Jake's Life

New Home for TR

2010-02-16T06:48:00.001-08:00

Team Rubicon now has its own home at teamrubiconusa.org. This site will revert back to its original use as Jake's Life blog.

Please visit teamrubiconusa.org for everything Haiti and Team Rubicon related, including the new documentary trailer.

Commenting Temporarily Disabled

2010-02-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

We've temporarily disabled commenting on the Team Rubicon blog while we move to a new content management platform on a new host. We hope to have this process completed today. Thank you for your patience.

Rubicon Reunion

2010-02-13T23:04:00.001-08:00

Dr. Eduardo Dolhun reunites with Jeff Lang and Craig Parello while travelling to Milwaukee, WI on business.

Bathelmy and Sterlande

2010-02-13T21:04:00.001-08:00

100213 Bathelmy and Sterlande

Wow.

The name of the young man from Manresa is Bathelmy, or Bartholemew, and I commend him to you for your prayers and good thoughts. We found him at last, at the refugee camp this morning. His family name is Silencieux, he is eighteen years old, and he is left-handed. He used to be a construction worker. On January 12th, he was at work when the earthquake struck Haiti. The building he was in collapsed, partially burying him under cinderblocks and trapping his right hand under the corner of a heavy table. He was pulled from the rubble with his hand crushed, and learned that his mother was dead. The next few days were like a bad dream for him. His hand was bandaged by a Haitian doctor the next day, but the doctor had no medicines, no anesthetics, and no way to properly treat the injury. Bathelmy’s sister Sterlande took care of him, but they had very little water and less food. Bathelmy stayed at a place a short distance from the Manresa camp, but he came to the camp each day because Sterlande told him that the Catholic priests would send doctors to the camp as soon as anyone came to help. When our team arrived, he was the first patient we saw. Bathelmy remembered me, and Brother Jim, and Jake, and he remembered our efforts taking care of him and getting him to a hospital. The pain and swelling in his crushed hand eased soon after we treated him, but the surgeons were unable to operate on him for another two days because of the number of patients and the shortage of doctors. When they were finally able to operate on him, they amputated his hand. He survived the operation and the wound is healing appropriately. He no longer has pain in his arm and he will see a doctor again in five days. He was very, very grateful for everything Rubicon was able to do for him. “That [the first day Rubicon came to Manresa] was the first day I felt like I was alive again. I wish you would be here every day.”

Bathelmy’s sister, Sterlande, was at church when we arrived at the camp this morning. After we had talked to Bathelmy, he went with one of our interpreters to find her so that we could meet with both of them at the family’s shelter in the camp. While he was away, Brother Jim and I had a brief and very prayerful discussion of how we should proceed. We both wanted to help as best we could, but I was and am convinced that a simple gift of money would cause as many problems as it solved. Furthermore, both of us felt that Bathelmy still had not come to terms with the extent of his injury and its likely impact on his employment. So we developed a rapid and simple blueprint for a scholarship program. When we had asked him what he intended to do next, Bathelmy had said that he wanted to get more education, including foreign language schooling. Well, the most useful foreign languages in Haiti are English and Spanish. And, he clearly needed new job skills. The teachers at Brother Jim’s school make four US dollars a day, or $20 per week. So, it is possible to live a reasonable existence in Haiti with an income of $80 a month. Jim and I consulted together, prayed together, and settled on a proposal. If Bathelmy wanted to do it, I would provide him with eighty dollars a month as an educational stipend, so that he could continue to survive while finding an education. The curriculum would have to include English and Spanish language training, and a marketable trade or skill that didn’t require the use of two hands. Brother Jim would look in on Bathelmy occasionally, probably once a week. I would return in six weeks to review Bathelmy’s goals and discuss his progress in relation to those goals. I would contribute $240 (3 months’ educational stipend) and do a formal accountability review every 3 months plus additional visits as time permitted. If he made progress relative to an objective standard, I would continue to fund his education for another three months. If he failed to do so, we would at least have helped him survive through the rainy season.

Jim and I knelt together, prayed together, and got up, looked at each other, and shook hands. We were both agreed that this was a plan that could work, that was appropriate to the situation, and that could be scaled up or down appropriately as the situation developed. We then settled in to playing with the local kids, comparing foreign language training (speaking fluent cat, goat, rooster, and lizard with them) while Jim made tiny paper airplanes out of pages from his notebook, and showed the amazed kids how tiny sticks could dance on his fingertips. Frankly it was really cool. If you can’t get a magician for your six-year-old’s birthday party, call a Jesuit brother. Nobody will be disappointed.

We were winding down the lizard-and-stick show when Bathelmy got back. He introduced us to his sister Sterlande, and we went to their family shelter to talk. The shelter was simply a section of ground shielded by a tarp, which was held up by string and a few boards. It was perhaps ten feet wide and twelve feet long; the family’s worldly possessions were collected under a small sheet of plastic, and there was a section of used carpet on the floor, probably six by four feet. Sterlande offered us the only two chairs she had, which would have been good-sized for a fourth grader, but we declined and sat with her and Bathelmy around the carpet. We explained to Bathelmy what we were proposing. He was very surprised, but had no hesitation. He wanted to study accounting, he said, and he would start to study English and Spanish immediately. I promised to return in six weeks to see how his studies were progressing, and I gave him $240 in US currency. I emphasized repeatedly that this was NOT a gift, but an investment in his future, and in Haiti’s future. Frankly, Bathelmy seemed puzzled by the whole thing. It was as though his capacity for being surprised by anything had been shaken away by the earthquake. A building had fallen on him. Okay. His mother was dead. Okay. His hand was gone. Okay. A bearded white guy was giving him money to study English and accounting. Okay. We shook hands (left-handed), and he was ready to get to work.

Where Bathelmy was quietly stoic, Sterlande was quietly amazed. (We had already given her some money as a gift, for her and her family, as she was coordinating care for the needs of everybody including Bathelmy, and had essentially kept her brother alive through the days immediately following the earthquake.) We asked her what she needed, and whether we could do anything for her before we left. She looked like she had been granted one wish by a sweat-stained genie, and couldn’t figure out what to wish for. Jim joked with her a little bit (“He’s got a house in his backpack. Should he set it up for you here, or would you like it somewhere else?”) I swear, I could almost see the little flash of inspiration when Sterlande realized what she wanted to “wish” for. “I would like the same contract he is doing,” she said, indicating Bathelmy. “I went to school but had to stop at the ninth grade to take care of my family. I would like to study English, and Spanish.” What skill do you want to study, I asked her. She didn’t pause for an instant. “I want to become a lawyer.” Right, I said. I found her a blank notebook in my backpack, gave her my last “Dermafill” pen, and reviewed the details of the agreement. This is an investment in her future, and in Haiti’s future. Her studies begin today, and the money she is given is to take care of her personal needs so that she can devote the majority of her attention to her education. I counted out another $240 US (which tapped me out completely; I couldn’t have planned this better if I’d done it on purpose), and shook hands on the deal. Sterlande was quiet and intense in her gratitude. We thanked her for her hospitality, said our goodbyes to her and Bathelmy, and departed.

As we walked down the road from the camp, I felt like a thousand-pound weight was finally off my shoulders. Ever since arriving in Haiti after the earthquake, I have been so frustrated by my inability to do anything more than repair damage. There is so much potential in this country, so much good in the people here, and I have been powerless to do more than put a bandage on their suffering. Today, I feel as though I have finally been able to do something that may prove to be truly constructive. I do not know what Bathelmy or Sterlande will do with this opportunity. I do know that this is the best $480 I have ever spent. I’m not rich, but I can set aside $80 (er, $160) a month, to provide a temporary boost so that two young Haitians can attempt to lay the foundations of a better life for themselves and their country. They may, or may not, continue with this program. If they don’t, that is their choice, but at least they will have had the opportunity. If they do, it has the potential to make a genuinely positive difference in their lives and their future. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, it’s time for me to go home, spend time with my own family, and get back to work in the emergency room. But now I feel that I can do so with a clear conscience. I’ll take a nap, say goodbye to my friends, and drive back across the border. Assuming that nothing goes awry, I will be in Santo Domingo by morning, catch the JetBlue flight at 5:30 AM, and be home by tomorrow night (the good Lord willing).

As I finish this visit, I no longer feel overwhelmed by the amount of support that has been brought to bear on this situation. I feel lifted up by it, as though a wave is rising up under my feet. I don’t know what the next weeks and months have in store for my brothers and sisters here. But today I feel as though I have been able to put my fingertips on a possible solution for many of the young Haitians who have been most affected by the earthquake. I will pray, and work, and see what I find when I come back.

--Mark Hayward

Searching

2010-02-13T11:01:00.001-08:00

100212 Searching

The earthquake happened thirty days ago today.

Haiti's president declared that today is the first of three days'
mourning and remembrance. The US Embassy, most UN offices, and every
official building (of those that are still standing) was closed today.
And as far as I could tell, the vast majority of Haitian citizens did
NOT stay home. They dressed in the best clothing they could assemble,
and walked to church. And there they stayed for the better part of
the day, preaching, listening, mourning, singing, and remembering.

During the morning, Brother Jim and I drove through the city and
southwest along the coast to Leogane. We were officially providing
transport to the Haitian deputy director of the Foi et Joie (Faith and
Joy) school system. Unofficially, at least in my case, I was still
trying to wrap my head around the sheer magnitude of the earthquake.
And, in the drive, I finally "got" it. When we drove in to
Port-au-Prince three weeks ago, we came in from the northeast. We saw
very little damage until about eight miles from the airport, and even
that was relatively mild. The southern portion of the city, where we
conducted our triage, treatment, and transport operations, was much
harder hit, but we still got to go back to our base camp and get out
of the "flat zone" on a daily basis. By contrast, on the drive to
Leogane, everywhere I looked I saw earthquake damage. Even the road,
which used to be one of the best roads in Haiti, was an oddly artistic
slalom course of cracks and mini-chasms. But what struck me most was
the people gathered amidst all this chaos today. White dresses and
headscarves were the uniform of the day for most of the women. To a
guy living comfortably in a tent with a knapsack of clean scrub tops,
it was frankly humbling to realize the amount of effort that had gone
into finding and cleaning Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. And the
churches were not full; they were overflowing. Tarps were hung as
awnings for overflow congregations at every gathering place we passed.
Where the churches themselves were damaged beyond use, the people
simply gathered outside. They were there when we left in the morning,
and they were just starting to go home when we made our way back into
the city at mid-afternoon. And they will do the same thing tomorrow
and on Sunday.

