"I Remember..."

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was devasted by a 7.0 earthquake which killed 230,000...causing horrific pain and injury, and leaving behind massive numbers of homeless people. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Timothy Browne, who has served as a Hope Force International board member and currently as a medical Reservist, led a team of surgeons and medical professionals to minister to those who had been horribly maimed.  Here are some succinct thoughts captured by Dr. Tim as he remembers that fateful time....

I remember:

• Driving into Haiti from the Dominican Republic in a jeep surrounded by gas cans, thinking that it?s going to be really bad if we get in an accident.
• Crossing into Haiti and into chaos.
• Arriving at King?s hospital and seeing the grounds covered with injured people.
• Feeling overwhelmed.

I remember: 

• Seeing more open fractures at one time than I could ever imagine.
• Noticing the huge crack down the Operating Room?s supporting wall.
• Having no power or water in the hospital and with all the modern equipment and knowledge we had ? it was, for the most part, useless.
• The two teenage girls that sat together in the courtyard on the same mat, battered and bruised--strangers, united in tragedy as both had lost their entire families; haunting stares of emptiness.

I remember:

• Terrible, open, dirty wounds.
• Screams, as the hospital shook in an aftershock as patients frantically tried to flee the building.
• Amputating a young man?s crushed lower leg.
• A woman who laid on a mat outside for eight days with a femur fracture, who patiently waited until we got through all the open fractures.

I remember:

• Being rocked by a 5.7 aftershock from sleep.
• Seeing downtown where the buildings were turned to rubble for as far as the eye could see.
• Families picking through the rubble of the nursing school, where all were lost.
• The smell.
• Driving by the woman on the corner selling shoes and thinking of the people that her pile of shoes represented.
• Six story buildings turned into grapefruit sized piles of rubble.

I remember:

• Thousands of volunteers working shoulder to shoulder to help.
• The kindness and gentleness of the Haitian people.
• Getting power and water restored to the hospital.
• The generosity of people and companies who gave sacrificially.
• How hard the home Hope Force team worked back home to make things happen for us in Haiti.
• The helicopter delivering an anesthesia machine to the hospital.
• Our young translator, Darling.
• Other hospitals that survived, that worked tirelessly and past capacity.
• The USS Hospital Ship Comfort.

I remember:

• A pregnant woman brought in and bringing new life in the midst of chaos.
• Tent cities.
• Seeing the Haitian National Palace destroyed and thinking that no amount of power or money can protect you.
• A resilient people.
• Being caught in a crowd of thousands of people worshipping and praising God.

I remember:

After a long day in the operating room, going outside to catch my breath. As I sat on the steps of the hospital--a young orphaned boy came up behind me and draped his arms over my shoulders and laid his head on my back.

 Written by HFI Reservist: Dr. Timothy D. Browne, MD