National Nurses United

The Long Road Home A Haitian-American nurse returns to the country she left behind. by erin fitzgerald O n the plane to haiti, Clelie St. Vil, RN, is quiet. In a bouncing truck ride across rutted roads on the way to Sacre Couer Hospital outside Milot, she is the only nurse not laughing about being tossed around the back seat on what another nurse calls, "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." Instead, she looks out the dusty windows, studying everything she sees. St. Vil is in Haiti with National Nurses United's RN Response Network experiencing "déjà vu." "It's like I've done this same trip before in another lifetime, and I'm seeing it all over again. It's like I've been here before," she says. St. Vil has been in Haiti before. She was born here, but swears she can't remember anything about her life before age 11. That's when her mother brought her to the United States. But when her mother became too sick to care for her, St. Vil was taken away from her, leaving St. Vil to a life in and out of foster care homes. After difficult years bouncing from family to family, St. Vil became pregnant at 16 and lived in a group home during her pregnancy. Some would have called her future bleak, but St. Vil was unstoppable. While she was pregnant she took a high school nursing education class, and later, she worked as a nurses' aide. She quickly discovered her passion for nursing. At 17, she got her own apartment with her young daughter Abigail and her little sister and began working toward her degree, starting with an associate degree in psychology and completing a B.A. in nursing. In the United States she works at University of Massachusetts Medical Center at Lowell in cardiac med-surg and is proud of what she has achieved. Her daughter Abigail is now 14 years old and dances professionally. Her second daughter, Savannah, is two. The desire to adopt a third child orphaned by Haiti's earthquake was just one of the things that drew St. Vil to notice RN Response Network literature in the National Nurses United brochure given to her by her union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "I've always wanted to do disaster relief," she says. Because she was orphaned herself, St. Vil says she is more empathetic towards patients. The ten-day trip to Haiti seemed like a good fit. So she volunteered. Since being in Haiti, her happiness is palpable. St. Vil's journey back to herself began before she ever volunteered. Long a member of 18 N AT I O N A L N U R S E a predominately white church, she joined a Haitian church several months before the trip, and immersed herself in Haitian culture. Before her departure, she fretted that Haitians wouldn't understand her mix-and-match Creole dialect—part Haitian Creole, part U.S. Creole, and everything in between. But once in Haiti, it soon becomes clear to St. Vil where she belongs. After her first shift at Sacre Couer Hospital, talking to and caring for patients in the intensive care unit, the worry on her mouth breaks into a broad smile. "It works!" she says, beaming. "They understand me!" "I love it here," she says. A few days later she is in Sacre Couer's ICU helping pull surgical staples out of a girl's infected leg. She holds the girl's hand, and knows everything about her. "She was orphaned as a girl. She works as a vendor," she says. Her mothering instincts have sprung to life. During the operation she comforted patient Enise and held her hand tightly, calling her "Cherie," or "Dear." Later, she will advocate for Enise with the fierceness of a lion, saying she must stay in the ICU and continue care. One orphan protecting another. Erin Fitzgerald is a videographer and writer for National Nurses United. W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G APRIL 2010

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