The other thing that struck me was the difference in the recovery
operations going on in Leogane and Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince
looks like a war zone. It looked that way when I got there a week
after the quake, and it looked pretty much the same today. By
contrast, Leogane looks like there had been a war there, but the war
was over. Some buildings had clearly been identified as
non-salvageable and were now being used as combination rubble piles
and cement-block quarries. Other buildings were actively being
repaired, and in a serious way. The fallen debris had been pushed to
the edges of things -- the edges of the roads, the edges of the
property lines, the borders and margins of the cleanup areas, so that
the rebuilding could take place in a mostly cleared space. The city
was being rebuilt. It wasn't very far along, but it was clearly
moving intentionally and directly toward that goal.

This was what surprised me most about Port-au-Prince when I was
finally able to look at it in context. The city is being cleaned up.
The streets are being cleared, at least enough to get vehicles
through. Crushed buildings are being dug through to recover bodies,
and salvage materials. But the city is not being rebuilt. The
refugee camps are being made progressively more solid, even if the
short time that I have seen them, making the transition from bedsheets
to tarps and tents to wood and cement blocks. But the actual process
of rebuilding the city of Port-au-Prince appears to be stymied by two
factors. First off, the city is like an overstuffed and utterly
disorganized coat closet. In order to get it back into some semblance
of order, the closet has to be emptied out. Port-au-Prince was so
built up before the quake that it is very hard to find empty spaces in
which to pile the rubble while rebuilding. This leads into the second
problem with rebuilding Port-au-Prince. I perceive a lack of decisive
local leadership in the rebuilding process. In other words, I don't
see any concrete signs that the Haitian "government" has any clear
plan for putting this city back together. There may well be a number
of legal issues that further complicate this process (unambiguous and
legally protected property rights would top that list). But everybody
in Port-au-Prince still seems to be waiting to see what's going to
happen in terms of actually rebuilding. Those are just my overall
impressions, for whatever they're worth. I don't know what else to
say about it, other than that's what occurred to me after making the
trip to and back from Leogane today.

So anyway. After we returned from Leogane, I sat down with Jim, and
we discussed what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We
both agreed that we couldn't really move forward any further on the
schools project today. So we resolved to do something that has been
gnawing at me since our first hellish days here: we went looking for
some of our former patients.

Emergency medicine is a somewhat impersonal business, even moreso in
mass casualty situations. You work as fast as you can to properly
identify and treat life-threatening injuries, you stabilize your
patient to the point where they will live until they receive
definitive medical care, and you move on to the next patient.
Psychologically also this approach keeps me, at least, from being
overwhelmed by the seemingly never-ending masses of patients. I do
the best I can, and then I commend that patient into the Lord's care.
If a patient has a chronic or long-standing medical condition,
however, it complicates things. To what extent can an emergency
medical provider devote additional resources to managing chronic
conditions? To further complicate the issue, to what extent can an
emergency medical provider address chronic NON-medical conditions --
which in the case of all my patients in Haiti, included the fact that
they live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and are likely
to be crushed to death by poverty even if they survive the earthquake.

This is a touchy subject for me. I came to Haiti as an emergency
medical responder, hoping to care for patients who had been injured in
the earthquake. But the more time I spend here, the more I perceive
the real problem as being the Haitian government. The rulers of Haiti
have crippled the Haitian economy, raped a beautiful country, and
condemned the vast majority of Haitians to live and raise families in
a continuing cycle of menial labor, odd jobs, and grinding poverty.
The CIA estimates that the average per capita income in Haiti is about
$550 per year and the country was an economic wasteland even before
the quake. Government officials somehow have enough money to buy
Land-Rovers despite modest official salaries, but the foreign aid
money to build roads and schools and hospitals just vanishes away. So
when I treated earthquake victims with crushed hands or rotting flesh
or broken bones, I also had to consider what to do about the
life-threatening pre-existing condition of being an ordinary citizen
in Haiti.

In Haiti there is a profound temptation just to give money away to
people. After all, if a beggar at a stoplight asks for a dollar, I
can certainly afford that, can't I? The problem is, if every foreign
visitor gives a dollar to a beggar at a stoplight in a country where a
teacher only makes twenty dollars a week, then even the teachers will
start begging on the street corner. So, during my time here with Team
Rubicon, I did my level best to provide medical help to people who
needed medical care. We did the best we could with what we had
available, we treated our brothers and sisters as we would want to be
treated if the tables were turned, and we commended them to the Lord
and prayed that they would be OK. And generally I can sleep at night
also. But sometimes I wonder if I've really done enough, and
sometimes, that keeps me up. On a brighter note, sometimes I just
like a particular patient and I want to make sure that he or she is
OK. So today, on this day of remembrance, Brother Jim and I went
looking for the young man with the crushed and infected right hand who
we had cared for on January 18th. We wanted to find out if he was OK.
We wanted to make sure his physical injuries were healing. If we
could do something to improve his current living situation or increase
his odds of making a full recovery, we wanted to find out how we could
help. And I wanted to write down his name, so that I can tell it to
you, so that all of us can can keep him in our prayers. And so, we
went looking for him.

But we couldn't find him.

The camp at Manresa is now a neat collection of well-framed tarps and
individual living areas. The picnic table where we set up our triage
area is now under a giant tarp with a USAID logo. There are many
children, playing with simple but wonderfully designed homemade toys
made out of empty water bottles, twigs, plastic sheeting, and thread.
It was a world away from the grotesque injuries of January 18th. It
felt good to be there, as though we had earned the right to visit.
But the young man was not there.

We will try again tomorrow. However, unlike my last trip to Haiti,
this time I actually have return plane tickets. I fly from the
Dominican Republic Sunday morning, which means that I can stay in
Port-au-Prince no later than 5PM on Saturday. This has become
something very personal to me, but I feel as though I am running out
of time.

--Mark Hayward

Reflections from Brother Jim

2010-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

After the last of Team Rubicon left the country my focus has changed from medical to educational. There are now over 40 camps of refugees in Port au Prince with population estimates ranging from 240,000 to 600,000. Each of these camps are filled with children who have been away from school for about a month and wonder aimlessly with little to keep them occupied. Last week some of us were talking about the possibility of setting up refugee schools for these kids, and two days later the Jesuit Province was behind the idea. Foi et Joie, the school system I work for, will be setting up camp schools in three of the largest areas of displaced people in the city. Our estimates are that we will be educating around 7,000 students, something that even raised the eyebrows of our friends over at UNICEF.

As you can imagine, the planning going into this is enormous, and includes recruiting teachers, requesting funding, meeting with other NGO’s, securing tents, classroom materials, and everything else that any school would have. At times it seems overwhelming, but I do have confidence in our team and the products of Fe y Alegria around the world. One walk through the camps lets me see firsthand the tremendous need in the educational area, and rekindles the hope that some of these emergency schools might grow into something permanent.

One last comment… it has been very interesting for me this past month to work with every religious denomination under the sun. I have been with Scientologists, Mennonites, Evangelicals, Jews, Lutherans, and the list goes on. Today in talking with the local leadership of the Mormon Church it was mentioned to me that 85% of the quality education in Port au Prince before the quake was run by the Catholic Church. The man who said this is currently working on getting us school supplies for our refugee schools. I love my Catholic faith tremendously, and that is no secret to anyone who knows me. That said, ours schools in English are called “Faith and Joy,” and that faith is purposely left open-ended. With enough of this faith we can get these schools up and going so the children of Port au Prince do not lose a purpose and a focus for their future.

Following the Water Trail

2010-02-12T11:36:00.001-08:00

100211 Following the water trail

Today was simply delightful! I got to give away presents, hung out
with Brother Jim, got a hug and a kiss from Gary Cagle's nine-year-old
daughter Rachel (via a small pillow pre-loaded with 1000@ hugs and
kisses), and generally did a bunch of miscellaneous and hopefully
useful stuff. The day's focus was on proceeding forward with the
refugee schools, but mostly what Jim and I did was hang out and drive
around, which was just fine with me. He's been doing sustained
disaster relief ops for 30 days, so getting stuck in traffic for most
of the day might have been a welcome change of pace. (Of course, he
was stuck in traffic with ME, so by tomorrow he will probably be
begging to get back to gangrenous wounds and mortuary transport.)

First thing this morning we cracked open the hundred and fifty pounds
of school supplies donated by my Dad, prior to the Jesuit school
coordinating team's morning meeting. Dad's hundred and twenty five
composition books, fifty pairs of scissors, rulers, pencil sharpeners,
erasers, plain and colored pencils, plus the portable whiteboards,
"miniature school" kit, and numerous other supplies for teachers and
students were met with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for
Godiva chocolates or a new video game. Jim and I, and the coordinating
team, also discussed a very interesting idea. The schools will feature
English-language instruction, which is one of the most marketable
skills in the world outside the US. However, learning to SPEAK good
English is based just as much on HEARING English spoken clearly by
MULTIPLE English-language speakers. Any idea where we might be able to
rustle up a series of native English-language speakers who would be
willing to sign up (with plenty of advance notice) to come down here
for three or four days of speaking good English to students in refugee
schools in Port-au-Prince? More to follow on this idea as it is
developed...

Anyway, after our early Christmas and morning meetings, our first
field activity of the day was chasing Mormons. Jim's comment on the
matter was that "It's the first time in my life I've ever tried to
catch a Mormon," and needless to say my species proved appropriately
difficult to track down. It was all in a good cause, however. The
Jesuit goal is to set up camp schools for seven THOUSAND kids in
Port-au-Prince. Obviously, we were going to need some serious
firepower on this mission. So, figuring that my fellow Mormons would
have a lot of good ideas on how to organize this sort of thing, we
went looking for them. Jim had seen some LDS Emergency Services
representatives at some of the UN meetings he attends, but we didn't
know where their base was. I figured that we should start at the local
meetinghouses, whose info I had scribbled in my little notebook a few
hours before leaving home. We had gotten as far as the US Embassy when
Jim yelled, "Look! There they go!" A vehicle with a magnetic <<LDS
Emergency Services>> placard had passed us going the other way in
traffic. Like any good driver, I reacted instinctively: flipping a
combat U-turn, running up alongside the marked vehicle, and leaping
out to engage my target. I tapped on the window, which the startled
front-seat passenger unrolled. "Pardon me," I said to him, "...do you
have any gray poupon?" He confirmed that he did not, but I admitted
that we actually wanted to talk schooling issues, and he invited us to
follow him to the LDS Emergency Services HQ, which we did. There, we
met with Brother J. Patrick Reese, who is supervising the LDS
Emergency Services educational activities here. We explained that we
were looking for guidance on how to assemble and equip three schools
for seven thousand students. Brother Reese was obviously interested by
the unscripted meeting with Brother Jim, and as an interesting note,
Brother Reese himself pointed out something that even I wouldn't have
had the chutzpah to ask: that the local model of a good education in
Haiti for all able citizens, including good Mormons, has always been a
Catholic education, and that he and the LDS Emergency Services were
glad to have this linkup with Brother Jim as an on-the-ground
representative of that educational system. While Brother Reese and
Brother Jim both seemed completely familiar with this pre-existing
fact, it was not something that I had thought it politic to ask, and I
am glad that Brother Reese had brought it up, even if only for my
benefit. Brother Reese also informed us that LDS Emergency Service
ALREADY has a container full of unassembled school kits here on the
ground in Haiti. He explained that he couldn't promise anything, but
said that he would look into whether those supplies could be made
available to Brother Jim's refugee schools. Brother Reese finally
mentioned one more item for consideration: that eventually, LDS
Emergency Services may be able to assist in rebuilding some portion of
the schools that were destroyed or damaged in the quake, regardless of
their religious affiliation. When we left the meeting, Brother Jim
looked very thoughtful. "I've never run after a Mormon before today,"
he told me, "but if something good comes of this, I will chase Mormons
MUCH more often!"

