Haiti Patients: resilience and courage

 Images of the devastating earthquake in Haiti are on the news daily depicting thousands of shattered homes and lives. But amongst the chaos and pain, there is hope. Dr Mizuno calls for everyone to focus on the survivors of this tragedy and to learn from their resilience and attitudes. The Vision of Hope Ministries initiative was stationed at a small hospital outside of Cap Haitien. Despite its limited capacity and the fact that “80-90% of them required some sort of major orthopedic procedure,” it accepted trauma patients who flew in from Port Au Prince every 10-15 minutes by helicopter. Especially at first, the supplies were limited and some procedures that could have been done in the US to avoid amputation were just not viable. Even in tough conditions such as these, where the number of patients far exceeded the supply of medical care, Haitian patients were smiling gratefully and appreciating that they are still alive. The images below speak to their courage and character.