National Nurses United

Haiti_FNL 2/25/10 11:58 AM Page 23 set up to house patients after part of the hospi"He was saying, 'Look at me, look at how I'm The earthquake left Port tal building was destroyed in the quake. Just starting my life, and I still have a smile. Go back and au Prince streets filled with yards away lay the site of a collapsed nursing do your work,'" Williams said. rubble and pedestrians school, where debris still hid over 100 bodies— And she did. (left). Cecelia Williams, deceased nursing students and their professors As Haitians begin to put the pieces of their counRN (right, in pink) arrives who could have helped in the disaster. try back together in the wake of the devastating Janat the Port au Prince "The stench was great, but the need of the uary 12 earthquake, nurses—both Haitian and airport for a volunteer people was greater," Williams said. foreign—are playing a key role. Some, like Williams, nursing mission. Born in Guyana, Williams was one of only have traveled thousands of miles to a country they'd two non-Haitian nurses in the group and spoke never seen before, braving lack of food and electricity no Creole. But she soon made herself useful. and scarce medical supplies to tend to those in need. Wilson Bow"We had a young woman with amputated legs and a twoers, RN, used skills he picked up as a flight nurse in rural Michigan month-old baby, and another nurse asked if I could find something to safely ferry Haitian patients to the United States for treatment. for the baby—milk, anything." In her search, Williams came across Massachusetts RNs Kathy Reardon and Betty Sparks performed a tent where donated pharmaceutical supplies had been dumped operations and dressed wounds for hundreds of patients a day in in a pile. "There was no pharmacist, so we had pain medication, makeshift clinics. Others, like Texas RN Mike Brewer, were working bandages, antibiotics, but everything was in a massive confusion. in Haiti long before the ground began to shake. Nurses and doctors were running in, screaming in English, I need Their experiences testify to the unique combination of courage, this, I need that." skill and compassion that makes nurses essential in times of disasWithin hours, Williams constructed a working pharmacy, alphater, and the ability of human beings to adapt and survive in the face betizing the medications and coordinating with Haitian medical of extreme suffering. Williams traveled to Port au Prince, Haiti's capital, with the Hait- staff to distribute them. "We found a way of communicating. I was speaking some kind of French, I don't even know—it was like ian American Nurses Association. The group arrived January 23 at the city's main hospital and immediately got to work. Tents had been glovesy glovesy, drinkie drinkie. " JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2010 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 N AT I O N A L N U R S E 23

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