Since I was driving, we of course got lost heading home from the LDS
Emergency Services HQ. We found ourselves wandering through a warrenof
twisty little streets (no two alike) in the hilly and rubble-strewn
neighborhood of Peguy-Ville. We probably would have been there still
had we not been passed by a water tanker straining its way uphill to a
refugee camp. After we got back on the road, Jim made a simple
observation. "The truck had to come uphill by the most direct route,
and it was leaking water. Why don't we just follow the drops of water
DOWNHILL, to get back to the main road?" In no time we were back on
track and headed back to the novitiate.

We had been asked to locate some pediatric anti-seizure and other
medications which the doctors from LDS Emergency Services badly needed
to care for some of their patients. Finding the meds at the novitiate
was fairly simple. Finding the mobile Mormon medical teams in the
shaken city was quite another story. As we texted back and forth with
the moving doctors, getting hung up in traffic and barely missing them
repeatedly as they moved (Rubicon-like) from location to location. We
were grinding our way uphill through traffic yet again when Jim said,
"Hey! There they are again!" A different LDS-placarded truck was also
stuck in traffic, inching its way DOWNHILL in the opposite direction.
Again I sprang into action: I drove up onto the curb, set the brake,
and leapt out, shoebox of meds in hand, to dart through three lanes of
traffic and tap on the window of a very startled local LDS driver. I
have no idea what he thought of the sweat-stained, bearded Caucasian
popping out of the median like a jack-in-the-box. I attempted to say
"these medicines are for your doctors", but it probably came out as
"medicate -- doctor -- you -- eggplant!" Needless to say traffic
rolled onward at that critical moment, but as I jogged alongside the
truck, the driver plucked the box of meds neatly from my hand, and we
had made our delivery.

When I got back to our van and back into traffic, it was clearly time
to celebrate with some yummy MREs. So, as we made our way downhill, I
broke open a packet of spaghetti with meat sauce (my all-time favorite
entree). We pulled up at a stoplight, and as I prepared to chow down
on this treasure, I sensed movement out my driver-side window. To my
horror, I saw that we were being approached by the one street-beggar
combo I really can't refuse: a young boy, about eight or nine, holding
out his hand beseechingly as he led an older man, perhaps fifty or
sixty and obviously blind, through traffic towards our vehicle. I gave
up, rolled down the window, and handed the boy the spaghetti and a
spoon. I looked over at Brother Jim, and said, "I just can't eat when
a hungry blind guy is watching me." He sprayed water out of his nose
and laughed uproariously as he passed his own unopened lunch to the
startled pair standing by the van. The light turned green and we
rolled off into traffic. It took us over an hour to cover two miles
back to the novitiate. We laughed the whole way there.

It felt good to see the city bustling with life again after
thismorning's 2AM quiet. It also felt good (though a little bit odd)
to make contact with real aid workers from my own church, although I
certainly feel like a country cousin in comparison with these
well-organized, well-resourced, and quietly competent
professionals.But for me, the best thing was being reunited with my
brother Jim. I hope that I am doing good things for our brothers and
sisters here in Port-au-Prince. I know that this return trip is doing
good things for me. I'm glad that I'm here, and I'm SO grateful for
all of the support from back home, that allows me to come here at all,
and that enables me not to come empty-handed. But I still very much
feel that by being here, I am receiving far more than anything I have
been asked to give. It's humbling, and it encourages me to do my best,
to be of use while I am here, and to be a good representative of my
family, my church, my country, my co-workers, and my friends. Thank
you all for giving me this opportunity to make a second effort so soon
after the first. I will keep you posted on how it all continues to
unfold.

Team Rubicon member Mark Hayward returns to Haiti

2010-02-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

Mark Hayward, a former Army Special Forces medic, returned to Haiti today to provide follow-on medical care to the patients he cared for over two weeks ago. While this is neither an official Team Rubicon mission, nor funded by Team Rubicon, Hayward returned to Port-au-Prince through his own fund-raising effort. "Mark's personal mission wasn't complete without ensuring his patients received follow-on wound care to prevent gangrene and sepsis. I've seen doctors come to Mark for medical advice. When Team Rubicon deploys to the next disaster, this is the guy you immediately call upon, if he hasn't already beat you to the punch by volunteering first." says Team Rubicon co-founder William McNulty. His most recent update is below:

0210 Rue de miracles

Written from the novitiate house at 3AM on Thursday morning.

I set out to reach here, 24 hours ago. It is miraculous that I have arrived, and I do not use the term lightly. It is also a testament to the inspired teamwork of SO many people! The experience also makes me hopeful, and humbles me. Nothing "I" am doing is being done by me alone -- and that gives me great comfort.

For starters, just getting me to the airport needs to be credited to my lovely bride. When the snow started falling, and she saw that I was torn between staying with her, and going forward, she said, "Get out of here; go do what you need to do." And, thereafter, buoyed up by Zak (working alternate flights), Graeme (ditto), Cammie (suggesting I try the Richmond airport), Cheryl (covering my shift), Jeremy (authorizing the swap), Cammie giving me en-route flight updates as I slushed down 95 towards Richmond), my dad (floating me the cash I needed to fund the whole massive mutating operation), and, oh yeah, Cammie (backing me up and staying positive as I traveled), I made it to Richmond.

Similarly, being able to get my bags aboard is directly attributable to a JetBlue customer service rep named Becky. The details are listed elsewhere, but the bottom line is that she CHOSE to help me -- and in that choice, she was backed up by her entire chain of command, including her manager, the JetBlue administration, and the airline policies that empowered Becky to act on her desire to help out. (Go JetBlue!)

Just getting off the ground in Richmond was another masterpiece of teamwork. The runway, plane, and sky were socked with snow. The pilot assessed the situation and decided that he could still direct his team of personnel to get the plane to its destination despite the obstacles. He explained the process to the passengers, got the de-icing crew into position, sent plow teams to clear the runway, had the plane de-iced before the tarmac re-iced, and piloted his aircraft up to where the sun was already shining. Frankly, when that cylinder of aluminum and avionics and applied physics and materials science broke through the clouds, and I felt sunlight on my face for the first time in days, *I* felt as though I had succeeded at something magnificent -- even though all I had done was kept faith in the pilot and kept out of the way so he could demonstrate good planning, good training, and good reflexes. Somebody needs to buy that man a cold (root) beer.

If getting TO Santo Domingo was a masterpiece of "intentional" teamwork, then getting into Port-au-Prince FROM Santo Domingo was "unintentional" teamwork so ridiculously perfect that it proved (like the platypus) that the Lord is both a master planner and a master of improvisational comedy. Arriving alone in the DR with only a rental-car reservation and a big wad of resources, I was acutely aware of my need for SAFETY IN NUMBERS. As I scanned the crowd, a gentleman named Kirk struck up a conversation with me. He was an Emergency Medicine physician from Seattle, and he and four others were trying to get to Haiti. Could I give them any suggestions? So, we crammed six people and a WHOLE lot of supplies into a five-passenger toaster-shaped minivan, and set off overland with only a vague idea of how to even get out of the airport. The team had every skill imaginable, and each surfaced at exactly the right time. Kirk (the doc) spoke Spanish -- very useful in Santo Domingo. Steeve (a professional ballroom dancer) had a Dominican girlfriend -- thus he had Dominican pesos -- very useful if you want to, say, pay a toll, or stop for a bite at a Burger King and order your customary number 3 combo. The team proved to be ever more resourceful and improbable -- to the point where we were chatting about families, and I said (jokingly) to one of the EMTs" seven kids? What are you, a Mormon?" -- and he said "Yes!" -- and ANOTHER guy said "Hey, so am I!" (Anybody want to do the math on the odds of an impromptu six-man medical team, assembling in the DR from DC, Florida, and Seattle, including three MORMONS?!?) Nor should I really be SURPRISED that our trusty iPhones NAVIGATED US WITHOUT A HITCH FROM SANTO DOMINGO TO THE BORDER, over terrain only I had traveled before (while asleep on a pile of luggage), in the middle of the night, OVER FASTER ROADS THAN WE HAD TRAVELLED WITH NATIVE GUIDES ON OUR PREVIOUS TRIP. Now of course the border was closed (it being past midnight... So Kirk explained (in flawless Spanish) for the DR border guards what we were doing, and Steeve did the same (in native Creole) for the Haitian PNH border guards, and they OPENED THE CLOSED BORDER and waved us through... At which point a passing two-vehicle convoy of Haitian businessmen, upon learning that we were going to a specific place to link up with the 82nd Airborne, LED US THERE, all the way from the border. Anybody want to calculate the odds of ANY of this happening, let alone ALL of it happening, all at once?...

So after delivering the doctor, paramedics, and ballroom instructor to their appointed linkup with the Soldiers of the 82nd, I thoughtfully drove back to the novitiate through the sleeping city (guided by my iPhone). The city felt like a ghost town as I drove, but as I look back on it now, I think it would be more accurate to characterize it as a city that is WAITING. For what?

Well, when we were stopped for dinner, Steeve made an excellent point. He said, "If the world acted this way all the time -- the way you guys are doing, coming here to help out -- if we did this all the time, think what kind of a world we would live in!" Later on he mused, "There was so much that has been wrong for so long. I don't say I wanted this earthquake. But maybe all of this, you know, maybe it will be a door, for something better in Haiti."

