Kim Butler's Utah Team

The Salt Lake City team.

This was the fourth trip together for many of us on this Salt Lake City team. Each time we go, we enjoy the new people who have joined our team for the first time and miss those who were not able to make it. We plan to make another trip in the spring of 2008.

Our team of 3 medical doctors, 1 prosthetist, 1 nurse, 2 translators, and 3 other support staff spent 8 days in Haiti this year. During this time we worked in several different venues, including holding a medical clinic each day at Kay Kapab.

We were able to provide 2 outeach clinics for communities outside of Port-au-Prince. At L'Etan, a community of just a few cinderblock houses and some stick huts, we treated 133 people. At La Mardelle we treated over 150 people, including a little girl with a serious staph infection on her legs, which our pediatrician debrided. He left her parents with an antibiotic to clear up the infection.

The team also visited 6 orphanages during our stay. Our dermatologist has visited 3 of these several times and has provided follow up care in the states and in Haiti. At another orphanage our pediatrician met with a Haitian doctor who periodically visits these children. He was able to leave her with some basic childrens' medications as well as much needed antibiotics which she would have otherwise been unable to supply to the children.

Our prosthetist spent the week in our clinic shop seeing patients and assessing their needs. He evaluated 15 prosthetic patients, and was able to fit, fix, adjust, modify, fabricate, align, measure, cast, recast, and make recommendations to our Haitian staff and to future teams to follow up with these patients.

In addition to our work days we found time to visit and enjoy some of the culture and art that is so unique to Haiti. We invite prosthetists, physicians, therapists, and nurses to be part of our team next time!