Melodie Phelps, News Editor
Monticello — Glenn Hickey is familiar with disasters. He has seen people who survived
Hurricane Katrina, those picking up the pieces after war in Soviet Georgia,
and children fighting to survive AIDS in Africa. But he has never seen the
type of devastation he witnessed earlier this month when he led a medical
team into Haiti.
³In some parts of the country, I don¹t know if there is one structure
that has not sustained damage,² said Hickey, as he talked about his
experience recently. ³Even if their homes are still standing, people are
afraid to sleep in them because of the after shocks. Almost everyone in the
country is sleeping outside.²
These are images that stay with Hickey, who spent eight days in
Port-au-Prince with an eight-member team that included doctors, support
staff like nurses and OR technicians, as well as a chaplain. The group was
assembled through Baptist Global Response.
Many people are familiar with the work that Southern Baptist Churches do
when hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters occur in the United
States. Teams go into those areas for short periods of time to provide food,
water and other necessary services to the people affected by the disaster.
Baptist Global Response is a disaster relief effort that is
international. Hickey has served in a number of different countries,
including Soviet Georgia and in South Africa, where he went and worked last
year.
Hickey and the chaplain assigned to the team in Haiti have experience
dealing with these type situations. They are familiar with third world
countries and what needs to be done to get the team set up.
³I went to facilitate the medical team,² said Hickey.
He flew into the Dominican Republic on January 31.
³The airport in Haiti was closed and it was still closed when we left,²
explained Hickey.
The group then traveled by road into Port-au-Prince, where tent cities
have grown all around the area. People are living in close quarters, which
causes even more problems like disease and the outbreak of violence.
³Health-wise there are a lot of issues with people living in such close
quarters,² he explained. ³There is fear of outbreaks of tuberculosis and
other diseases.²
There are also concerns about the weather, which has been dry so far.
³The Lord has blessed them to this point, there hasn¹t been any rain,²
said Hickey. ³But the rainy season is set to begin...I don¹t know what will
happen when it starts to rain.²
Hickey, like most of us, had seen the pictures on television but he was
not prepared for the scenes that he saw inside the city. There is basically
no infrastructure, and there is little that the Haitian government can
really do at this point to help its people recover.
He noted that at other places where he has been a part of disaster
relief, you could get the tools and machinery to help rebuild. There are no
large pieces of equipment and no building materials in Haiti.
³It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. They had nothing
before and they have nothing now,² he said.
There were no hotels open for people to stay. Hickey¹s team actually
stayed in the Florida House. He explained that the Florida Baptist
Association, because of their close proximity to Haiti, actually are
partners for Haiti. The Florida House is used for missionary work, and is
now being used for disaster relief.
He noted that the team he traveled with includes people from all around
the state. There was a doctor and his nurse from Barbourville. There was one
doctor, who had a family practice, so he treated children and babies.
Another doctor from Louisville worked in the Emergency Room, so he
specialized in trauma and other type injuries. ³We saw many things like
gunshots and knife wounds,² noted Hickey.
The clinic was set up in the barracks of the presidential guards and was
located across from the presidential palace, according to Hickey. The guards
provided necessary services to members of the team.
³They worked as our interpreters and they guarded us anytime we were
outside the hospital grounds,² said Hickey.
Outside the clinic area, team members had to be careful how they helped
the many children who stopped them to ask for food or water. Inside the
clinic walls they could provide food and water as necessary. But in the
streets just a simple act of giving a hungry child something to eat could
put that child in jeopardy. They could be beaten up for the food or the
water.
It¹s hard to stay detached in this type of situation, but the volunteers
are cautioned to not get involved. But Hickey said members of his team broke
that rule on their final day in Port-au-Prince, when a young girl sought
their help at the clinic.
Her name was Linda and she said she was 16, though Hickey said she was
small for her age. She had been trapped in the rubble for four days before
she was rescued. In the same structure where she survived those days, 11
members of her family died. She had wandered around for days and was dirty
and dehydrated.
Linda talked about wanting to die and she seemed hopeless. Hickey said
that the lady in charge of the hospital, Omie, took Linda and cleaned her
up. She took her to see one of the doctors, and they started IV¹s to get her
hydrated.
Hickey and members of the team talked to Linda, and let her know that
people cared for her.
³She didn¹t want to be left alone...She would get a hold of you and stay
with you,² said Hickey.
She stayed in the clinic most of the day. When she began to feel better
she would get up and walk around and find one of the members of the team.
Omie took Linda with her to keep her in her tent.
That was the team¹s last day in Haiti.
Hickey returned to the United States on February 8, but this may be a
trip that he makes again later in the spring. Teams go in and spend about 7
to 10 days and then return to the states. They are replaced by another team.
One team scheduled to travel from Kentucky in March will be led by
another local resident, Bernard Randall. And a local contractor, Chester
Ramsey, is scheduled to travel to Haiti to do structural inspections of
churches damaged by the earthquake.
This type of effort will continue for as long as needed. But Hickey is
unsure when or if Haiti can recover from this disaster.
³There is very little that volunteers can do right now. There are no
building materials and nowhere to get them...There are no tools to work
with,² said Hickey. ³Right now, food is being distributed, water is being
distributed and medical care is being provided, and at this point that is
about all that can be done.²