A learned scriptorian could probably find many passages that discuss the role played by the Holy Spirit in forming and guiding teams of men and women who open themselves up to be led by that Spirit, and thereby make the world better, brighter, kinder, and simply more entertaining. With the Lord's help, I know that we can climb above the snow and the cold and the broken cement, to where the sun shines warm on our faces. I know that there is a Guide more reliable even than the blinking blue dot on a cellphone, that can lead us to link up with brothers and sisters whom we've never met before, and work together towards a world we only occasionally realize that we are missing. As I reviewed very intensely, when the rain began to pour down as we approached Port-au-Prince, many things will still and always be OUTSIDE our control. But we can pray fervently for the Lord's intervention on our behalf, and on the behalf of our brothers and sisters in need; and then, we can get up, and act on the promptings we receive. Maybe the rain will stop (as it did tonight, suddenly as a spigot being turned off); maybe it won't. But we can do our best to make shelter from the rain, for each other.

Retracing my steps

2010-02-11T05:59:00.001-08:00

It's 3AM on Thursday and I am back at the Jesuit novitiate in Port-au-Prince. I arrived here after a short drive from Petion-Ville, down Avenue John Brown, and across Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The only living things I saw afoot in the city were wild dogs, and there are plenty of them, looking sleek and well-fed. I also saw a fire burning in a dumpster, three enormous arc lights illuminating rows of dump trucks and earthmovers parked at three intersections, and occasional PNH vehicles. Other than that, nothing is moving. It's like being in a ghost town. Frankly, unsettling.

My trip from Virginia to Petion-Ville was more hectic, but no less surreal. At three o'clock Tuesday afternoon, when Delta cancelled my Wednesday morning flight into Port-au-Prince, things went into full chaos mode. Cheryl was kind enough to cover my Tuesday night work shift so that I could get on the road, but the question of where to go wasn't entirely clear. I'd been asked to safeguard a shipment of medications via private jet out of south Florida, but the meds got stuck in Ohio in the same storm that cancelled my flight. So, I bought tickets on JetBlue, flying from Richmond to Santo Domingo by way of Fort Lauderdale. The only problem was, the same snow that shut down Reagan and grounded the meds in Cleveland was between me and Richmond. My wife and I asked for the Lord's blessing, and I drove off into the snow.

The hour-long drive to the Richmond airport took three hours. More troubling was the fact that JetBlue had cancelled their 7:30 flight on the exact same route as my 9:30 tickets. When I pulled in to the airport parking garage, the snow was so heavy that I couldn't see across the roadway to the terminal building. But, my lovely bride confirmed that the flight was still scheduled to go. Furthermore, she was able to confirm that my travel insurance policy didn't cover me if I got cold feet and decided to drive south for another shot at a private jet ride out of Florida, no matter how much snow was falling on my departure airport. So I took a deep breath and got in line with my bags, steeling myself for a two-day ordeal of flight delays, excess weight fees, and generally NOT getting to Haiti.

The baggage was the very first problem. I had packed two Wal-Mart suitcases with medications and school supplies that I knew were needed in Port-au-Prince. Brother Jim is starting a network of schools in the refugee camps, and he has plenty of students, but no supplies. I was able to put together a good first batch of materials, thanks to an all-night Wal-Mart, a template for school kits from providentliving.org, and a very generous donation from my dad. The problem, as I realized while standing in line reading the baggage policy, was that only one fifty-pound bag is authorized as check baggage when you fly JetBlue to the Dominican Republic. Even my smaller bag (full of pencils, erasers, rulers, colored pencils, sharpeners and so forth) weighed more than fifty pounds. The other bag was closer to 100 pounds. I prayed. The customer service representative, a lovely young lady named Becky, waved me forward. I smiled as brightly as I could and put my smaller bag on the scale. 57 pounds. Becky looked closely at me, at my MEP scrub top, at the caduceus on my hat and my generally shopworn appearance. Where are you going, she asked. Back to Haiti, said I. Are you a doctor, she asked. Physician assistant, I corrected, compelled by uncharacteristic honesty. Close enough, said Becky, let me see if I can waive all of your baggage fees and let you take both bags. She stepped away, spoke briefly to a manager, gave me a thumbs-up.

I drove in to the city to deliver passengers (one doctor, three paramedics, and a professional ballroom dancer) to the 82nd Airborne.

-Mark Hayward

TR working in DC

2010-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

The show must go on

Despite blizzard conditions in Washington DC, Joylon Hoff of Third Story Films interviews Jake Wood, Clay Hunt, Dr David Griswell and William McNulty for an upcoming documentary. A film trailer will be released next week.

Clay and Jake Lobbying Congress for Veterans Rights

2010-02-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

Small Earthquake Hits Near Chicago

2010-02-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

A small earthquake in northern Illinois set off car alarms, knocked books off the shelves and jolted scores of people awake at 4 a.m. Wednesday, but otherwise caused no serious damage, officials said.

Wheels up for 2 more TR members

2010-02-10T06:55:00.001-08:00

Gunny and Dee, the last two members of TR2 (minus Gary Cagle) departed Haiti Monday, and are back home safe and sound in New York. The folks in the attached picture (L to R) are: Edmund Lo (Jesuit Novice, and first "local recruit" to TR), Mac McCormick (Gunnery Sgt, USMC (R)), Dee Spina (RN), and JJ Aerulus (Haitian translator and all around good guy).

The picture was shot as they were heading out to the airport in a tap-tap. The only original members of Team Rubicon still in country are Brother Jim and Gary. Jim is doing his typical SJ stuff (currently setting up schools in the refugee camps), and Gary is now working for the WHO (He has been hired to "fix" the problems with their medical logistics warehouse and system here in Haiti). The mission continues....

Milwaukee Bar Offers "Rubicon Shots"

2010-02-06T11:08:00.001-08:00

Team Rubicon Co-Founder Jeff Lang walked into a random local bar this past week and found that the bar owner was supporting Team Rubicon in his own way, with "Team Rubicon Shots" out of a bottle of Jim Beam.

God Bless Milwaukee.

Hayward on SoMdNews.com

2010-02-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

Acting on the urge to help victims in Haiti
Hayward offers treatment after quake

The devastating earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, was more than a news story for Mark Hayward. He saw the images on TV and immediately recognized places he had been, streets he has walked and thought of people he knew.

Hayward, an emergency medicine physician assistant at St. Mary's Hospital, worked in Haiti as a medical officer for a team of United States law enforcement personnel for three months in 2009.

"It was very personal," he said by phone this week from his home in King George, Va.

"I got a text message from a friend driving to work that night and got updates throughout my shift," he said. "It was evident very early on that it was a huge disaster."

Hayward was familiar with the poor infrastructure in the country and could only imagine the damage. The next day, he was in constant communication with as many friends as possible, and glued to the TV screen. At about 3 a.m., after not being able to sleep, he decided he had to do something.

He contacted major aid organizations, the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, to offer his assistance. He explained his medical background, including time as a Special Forces medic with the U.S. Army. He told them he had worked in Haiti and was willing to deploy to help. The response was not encouraging.

"They said, ‘Thanks, but we have it under control, just send a donation,'" Hayward said. "At the same time I'm talking to guys on ground, and I asked them what they saw in terms of need. I was told it was total chaos."

Hayward even contacted his former employer from his work in Haiti, who welcomed his help, but told him to wait until they could figure out terms of a contract for their services.

Hayward couldn't wait anymore. With the support of Medical Emergency Professionals, his current employer which staffs St. Mary's Hospital's emergency room, and hospital Vice President Mark Boucot, he was preparing to leave for Haiti. He bought a ticket to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with his own funds and got the go-head to take off.

MEP completely supported his efforts and continued to pay his salary while co-workers covered his shifts.

"How could we not? I think our whole organization had been seeing what was going on and just feeling sick at the very thought. [Emergency room] departments are very team oriented and have to be staffed 24 hours a day, so if someone leaves someone else has to cover," said Dr. Thai McGreivy, a managing partner with MEP, which is based in Germantown. "All of us wanted to do something. So we all stood behind one, and he served as a representative down there for us."

Hayward loaded a large suitcase with wound and traumatic injury supplies donated by St. Mary's Hospital. He packed another bag with supplies donated by Harder and Harder Associates, a Virginia-based company which makes specialized combat medical kits. He took another bag of personal gear and left for Santo Domingo on Jan. 16.

He had no specific plans for what he would do when he got there. On a shuttle bus to a connecting flight in Philadelphia, Hayward met Will McNulty and realized they were both headed to Santo Domingo to provide disaster relief in Haiti. McNulty was part of Team Rubicon, a grassroots team of volunteers, which welcomed Hayward's assistance.

When they arrived in Santo Domingo, he met the rest of the team, which included a former Marine intelligence officer, a Marine sniper, two firefighters, two doctors and a Jesuit monk. Team Rubicon, founded by McNulty, fellow former Marine Jake Wood and Milwaukee firefighter Jeff Lang, was formed through social networking and casual meetings. They quickly raised more than $200,000 and traveled to Port-au-Prince to provide medical services.

Wood described the team to Catholic Online as "an incredible success story that began with two phone calls and a Facebook post. It has grown into a model for disaster relief that must be paid attention to. All but two of the original eight members had never met in person before, yet the team was able to cross into Haiti and save thousands of lives because they acted."

On Sunday morning, Jan. 17, the team made the long drive into Port-au-Prince. They set up shop at a Jesuit monastery Sunday night, and immediately started to see patients. The following day, they went into the southeast part of the city.

"It was kind of like going to hell," Hayward said. "We went to an impromptu refugee camp inside the city near a Jesuit school. All we knew was there were about 900 people in the camp who hadn't received any medical attention."

Hayward's first patient was an 18-year-old boy whose fingers were smashed by falling cinderblocks. Gangrene had set in. Their job was to clean it up as best they could, then find a hospital where the hand could be amputated.

"The whole day went like that," Hayward said. "We saw from 200 to 300 patients that Monday. Probably 100 had wounds like that one. Probably another 100 had significant fractures that hadn't been treated for close to a week. I had never seen anything like that in my entire life. The utter lack of the most basic medical care for these people blew me away."

As the days went on, the team provided first-response medical care to hundreds of patients at numerous locations. They also assisted with medical procedures at a general hospital with other volunteer medical teams. Some of the work involved providing first-aid care and prepping wounds for further treatment, but Hayward said there were some cases that he never expected to be involved in as a physician's assistant.

