Clinic set up by St. Croix groups fills a vital need

Dybing, a local emergency medical technician who specializes in logistics and response to major disasters, has seen worse.

But the memory of that particular child, surrounded by devastation, miles from any hospital where he stood a chance of getting help, his skull and facial bones exposed, at a clinic where there were no supplies, will stay with Dybing.

"It's knowing that why he got help is because we happened to stumble upon him and knowing that he's one of thousands of injured little boys all over Port-au-Prince and knowing that not all of them are going to get help," Dybing said. "I will probably never get that picture out of my mind."

Dybing and Mathilde Wilson, co-director of local nonprofit Haiti Community Support, arrived in Port-au-Prince as night was falling three days after the earthquake struck, toting as many medical supplies as they could take, with a mission to set up a clinic to treat the injured.

They located Wilson's family in the Bon Repos neighborhood, which is about 10 miles from the center of Port-au-Prince.

And they made a tactical decision to set up the Haiti Community Support clinic in that small neighborhood, where Mathilde's sisters and family, sleeping outside at the family's compound, could help with logistics and support, Dybing said.

Wilson, a native of Haiti who lives on St. Croix, met with the leaders of a nearby tent city that sprung up in a park after the quake to discuss Haiti Community Support's mission. A short time later, Dybing was on his knees, under a tree, opening up his medical bag and doing what he could to help, he said.

The needs were great, Dybing said.

"We're at a little neighborhood and I'm seeing all this. And there are thousands of little neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince," Dybing said. "You could put 500 little clinics like ours there and it wouldn't meet all the need."

He estimated that of the hundreds of patients seen at the clinic they set up, about 27 would have died within a day or so without intervention, and about 150 would have died within a couple of weeks.

"It is very hard to realize that what we are doing doesn't even make a dent," he said of the catastrophe. "You are saving lives, but it's not even making a dent."

What Wilson was able to pull off in setting up the clinic was amazing, Dybing said.

"With no disaster experience, while the NGOs were still doing a needs assessment, we are on the ground, doing treatments for patients," he said. "It is amazing what she pulled off. That was heroic. The force of her will is amazing."

When supplies ran low, Wilson left for the Dominican Republic to buy more and trucked them back across the border. She brought tents and as many supplies as she could, and the makeshift clinic began to take form, Dybing said.

A team of doctors and nurses from Oregon contacted Haiti Community Support and came to Port-au-Prince to help out at the clinic for a while.

Another team, comprising seven members of the territory's volunteer rescue organizations, also went to help.

And Haitian doctors and nurses - now running the Haiti Community Support clinic themselves - also came onboard.

"We can't come in and say we are going to fix this. It's got to involve the people who are there," Dybing said.

While Haiti Community Support was scouting out other needs in the area, Dybing came across the 5-year-old boy at another clinic.

"They were doing what they could, but there were no supplies," he said.

Haiti Community Support put the child and his mother in the vehicle and took them miles away to a Cuban hospital, where crowds of injured people were gathered at the gates, Dybing said.

With so many people injured and resources so limited, only the most critical were allowed inside.

"The scenes at the hospitals were horrific," he said.

With nowhere to leave the vehicle and the child, now bandaged, joining a mass of bandaged people at the gate, Dybing said he told the mother to take her son to the medic and pull down the dressing.

The last glimpse Dybing caught of the boy was as the Cuban medic grabbed him and pulled him inside, he said.

While the clinic has transitioned now from treating mostly traumatic injuries to providing medical and follow-up care, the needs are still great, Mathilde Wilson said.

Many of the injuries treated at the clinic were open wounds caused by falling cinder blocks that tore off large chunks of tissue, Dybing said, noting that without antibiotics, many of those wounds would have become infected.

And those wounds, he said, will require attention for months as the skin and tissue gradually heal.

In addition to follow-up care, the clinic is now seeing more and more cases of dysentery and other illnesses as the effects of living outside, without proper shelter and sanitation, begin to take their toll, Dybing said.

"This little community that we served, we don't want it to be all for naught," he said. "This is only our little, tiny piece that we helped, but we can't abandon them."

On Tuesday, the clinic treated 148 patients, said Bruce Wilson, Mathilde's husband and co-director of Haiti Community Support. The nonprofit has also set up another clinic and shifts personnel back and forth between the two sites, Bruce Wilson said.

Haiti Community Support plans to continue supporting the clinics for as long as possible.

"We're helping people who don't have access. If they go to a hospital, they can't get access because it is too crowded and triage will not let them in," Mathilde Wilson said. "The people we're helping are really, really desperate."

The nonprofit will need a lot of support to accomplish that, she said.

Mathilde and Bruce Wilson, along with Dybing have returned to St. Croix, leaving Haitians running the Haiti Community Support clinic for now. Mathilde plans to return with supplies next week.

Right now, the nonprofit needs tents to take to Haiti next week, to be used to house the most vulnerable patients, the Wilsons said.

Medications and monetary donations also are needed.

Haiti Community Support plans a major fundraiser at Mount Victory Camp on Feb. 21. Donations can also be made online at www.haitisupport.org. For a list of medications that are needed, call 772-4380.