrenching to say the least. Haiti was in a bad state before the earthquake, now it is devastated.
While in Haiti, everyday for me brought a whole new perspective on the situation at hand with my emotions going back and forth from shock to anger to sadness to happiness, but most importantly to hope. Hope and determination was the overwhelming feeling that I think all of us left Haiti with. I feel that many of the obstacles there can be overcome with better organization, education and effective leadership. About 70% of Haiti’s population is under the age of 24 so the change will come from the youth for the youth and with the help of leaders like Eddy and Dr. Joey.
My first Impression of Haiti was a good one. Flying into Haiti, the view from the airplane of the coastline and the sun gleaming off the water was breathtaking. Upon arriving at the Haiti airport, we were met by our translator, guide and friend Eddy Dieujuste and his co-worker, Alex Nerestil. After the frantic round up of our luggage, all 25 suitcases full of supplies, the medical staff and the film crew, we quickly dispersed into several vehicles. Fatima and I jumped into the back of a pick up truck and headed to our guesthouse. While we were driving, Fatima started searching through her bag for something and in the process found a small box of raisins she had saved from our plane ride there. Without any thought she turned to Eddy and said, “here…do you want these?” Eddy took the box of raisins from her hand and looked at it for about a minute and said, “I don’t think I have had raisins for about 10 years”. He slowly opened the box and took one raisin and then passed the box to Alex, who took one and then handed it back to Eddy. That small box of raisins went back and forth between the two friends for almost 10 minutes as they both took their turn to eat the raisins not forgetting to share them with each other.
Meet Dr. Joseph Prosper (Dr. Joey), a 38-year-old physician working in Port au Prince. Dr. Joey runs a small clinic/hospital and also provides several outreach services to the rural population by offering mobile clinics. We followed Dr. Joey on a few of his 15-hour work days. We would leave early in the morning and drive for three and half hours on uneven and rutted roads to see people in a rural community. The doctor would see everyone who came to the clinic and a makeshift pharmacy would be set up to hand out medication to patients, however, the necessary medication would not always be available. Everyone would be huddled under a tent; put together some bricks, throw on a piece of board and there you would have a clinic right in the middle of a small rural community desperately needing medical attention. Since the earthquake, Dr. Joey has been providing free services to those who cannot afford medical care and has received very little funding from other organizations working in Haiti. There are many other Dr. Joeys in Haiti right now trying to do the best they can with what little resources they have, and some even before the earthquake.
LGA has found a better way for Dr. Joey to deliver medical care to these people that will allow him to use his valuable time more efficiently. LGA saw an opportunity for telemedicine in Haiti since having a telemedicine system would eliminate the long travel to and from these rural communities. With the help of telemedicine, Dr. Joey can focus on providing quality medical care to the patients instead of wasting hours travelling.
Meet Dr. Paul Gahlinger, a physician who is a pioneer in Telemedicine and a vital part of LGA’s mission in Haiti. After learning about Dr. Paul’s Telemedicine system, we realized that Haiti would be a great place to provide video conferencing between doctor and patient with the use of high resolution cameras. This would be especially useful for doctors like Dr. Joey who would be able to reduce their travel time and see more patients in turn, even patients in rural settings. With the new Telemedicine system, families in rural communities will have access to primary health care as well as specialized care that would otherwise not be available to them. In most cases, travel is extremely difficult and even if the patient is able to travel, the cost of healthcare is too high, however, with Telemedicine; costs associated with a hospital visit are eliminated. Our most recent trip to Haiti proved to be a great success with the Telemedicine system. Dr. Paul Gahlinger has set up a 'turn-key system' which can now be used by the health care workers in Haiti. Our next step is to train local health care workers using the curriculum that was created by Dr.Paul specifically for training and education in Haiti. The LGA team is very appreciative of his contributions and we look forward to collaborating with him as we expand Telemedicine to rural communities of Haiti
Meet Donna Tierney, Mary Gemmell, Catherine Lane and Kelly Schmidt, four remarkable physiotherapists who volunteered to join us on our mission and work alongside Dr. Joey. We initially thought that they would encounter a lot of patients with amputations; however, we quickly found out that there were very few patients with amputations. Many of them had no way of getting to the clinics and were stuck in either their tent city or in rural areas. In one particular case, a father brought in a picture of his daughter who had an amputated leg to show to the doctor in the clinic because he could not bring her there on public transit. Dr. Joey quickly found a wheelchair and we hand delivered it to the family while Dr. Joey took the opportunity to also perform a check up on the patient. The physiotherapists, however, did see many patients who still needed therapy for injuries from the earthquake, and in some cases, they would identify more serious problems and would refer the patient to the doctor. The physiotherapists also did an excellent job of performing therapy on special needs children in an orphanage. It was hard for everyone to not fall in love with these children.
Meet Jean “Eddy” Dieujuste, a 36 years old Haitian native whose dream has always been to transform Haiti for the better starting at a grass roots level. He is seen and respected as a leader in his rural town of Lester and also in the main city of Port-au-Prince. He is not considered a political leader but rather a humanitarian leader, someone who is looked up to for his passion and dedication to his cause. We will set-up the first telemedicine unit in his small town of Lester, which is approximately four hours away from Port-au-Prince. Eddy works as a translator/guide for various international groups that come to Haiti for aid work. He has been doing this for quite a few years and knows that the only way for Haiti to recover from the earthquake and excel is for the Haitian people to become self-sufficient and not be completely dependent on outside assistance. The earthquake relief efforts are necessary for emergency food, water, shelter and medical attention but they are only temporary solutions. What is needed now is a long-term solution for lasting change.
Eddy has a few simple dreams, but which will bring a big change to the country. For instance, Eddy dreams of having school buses for children so they can commute to school without having to compete with adults to jump on the back of a tap tap (small air polluting pick up trucks used as public transportation). Eddy also hopes to educate both children and adults on the hazards of pollution from vehicles, burning garbage and teach people about the importance of recycling. Right now, as you walk down the streets of Port-au-Prince, you see gutters clogged with empty pop bottles and rivers of plastic bottles anywhere there is a stream of water. Eddy also has sexual education and animal care on his list. Ninety eight percent of Haiti has been deforested over the years, and so he hopes to start programs for agriculture such as planting trees, and growing more than just rice, such as herbs and spices. Farmers in Haiti currently spend a lot of time and money on growing and transporting rice to Port-au-Prince to sell in the market, however, the USA now imports rice to Haiti for a cheaper price and the local farmers cannot compete with the lower prices. In turn, the farmers end up eating their own rice leaving them with no money to buy other necessities for everyday life.
Eddy is also a musician and songwriter. His songs all include deep and meaningful messages of love and hope. He has sayings that are simple yet have profound meaning, as do other Haitians. As he would educate us on the history of Haiti and answer our questions about the current state of Haiti, he would say wonderful things like:
“Together we are as beautiful as the rainbow, alone we are so ugly”
“The only risk we are going to take is to change the world”
“Haiti has risen as an example to the world.”
“I don’t need a gun, I AM the gun”
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