"I was saying ‘What the hell has gone wrong that I'm taking care of this kind of wound?'" he said. "If I was back in the States, I wouldn't have touched any of this kind of stuff. Frequently down there, I would say ‘If we don't do this, it's not going to be done, so we're going to the best we can.'"

Hayward spent more than 10 days working in Haiti and said he would not hesitate to do it again. His only regret was that he couldn't get there sooner.

"One of the big reasons we're doing this interview is to make sure folks in Southern Maryland know of all the good stuff done behind the scenes by folks in Southern Maryland to help out," he said. "The other reason we're talking is because I believe very strongly that if something like this happens again probably what we'll see in the news and hear from big aid organizations is probably going to be the same … There's a critical gap between when something like this happens and when big aid organizations are able to get their teams together to make something happen. That's where the need is for small volunteer groups."

Hayward said it was hard to leave Port-au-Prince knowing there was more assistance needed. However, by that time additional medical response teams, many much larger than their team, had arrived.

"It was [hard], but it was time to go," he said. "It was time for us to get out of the way and let them do their work."

WKOW TV Interview with Jake Wood

2010-02-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

LINK HERE

TR Members Head to Congress

2010-02-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

In keeping with Team Rubicon's military heritage, TR members Clay Hunt and Jake Wood are heading to Washington DC this weekend for seven days of meetings with congressmen and senators. While this is not a Team Rubicon sanctioned mission, be rest assured that Jake and Clay will represent what today's veterans are capable of achieving off the battlefield, and will make every inroad possible to ensure that Team Rubicon's model for disaster relief reaches the ears of those with the ability to take it to the next level.

Here's a link to the veteran's representing the IAVA in Washington LINK

SPRINT NOT WAIVING CELL PHONE FEES

2010-02-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemem! It's time for the Team Rubicon army of supporters to unite once more!

Remember our little 'incident' with American Airlines? Where they initially charged me for extra bags full of medicine on my flight to Haiti? Well, because of your outcry they reversed those charges and wrote me (aka US!) a personal letter of apology.

Well, Big Business is at it again, and Sprint-Nextel does not want to waive the roaming charges incurred on my cell phone while in Haiti. I just got off the phone with a very nice lady named Jackie, tonight's floor supervisor, who said, "my hands are tied."

Well Jackie, that's okay, because you were kind enough to give the Team Rubicon masses the email address of your CEO, DAN@SPRINT.COM. Dan has an 'executive escalation team' that handles these sorts of things.

So here's what I need you to do- write Dan, and ask him kindly (emphasis on KINDLY) to remove the $188.26 in charges on my bill. Simply put "Team Rubicon Haiti Reimbursment" in the subject line, and then fire away. It might help to add that T-Mobile and ATT already reimbursed other members of the team.

Thanks, and don't say we don't pinch our pennies at Team Rubicon!

One of a Kind Auction Proceeds to TR

2010-02-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
I have exciting news from IDEX! Helen has decided to offer a one of a kind doll for auction. We wanted to give you the opportunity to have her for your very own. By bidding you'll be helping the relief efforts in Haiti as all proceeds from the winning bid will go to Team Rubicon. Read on to learn more. To take a peak at Baby Aisha click here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kishandcompany , or just visit the Photo Section and look for her name.

Baby Aisha
Is a new sculpt that was meant to debut at IDEX dressed as an angel. Instead, this first sample from the master mold is being offered for auction to the highest bidder. Aisha has been hand-painted by Helen in a pale teal dress accented in pink ribbon with shoes by Boneka. Her wig was hand-made by Helen and is tied with small pink bows. One hundred percent of the highest bid will be sent to Team Rubicon to aid in their relief work in Haiti.

Best Regards,
Katherine for Kish & Company

Jake Wood Interview

2010-02-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hugh Hewitt talks with Team Rubicon co-creator Jake Wood about their recent mission to Haiti, and what their plans are for the future.

Click here to listen

Triumphs in the midst of Tragedy, by Clay Hunt

2010-02-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

WOW. Now that I have decompressed a little bit from our recent work in PaP, it's time for me to reflect a little on what we did, and try and hold on to the compassion and dedication that bonded us all together as members of Team Rubicon 1.

In the midst of the worst devastation and suffering I have ever seen (and I've seen enough to last me quite a while), I saw many awe-inspiring actions and events take place every single day, and almost every minute we were there. While I saw sadness, grief and despair far flung and widespread, I saw other things that gave me comfort and hope. I saw the smiles of hundreds of children, the gratitude of their parents and siblings, and feelings of peace and reassurance expressed by all of our patients. These people are suffering horribly, but we were able to bring them assurance: that there are people in the world who care enough about them that we are willing to risk our own health and safety just to come help them, and treat them in their darkest hour. We were able to bring peace to so many: the people who we met know that they will not be forgotten by the outside world, and that we will be there again when and where they need us. That was truly amazing to be a part of, and was humbling and reassuring to us all.

Being able to come together with the other members of this team and accomplish a common goal, under the circumstances we were faced with is beyond comprehension to me. How I found the team on my own is a story in itself, I'll just say it was sketchy at best, but I found 'em and was able to get to work within 3 hours of landing at PaP airport, and I'll never forget the relief I felt when I found the Team and they needed another set of hands. Certain events that helped us continue our mission happened right when they needed to-We needed a vehicle we could use as an ambulance; poof, it was there and we were able to put it to use. We needed a place to set up, and all of a sudden we had a garage that was perfect to use as a triage/wound care/OR clinic. Whatever we needed pretty much just fell in our hands. What we needed most were experienced, smart, selfless people who were willing to accept certain personal risks in order to accomplish the goals of Team Rubicon. They quietly showed up and asked for no real recognition whatsoever, and were more than ready to help. I will hold these men and women in my heart forever.

On a personal level, I found more in Port Au Prince than I knew I was missing. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be able to go into a rubble strewn city in a third world country, and to be able to do good without wondering if everybody is about to start shooting at you. I found a renewed sense of purpose for myself that has been missing since I separated from the USMC, and I found myself in the company of a band of brothers once again- absolutely priceless. I was able to treat and to help provide reassurance to the many patients I saw- whether it was just dressing changes, wound cleaning and care, or setting a young man's broken arm so that It will heal correctly. I was constantly challenged, out of my element from a medical standpoint, and Doc Griz, Mark, Zak, Seth, Karem- you were always ready to teach me so that I could do it on my own the next time. Thank you for that.

Lastly, and I'm still mulling it over, were my experiences observing and talking with Brother Jim. Jim, you've inspired me with your wisdom, serenity, willingness to act, absolute absence of fear, and compassion towards everyone you meet. I feel very lucky to have gotten to know you. Thank you for all you did for us.

Team Rubicon 1, we did a magnificent job, with little resources, and their are thousands of lives that have been saved or made better because of our work. Don't let that memory slip away from you, and turn to it when doing the right thing seems impossible, or just inconvenient. I now count you all as family, and I can't wait to work together once again.

Jake- your leadership, insight, and presence of mind continue to amaze me. Much love, brother.

- Clay Hunt
Team Rubicon

Dr. Fuchs Describes His Job at CDTI Hospital

2010-02-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

hey jake,

thx for all your help . recall we arrived late in your tour about 2 -3 days before change over. i know mike and mike did great work out in the field. the hospital team myself,shane and nadege were able to get oriented with dr michele and essentially coordinated the or for our stay. we completed and estimated 80-100 surgical cases during our time .we treated both peds and adult cases and did alot of stabilizations,ex fix,fx plating,washouts and amputations. we appreciate your leadership and assistance. we departed with the asst of the airforce on a c16 and arrived at homestead afb fri

Paul Fuchs DO
Surgical Treatment of Spinal Disorders
OSSWF
Fort Myers,Fl

Rocklin firefighter returns from Haiti after 10 days of volunteering

2010-02-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

ROCKLIN, CA — Zachary Smith, a Rocklin firefighter paramedic, returned Sunday from ten days of volunteer service in Haiti with Team Rubicon. Team Rubicon is a self-financed, all-volunteer, rapid response, medical rescue team. The former Marines, soldiers, firefighters/EMTs, medics, and nurses of Team Rubicon are all unpaid. The group of selfless volunteers from all over the country

Read Article here

View Slideshow from Zach

Dermafill: "This dressing is a life saver!"

2010-02-03T06:22:00.000-08:00

As you know, Chasing Lions LLC donated $208,000 worth of Dermafill to the Haitian rescue effort. In addition to Dermafill, Chasing Lions also donated the services of our chief medical officer, Dr. Mauricio Consalter, as well as myself to assist in treating patients during this disaster. We spent a little over 1 week seeing a variety of patients with a multitude of injuries caused by the initial earthquake, and countless injuries caused by the poor living conditions that the Haitian people were forced to live in. Our donation and aid were given to a small team, Team Rubicon, who went out to the refugee camps and surrounding areas to treat those who were unable to get to medical facilities and had not received any medical treatment. I worked alongside several volunteer doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and medics; treating over 2,000 injured and countless sick Haitians. The medical professionals I worked beside all had great things to say about Dermafill. The most common observations regarding the product were: the pain reducing abilities; ease of application; versatility of use; elimination of dressing changes; vast reduction in need of follow up appointments; and ability to assure a clean and infection free wound until the wound healed.

In the field, we found ourselves unable to carry enough pain medication to comfort our patients for the duration of their injuries. We were unable to prescribe pain-relieving medications. With Dermafill, all of the patients reported a significant reduction in pain after application; enough that a series of analgesics was no longer necessary to ease their recovery. This was a tremendous help in reducing the equipment carried into the field, and increasing patient satisfaction. The last thing we wanted to do was complicate the treatment of suffering patients with unnecessary medication.

Dermafill was simple to apply; utilizing nothing more than the membrane and saline. The rapid, and simple, application allowed doctors to see, assess, and treat the more critically injured patients. It took less time to treat the injuries than it did to have the assessment questions translated. This allowed our team to treat a greater number of patients more efficiently without any reduction in effectiveness. We saw and treated hundreds of patients every day; and team feedback pointed to Dermafill being responsible for easing the heavy workload.

Dermafill is a true skin substitute so we were able to apply it to most injuries that affected the skin - from major lacerations caused by falling bricks, to camp fire cooking burns. Dermafill certainly was not a cure-all, but it was effectively used to treat numerous types of injuries. Unfortunately, we saw almost all the injuries Dermafill is indicated for during our time in Haiti.

