Coastal communities along the highway between Port de Paix, La Pointe, and St Louis du Nord are experiencing significant, ongoing medical response strain now as communities in the mountainous region to the south walk up to eight hours for care and are often near-death upon arrival. Many cannot be saved.
In St Louis du Nord, a community with an estimated total population of 20,000, has one medical facility at the North West Haiti Christian Mission that has been supported by medical teams from groups such as MTI and MMRC Global. The situation there is now imminent collapse of medical response capacity as patient demand has exceeded staffing and materiel availability.
The team consists of one medical student and five nurses managing patient flow across 3 buildings:
1. critical care, where IV therapy is performed (currently @65 patients in-house)
2. oral rehydration (currently @35-40 patients)
3. pre-discharge monitoring (currently @35-40 patients)
Length of stay for the typical critically ill presenting patient is 72-96 hrs in critical care followed by 24 hrs in oral rehydration, followed by 24 hrs in pre-discharge observation. They are stepped back up if condition deteriorates. Most patients stay in-house for 48-96 hrs.
The team is seeing persistently elevated patient flow of 150 per day, many of whom have walked up to 8 hrs down from the mountains for care. The latter group is usually the most critically ill. Approximately 50% of the patients they see require IV therapy. Daily mortality has ranged from zero to 11 deaths. The team does not turn people away, and they are about to open a fourth area / tent to house another 25 patients.
To-date, the team estimates they have used approximately 8,000 liters of IV fluid since their arrival a week ago Monday (10 days), which represents 8 shipments. Currently, they are using approximately 450 liters of IV fluid daily and producing 2 to 3 dump trucks of medical waste daily.
The team is now at its limit with no backup support identified yet. They have been working 20-24 hr shifts for the last 10 days. There is serious concern they will make mistakes due to fatigue, and one medical responder was possibly infected and treated already. The floors are constantly wet from vomiting, diarrhea, and bleach.
The HEAS has sent out an emergency request for medical personnel and materiel. Landing pad for helo is available on-site.
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