One of the significant problems when treating major wounds in the field is ensuring that the wound remains dressed correctly while the patient heals completely. Our team was faced with a difficult proposition: instruct an uneducated population on proper sanitation methods for cleaning and redressing wounds - all through translators - and supply the injured with enough sterile materials to conduct these dressing changes. This was not an option. Even if we successfully relayed how to change the dressings properly, we could not guarantee the supplies would remain sterile. This could do more harm than good. The other choice was to utilize a dressing that remained intact until the wound healed completely. The choice was simple: use a single application of Dermafill that required no dressing changes.

Most of the patients we saw were unable to get to the few medical facilities in Port Au Prince. And almost non of them had seen a medical professional when we arrived. That being the case, expecting patients to make their way to appropriate facilities for follow ups was unrealistic. Dermafill allowed us to treat wounds without having to follow up for dressing changes or wound inspections.

The conditions in Port Au Prince were unsanitary and the patients we saw all had infection present in the wounds we treated. Every wound needed extensive cleaning, some with field surgical debridement. After cleaning the wounds, we applied Dermafill and were relieved knowing the wound would remain free of infection and debris. Traditional dressings do not offer the same reassurance. In fact, any other dressing would require several dressing changes and a clean environment in which to perform them. This increases the risk of infection significantly. With Dermafill, we could rest easy knowing that our efforts were not futile, and that each patient we treated was quickly on the road to recovery.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times, and in how many ways, Dermafill helped us in our efforts in Haiti. I can only quote Dr. Griswell from the Virginia Medical Center, "This dressing is a life saver!" I am beamingly proud I was a part of this wonderful team, and that my medical services could be put to use in such a time of need. I am equally proud of Dermafill, and elated that I could bring this wonderful product to such a crisis and help thousands of suffering people.

Respectfully,
Zak Beck
President
Chasing Lions LLC
www.chasinglionsinc.com
Sales (773) 899-3079
Fax (877) 588-1076

TR2 Discovers Executed Haitian Bodies

2010-02-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

Warning: Graphic Photos
On January 28th, we were out searching for tent cities that were not receiving wound care. We were, thankfully, not having any luck. So we decided to stop by a Force Ten medical tent and offer assistance. We spoke with the Medical Director there, a delightful gentleman who happens to be a thoracic surgeon in Britain. They did not need our help and were planning to close early. They were seeing very few injuries and they weren't significant. He also stated that they had been hearing gunshots for several nights outside their headquarters. He thought that it reflected gang activities. He was of the opinion that his organization would stand down soon.

On the morning of January 29th, on the way to CDTI we noticed a body in the street. Brother Jim and I decided that we would go back that afternoon and have it properly disposed. When Brother Jim, Gunny and I went back that afternoon, the police were there and said they would take care of it. Closer inspection revealed that the hands were tied behind his back and it appeared to be an execution. We were more than happy to have the police handle this. As we were leaving, a policeman chased us down and told us that we could help by helping dispose of another body in another part of town. We agreed to go over there. When we got there we found TWO bodies that were decomposing and both of them had their hands tied behind their backs! These were not earthquake victims, these were crime (possibly gang) victims. It appeared to us that messages were being sent. We unanimously agreed that we wanted no part of this and gladly gave some gowns and gloves and masks to the police so that they could handle this. I continue to increase in respect for Brother Jim and Gunny's good judgment.
If this does reflect gang activity, this would be just about the last thing the Haitian people would need. Sorry to have to talk about this, but we need to be aware.
John Griswell, MD

Warning: Graphic Photos

Mark Hayward Newspaper interview

2010-02-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hospital's ER worker makes way to Haiti

Mark Hayward, an emergency medicine physician's assistant at St. Mary's Hospital's emergency room, is now in Port-au-Prince offering medical care to those injured in the earthquake in Haiti. He's a resident of King George, Va., and works for Medical Emergency Professionals, which staffs the emergency department at St. Mary's Hospital.

"We were providing the first medical care to several hundred badly injured civilians in a refugee encampment in the southeast part of the city today," Hayward reported by e-mail Monday night.

MEP is continuing to pay his salary, his fellow employees are covering his work shifts, Hayward wrote, and Mark Boucot, vice president at St. Mary's Hospital, donated the medical supplies that he took to Haiti, via Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

"I am working with a completely grassroots team of volunteers (mostly ex-military)," he wrote. "Today we completely expended those supplies taking care of patients … We are burning through cash and supplies and we have no end of work to do down here … if you can airdrop me an orthopedic surgeon, a portable X-ray machine, and a complete set of casting/splinting/amputation equipment, I'd very much appreciate it."

An account of the work of the team Hayward is with is at badgerjake.blogspot.com.

"We are down to making splints out of cardboard boxes and very nearly spent the night on the streets … because we had critically injured patients (for example a kid with a pelvic fracture that had been untreated since the earthquake) that we couldn't treat on our own and couldn't in any conscience just leave behind," Hayward wrote. "We are staying at a Jesuit novitiate house near the airport (people can … donate to Jesuit Refugee Services but they need to specify that the donations are for the work of Brother Jim Boynton in Haiti). Please excuse me as I need to get cleaned up and repacked so we can go out again at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

Hayward wrote that the security situation is not as dangerous as has been portrayed in some media reports. "No civil unrest, minimal bad behavior, and on the whole I am very impressed with the way the people are conducting themselves. But there is unprecedented need here right now."

TR 2 Member Zach Smith on Hugh Hewitt Interview

2010-02-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hugh spends parts of three segments speaking with Roseville, California firefighter Zack Smith about his trip to Haiti as part of the Team Rubicon mission.

Listen to interview here

Email List

2010-02-01T22:15:00.001-08:00

If you are interested in following Team Rubicon as we continue to grow, please sign up for our email newsletter on the right margin of the screen as you scroll down. Additionally, you can subscribe to an RSS feed, also located along the right margin.

Thanks, and continue sharing us with your friends and family!

Reflections of my mission in Haiti with Bravo Team Rubicon, by Gregg LaVeau RN

2010-02-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

As I sit here at home in my kitchen, with diet Dr Pepper in hand (no diet DP in Haiti), and reflect on my time in Haiti I am humbled by the memories. Memories of sights, sounds, feelings and smells. Memories of a Haitian people devastated by the destruction of their homes and villages. Memories of my teammates, now friends, one and all.

Eleven volunteers in Bravo Team, most which had never met, came together in North Carolina and became a real TEAM (and friends) in only three days, Members coming together from California, Texas, New York, Idaho and other far reaching places. Each member of the team bringing with them different valuable skills, with a wide variety of backgrounds and personalities. A mixture of Nurses, Firefighters, Paramedics, Doctors and members with Military backgrounds all there for one reason, to help the people of Haiti with their individual skills. Each member volunteering their time and some even their money, to hopefully make a difference. Led by a team leader, a man of many talents, not the least of which was his ability to “acquire” certain necessities to keep the team going, such as food and water.

Many people that we never saw made a huge impact on the team. A Pittsburg business man who donated plane service that was responsible for Bravo team’s flight to and for some members, from, Haiti was one such person. Team member’s wives, girlfriends, family members, friends and others were also responsible for a positive impact on the Team by supporting us in our decision to go to Haiti, not knowing what we would encounter upon our arrival.

We arrived late at night so we could not see the true picture of what destruction had occurred as we drove to the Jesuit Mission we would call home for the coming days. Brother Jim Boynton met us upon our arrival. It took only a short time for all of us to come to love and respect Brother Jim, a man with a multitude of talents and truly an unselfish man dedicated to helping people. Brother Jim’s attitude and spirit was such that we all are better for having met him.

On our first Mission in Port Au Prince the next morning we were able to see the aftermath of the earthquake. Not a one of us could have imagined the destruction to be so horrible. I know that I was moved to tears as we made our way through the city to the first place we would set up our medical site. The sights and the sounds and the smells were enough to cause anyone to be moved and humbled. Hundreds and hundreds of Haitians lined the streets and back alleyways of the city. Make shift homes that were simply tarps erected for shade, numerous tents, makeshift huts and other simple structures were scattered throughout the city. Some “tent cities” within the city existed also, some with only a few people and some with hundreds. There was little electricity, no running water, no bathrooms, no kitchens, fallen buildings, garbage, heat, offensive smells, and people crowded into the streets because they were afraid to be inside any building. No picture or phrase or paragraph of words can describe what we all saw as we traveled through the area. Some mental pictures will be with us for the rest of our lives and some of them we hope will not.

As we arrived at our first site and began to set up our medical gear and start treating people we were moved by the appreciation we received from each and every patient. I heard merci (thank you) more times than I could have imagined. We did not know in advance what to expect and had heard the news report of riots and trouble. I can tell you we went to Haiti prepared for danger and what we found were people that were glad to see us, never once did I feel in danger.

I was asked the next day by Brother Jim if I would go with the director of an orphanage to assess some injuries and do a general well check on her 70 kids. It was a privilege and an honor for me to go. The orphanage director and one other person from the orphanage drove me there to see the children. On my arrival I immediately noted the children were of all ages, from very small children through teenagers. At first most of them were fearful of this guy wearing a stethoscope around his neck and carrying a small medical bag, but before long with a smile, a laugh and a few funny faces the children were lining up to be seen. A few had some minor injuries but most were doing well. The children began to smile and talk to me. I was lucky enough to have a young man there (Howard) that spoke English quite well, and he translated for me. I drew happy faces on band aids for the ones that would not smile, placed them on their hand and had the interpreter tell them that since they would not smile I was giving them mine. Needless to say before it was over they had all smiled, especially me. Several hours later after every one was seen the director gathered all the children together and taught them all to say my name. Then they sang me a song telling me how they appreciated the help while the director interpreted. I must say that I was the one deeply appreciative and moved. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that I was able to go there.

Throughout the following days we saw many people, possibly hundreds in total and treated a huge assortment of injuries and illnesses. We saw many things that tore at our hearts and met many people that are still in our hearts, but throughout it all I believe we all got more out of our time in Haiti than we gave. Some members of our team volunteered to help take bodies to a morgue where they could find a peaceful forever resting place. A job that no one else would do, a horrible job, but a job they were proud to do because they are truly men of compassion. We all take home memories good and bad that will forever shape our lives. I can now say to the people that told me before I left that this could be a life changing experience, YES, YES, YES it was.

As our mission winded down many of our group went to a hospital and spent time helping there, two of our team spending 24 hours straight helping out. Some members ventured out of the city on the last day to donate medications and equipment to other small clinics and return to places they had been, such as an orphanage and a school. Brother Jim was also with us and was trying to find shelter for post operative patients from the hospital who had no home and needed a place to recuperate, as the hospital was discharging them to the street.

As six of our team, including myself, prepared to make our way home as our mission was officially to be over, the other team members planned to stay on and help out in any way they could. Brother Jim was of course continuing his mission there and was going to be his usual positive influence on the members that were staying and the people of Haiti.

I have many more memories that are just too plentiful to put into words, some I am not ready to discuss until I can process them. These I am sharing today are just the early ones that stick out in my mind.

As a final note to my reflection I would like to personally thank all the outstanding members of the first Team Rubicon for their valiant efforts and for putting in place the platform for Bravo Team Rubicon to continue their work.

Most of all I wish to thank and Salute my fellow team members of Bravo Team Rubicon and say that I am proud and honored to have served time with such outstanding and dedicated people that are Bravo Team Rubicon. God Bless each and every one of you for your service and God speed on your return home.

All the members of Team Rubicon have stories to tell and memories to share of their individual experiences in Haiti. This is just my early reflection. Thank you.

The work is only just beginning so please keep all the people that are continuing the medical care going in Haiti in your daily prayers.
Bravo Team Rubicon and Others

Glenn Pinson
L.J McCormick
Gregg LaVeau
Zachary Smith
Dee Spina
Jim Boynton
Gary Cagle
Brad Ratliff
Edmund Lo
Mark Plaster
John Griswell J
ohn Sakman
Robin Houghton
Our dedicated Haitian translators

Article on Catholic.org

2010-02-01T17:24:00.001-08:00

Haiti Disaster Proves Value of Small Rapid-Response Medical Teams
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) – Emergency preparedness specialists will be studying this development for a long time to come. What began as a conversation on Facebook became a small rapid-response emergency medical team – Team Rubicon – on the ground in Haiti.

Jake Wood, president of Team Rubicon, reported on his blog that the UN and Red Cross have reached full speed in logistical support, food and water are being delivered and hospitals are able to handle the medical mission.

click here to read the full article

On the Way Home

2010-02-01T09:14:00.001-08:00

Greg, Robin, and Griz

Film documentary coming soon!

2010-02-01T08:43:00.001-08:00

A professionally produced YouTube trailer from Fifth Man Films and Third Story Films, in association with TitleTen Films, which will be followed by a full documentary. A revenue sharing agreement has been reached which directs all of TitleTen's profits (net legal expenses) to Team Rubicon.

Article about our Doctors Griswell

2010-01-31T15:19:00.000-08:00

See here

TR Operations Cease in Haiti

2010-01-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Team Rubicon operations have ceased inside the nation of Haiti. The leadership within Rubicon has come to the conclusion that Team Rubicon has completed its mission of bridging the gap between the earthquake and large aid agency response. As of 1900 hours local, TR2 began travelling back to the US, with a small contingent of volunteers remaining behind to continue working at CDTI Hospital (under no affiliation with Team Rubicon).

Organizations such as the UN and Red Cross have finally reached full speed in their logistics and medical employment; as such, Team Rubicon can no longer operate within the scope of its mission in Haiti. Food and water are being delivered, acute and traumatic injuries have been treated and hospitalized, and operating rooms are working at capacity. The continued employment of small, self-sustaining Team Rubicon elements is no longer a cost effective solution; our dollars spent per life saved will now exceed large NGOs for the first time since the earthquake.

Now that operations have ceased, Team Rubicon has much to do. We have determined to continue developing and perfecting our model of deploying small, rapid-response, autonomous medical teams into afflicted areas. We want to do this the right way. As a result, we are going to grow slowly, without sacrificing our vision or our mission; and we hope that you will follow and support us on our journey. We want you, our donors and supporters, to feel like you have a vested interest in how we respond to disasters. We believe that running this organization with transparency will give you greater satisfaction as you support us with your hard earned money during future disasters.

Here is what you can expect from us in the coming weeks:

An OpEd published in a major US newspaper explaining our methodology and our results.
A case study submitted to Washington Think-Tanks with the aim of influencing large NGOs to adopt some of our concepts.
A thorough After Action Report, detailing what we did from start to finish, what went right, what went wrong, what we learned and how we are going to improve. We will publish this AAR on our website, and we will circulate it in a newsletter to you via email.
A professionally produced YouTube trailer from Fifth Man Films and Third Story Films, in association with TitleTen Films, which will be followed by a full documentary. A revenue sharing agreement has been reached which directs all of TitleTen's profits (net legal expenses) to Team Rubicon.
An organizational flow chart, detailing how we plan to develop, equip and staff Rubicon teams on both the East and West Coasts.

Additionally, as the new President of Team Rubicon, I feel a fiduciary obligation to offer you the following. Our donors pledged and donated their hard earned money to Team Rubicon to support our operation in Haiti. Many of you donated, thinking that it was just going to be myself, Jeff Lang, William McNulty and Craig Parello, and then watched in amazement as this organization grew beyond expectations. Because we have raised more money than we have used in Haiti, I would like to offer you the portion of your unused money back, in case you would like to redirect to an agency still working in Haiti. We feel that it is important for you to know that we will never waste nor misappropriate your money, and this is how we'll prove it (ever heard of an NGO, or the government for that matter, returning a budget surplus??). The details of how we will do this will be sent in a newsletter this week, and it will be optional.

That said, please know that we plan to grow. Haiti has been a learning ground from Day One, and we know that we are on to something. We WILL be among the first NGOs with boots on the ground in future disasters; and we will arrive better equipped, better trained and more experienced. However, the one area we appear to have an NGO monopoly on, is that we will employ teams led by individuals who are intelligent, decisive and PRONE TO ACTION.

I hope you decide to continue following and supporting us on our journey as we seek to shift the paradigm in disaster response. I will leave you with this, "If a disaster struck your city on a scale such as Port au Prince, who would you want to come save you in the initial 24 hours?"

-Jake Wood

President, Team Rubicon

James, our translator

2010-01-30T13:34:00.001-08:00

I interviewed this young man, He was translating for us at the hospital. What a story he told. More later!
-Robin

Post Op

2010-01-30T13:33:00.001-08:00

Tents at the hospital (where Glenn and Zac worked all night!) after the surgeries are complete, the patients move to tents before being discharged.

Waiting for the plane home

2010-01-30T13:32:00.001-08:00

Glenn Pinson

2010-01-30T13:31:00.001-08:00

Glenn Pinson, paramedic worked all night at the hospital. The French team left the hospital at 7 pm with no report to anyone on the patients they were caring for--Glenn and Zach worked all night, giving medications, and care to the patients.

As we say back home in Texas, this boy is plumb tuckered out!

Brad, Gregg, Dr. Griz going home

2010-01-30T13:29:00.001-08:00

Sitting at the airport--headed home.

Rubicon 2 OUT

2010-01-30T13:26:00.001-08:00

Our misson is finished. Last pic, headed to airport in tap taps, more to follow.

-Robin

Another patient

2010-01-30T11:06:00.003-08:00

Another patient that came to camp this morning.

Dr. Plaster cleaning a cut

2010-01-30T11:06:00.001-08:00

Today most of us are pulling out.
Here Dr Mark Plaster is cleaning a cut on a child that came to our cp this morning.
-Robin

Brother Jim Boynton,SJ

2010-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first time in my life that I had to get rid of a dead body.
Today was the first time in my life I had to get rid of a live one. Fee Fee was discharged from the hospital today; she has no home, family, or friends, appears to be in her 80' s, and is in full torso splint. We all knew that to put her on the street would mean death, and for some reason all the nursing staff decided she was my responsibility. After feeling helpless for a few minutes we loaded her into the back of a tap tap truck, and I had our driver take us on a wild ride that eventually ended at the missionaries of charity's convent. Fee Fee is not on the street tonight.

Brother Jim Boynton,SJ

Donations to the Haitian Academy

2010-01-29T22:02:00.001-08:00

top photo: Dr. Marie Pologne Jacques Rene, president of the Haitian Academy, with 2 of their physcians, express gratitude for the supplies given by members of Team Rubicon.

Grace Bon Dieu

2010-01-29T21:57:00.001-08:00

"Thanks to God" written on dirty windshield.

Orphanage

2010-01-29T21:56:00.001-08:00

Dr Griswell donates several thousand dollars worth of medications that he brought to Haiti, to the clinic at the orphanage. Oh yes, they are happy to see us!

Trying to Get an OpEd Published

2010-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

The original members of Team Rubicon have been in the process of drafting an Opinion-Editorial about the manner in which we responded to the Haiti disaster, and how that model can serve to improve the current status quo at large aid organizations.

Ultimately, what we write will have to stand or fall on it's own merits, but we want to make sure that it doesn't immediately get shuffled to the "discard" pile. I think you, as our readers and supporters, understand we are passionate about spreading the word and informing the public on what needs to be done. If you have a connection at the WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, etc, please email: wood.teamrubicon@gmail.com

Thank you for your continued support.

Dr Griz in tap tap

2010-01-29T06:37:00.001-08:00

Going to orphanage

Taking supplies to the orphanage

2010-01-29T06:32:00.001-08:00

Our mission is winding down, we are taking leftover supplies in this truck to an orphanage to leave at their clinic.

Daily Reflections

2010-01-28T19:19:00.001-08:00

Every day we hear the common story of people who want us to hire them for translators, workers, or anything possible. Most of this large city is homeless, without work, and in grief. The tent cities everywhere are improving in some ways, and deteriorating in others. After driving through the city several times today I became aware of just how long the rebuilding process is going to take.

There are now many medical teams in town, and most of the wounds we see have at least been treated one time. Much of what we are now doing in the city is badly needed follow-up work. Wounds once treated are getting infected, and people are now starting to report the problems associated with living in their new conditions.

One of our doctors heard about a wounded girl, and another wounded father, mother, and son. All of them were about an hour and half outside the city and were in need of surgery. We took our truck to go out and transport them to the hospital were our surgeons were working. All this week I have often smiled at doctors who have told me to tell a person to keep a wound elevated and clean, or to take a medication three times a day with food. Of course none of this is possible to a person living on the street with no food. Today after arriving at the hospital I told the people to get out of the car and follow me to the registration area. The little boy did not follow me, and I thought he did not understand. After repeating myself in my clearest Creole, he still sat there looking at me. Of course he could not walk. I realized my mistake, walked over to him and carried him through a gate and down to an empty tent where he will spend the night waiting for surgery. In carrying him I saw every little child in my past who had captured my heart. I saw Darren, Dennis, Dean, Maria, David, Tommy, Mark and Amanda. I saw Lily, Michael, Edward, Thomas and Anna. I saw 14-year-old Jeffry Duck, Billy Q., Martin and Chris. What happened here almost two weeks ago was an Earthquake, not a Haiti shake, and that little boy was not just Wilenson, but every kid I have ever known.

Brother Jim Boynton, S.J.

The rabbits are wild now.

2010-01-28T16:15:00.001-08:00

When I was here in November the rabbits were in cages and received food and water every day. Other than perhaps ending up in a stew pot once in awhile, they had no worries. After their cages were destroyed in the earthquake they would huddle together and were easily caught. They now run around, find their own food, and seem to have forgotten their old life.

Yesterday I met two cousins who had lost their entire family. The girls were roughly 12 years old and about two weeks ago their lives changed drastically. In talking with them they were so focused on the present that they seemed to have forgotten their past life. Like the rabbits they have no home and get their own food. My prayer for them is that they don't become wild and start doing on the street what rabbits do best.

Brother Jim Boynton, SJ

"The entire world is in misery, but the rabbits have their freedom.".

Gerard, Jesuit novice

Tents outside the hospital

2010-01-28T13:58:00.001-08:00

In this photo you see the tents surrounding the hospital where the hospital places overflow patients. Today Team Rubicon removed 2 dead bodies from a tent that was making the odor unbearable for the other patients. We did it as a favor to Dr Henderson (at the hospital) as she has helped us so much by admitting our patients and getting them to surgery.

Things are looking better

2010-01-28T13:56:00.001-08:00

Today we scoured the city to no avail. No trauma patients, and clinics are set up every where. Tommorow we go a town 3 hours away where we hear there are many people still untreated and with many fractured bones.

Brother Jim Boynton,SJ

2010-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

My dad and I play a game. He will fill up the truck with leaves or trash, give me the keys and tell me to get rid of it with no questions asked. When I get home he gets the keys, a smile and an empty truck. Today was the first time I played the game with a dead body. We had a shovel and were ready for any thing, but at the last moment we found a morgue that was just like a Haitian tap-tap taxi... Always room for one more...
Brother Jim Boynton,SJ

American Airlines Listens to Team Rubicon Followers!

2010-01-28T13:04:00.001-08:00

January 20, 2010

Dear Mr. Wood:

We have received word of the excess baggage charges that were applied to your trip to Santo Domingo. We very much appreciate the work that you and your team are doing for the people of Haiti.

Clearly there are times when exceptions to our baggage policies should be made, and this is quite obviously one of those times. We have refunded the baggage charge that you paid. If there are other team members who need to be refunded, kindly have them contact me at www.aa.com/customerrelations. Be sure that they reference my name in their message.

I also notice that you are planning additional much needed trips to Haiti, and you are certainly not alone. As you might imagine, the vast majority of customers wishing to travel to Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo at this time are going to assist with the relief effort. While we would like to allow these customers to check as much aid supplies as they can bring, we have come to the realization that we simply do not have the capacity carry the amount of supplies that our customers wish to check. In order to give each customer traveling to Haiti an opportunity to bring supplies, we are now limiting customers to two checked items weighing no more than 50 lbs each.

Conditions are of course changing rapidly, and it is possible that we may modify this policy at some point. The best way to keep up-to-date on our travel policies to Haiti and the Dominican Republic is via AA.com.

Mr. Wood, thank you again for the work you are doing in Haiti. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and all of their friends and family throughout the world.

Sincerely,

Customer Relations
American Airlines

Operations Are Winding Down

2010-01-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

Please be aware that Team Rubicon is now implementing plans to begin winding down operations inside Haiti. We have reached this decision because we have successfully helped "bridge the gap" between disaster and large NGO response. Large aid organizations now have the full weight of their might behind their logistics and operations, thus rendering us ineffective.

Please be aware that all contributions from this point WILL NOT be directly benefiting the relief effort in Haiti.

HOWEVER, Team Rubicon has decided to continue changing the face of disaster response. We promise to provide you, our donors and supporters, full transparency as we move forward to prepare for the next disaster, wherever it may strike in the world. This will be an ongoing and evolving process, but you can expect to remain fully informed throughout its development.

What you can expect from us in the near future:

We will author and publish publicly a thorough After Action Report. We will email this report to our donor list, as well as publish it to our website.
We will continue to work the media circuit in an attempt to shed light on what we feel is a "paradigm shift" in disaster response.
We will author and submit an OpEd to newspapers around the country, explaining what went wrong in Haiti from our perspective, what we did to address it, and what organizations can learn as we move forward.
We will develop and publicly distribute our Organizational Concept and Response Plan.
We will continue to raise funds through various means, ensuring that we can quickly and adequately respond anywhere in the world within 24-36 hours of a catastrophe.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your generosity helped make this idea and dream a reality.

-Jake Wood and William McNulty, Team Rubicon Co-Founders

Anyone Have Ins at the State Department?

2010-01-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

From "TraumaBob":

Hi,This is traumabob. I deployed with team Rubicon for 6 days. I was extremely dissapointed with the state departments treatment of volunteers leaving Haiti. They made us sign a promissary note promising to pay 300-400 dollars to leave Haiti on a military cargo plane to Florida. These planes came in with food/cargo and were leaving empty anyway to restock in Florida. When we found this out, we were going to leave and travel to DR for a plane out. We were then misinformed that the form was only for loans for people once the arrived in Florida and needed money to go further on their trip. After our bags were loaded, another state department employee demanded the promissary note stating we were going to be charged for the flight. At that point we had no choice because our bags were already stowed so we took the flight. I am extremely dissapointed in our State department.

One thing that Team Rubicon WILL do is continue to expose the ridiculous policies of our Government, large NGOs, the US Military, etc. Please, if you have a connection, ask the State Department why volunteers are being forced to foot the bill for empty flights to the States.

Jake Wood, Team Rubicon Co-Founder

Patients are seeking us out

2010-01-28T08:18:00.001-08:00

top photo This young woman, shown here with Robin Houghton RN, came to our camp this morning for treatment.

bottom photo Gregg LaVeau, stayed in camp today to treat patients that keep coming in.

Dr. Griz resupplying

2010-01-28T08:16:00.001-08:00

Dr Griz getting supplies from our outdoor stores.

Our local help

2010-01-28T08:14:00.001-08:00

One of many of the things your donations are going to are these local Haitians whom we hire as drivers and interpreters.

Clarification of Criticisms

2010-01-27T18:07:00.000-08:00

I would like to take a moment and clarify our position on criticizing three entities operating in Haiti.

1. Media
Team Rubicon feels that national media played a role in delaying aid organizations from conducting their mission due to a flurry of sensationalist journalism. Many major networks overplayed the security situation on the ground without any true knowledge, this led to risk-averse NGOs ceasing or delaying the deployment of doctors and the delivery of food and water. Many media personalities witnessed mobs of people only because they were a white face surrounded by camera crews sucking down bottles of water, essentially creating slightly unstable situation on a small scale. The media needs to understand the dynamic on the ground and have their crews operate in a more incognito manner. David Ono, from ABC 7, did this perfectly, travelling in a simple vehicle with only one cameraman, never announcing his presence. Conversely, Jesse Jackson had a large entourage of well dressed individuals and multiple cameramen. This caused a scene and could have led to unrest.

While we feel, as stated above, that the media did contribute to the problem, they also were an invaluable tool in bringing aid to the disaster. The 24 hour news coverage facilitated donations from around the world, providing a much needed influx of capital to major relief organizations. Additionally, they served as a platform for teams, such as Team Rubicon, to bring to light situations that needed immediate attention. For example, while Team Rubicon was running (yes, running) the Emergency Room of General Hospital in PaP, it took a combination of Dr. Griswell's interview with Anderson Cooper and my interruption of Jesse Jackson's interview with CNN to facilitate the UN's release of doctors being held at the US Embassy and the delivery of desperately needed food and water. Numerous newspapers around the country caught wind of our story and helped fuel the increase in "self deployers" who chose to come to Haiti against the wishes of the Red Cross and other NGOs. Finally, David Ono and ABC 7's three part series on our efforts flooded our budget with donations, making Team Rubicon a viable disaster response team for future catastrophes.

2. Large Aid Organizations/NGOs
Team Rubicon has been very critical of large aid groups such as the Red Cross, and for good reason. We feel that these organizations evaluated the situation on the ground and opted to accept a "zero risk" policy. Meaning that since the security situation, while stable, was potentially hazardous, they opted not to put the full force of their ability into play from the moment they arrived. We came across numerous doctors who complained of being "imprisoned" at the airport and embassies, unable to leave unless they had an armed NGO detail pick them up. Team Rubicon believes that, first, a thorough risk assessment must be done, then risks must be mitigated when possible, and finally, disaster teams must be willing to assume a certain remaining level of inherent risk. If this is not done, time is lost. And when time is lost, people die.

However, Team Rubicon understands fully the powerful ability of large NGOs such as the Red Cross. These organizations have significant funding, logistical capabilities, and experience in disaster relief. That being said, they also have a lot of bureaucracy and red tape, and it takes time for them to get up and running. Team Rubicon believes that it has the ability to "bridge the gap" between when disasters happen and when large NGOs can mobilize, organize and act. Once these large entities have their inertia moving, it is time for Team Rubicon to step aside and let the big boys play. Once this transition takes place, there is no one better to conduct disaster relief.

3. Military
Team Rubicon includes many former military personnel on its teams. Because of this, we are very aware of the awesome capabilities, as well as the debilitating limitations of the military model. First, the negative. The US military responded quickly and was on the ground shortly after Rubicon arrived. However, from our perspective they did a poor job of coordinating with the logistical parties of large NGOs. What resulted was a company of 82nd Airborne soldiers protecting the General Hospital. This company was making logistics runs multiple times a day to supply its soldiers, but at no point did they think to utilize their armed convoys to help the Red Cross bring in food, water, medicine and doctors to the patients dying there. It took our own former SF medic Mark Heyward grabbing a Colonel and saying, "Listen, sir, I have a few things I need to tell you about the situation here." Within, two hours, convoys of troops were arriving, guiding in busloads of doctors and truckloads of supplies. Another problem, which has been discussed at length on this blog, was the military's closed-minded thinking with regard to our own supplies. I won't discuss the actions of a particular Army Major further, but her actions display the "power trip/ my war or the highway attitude" common in the military. Additionally, it took the Army too long to push out squad sized patrols, bolstered with doctors, into the local neighborhoods to conduct field triages. This was essentially what Team Rubicon was doing, but without the full might of the US military behind us.

Now for the positive. As I stated, the military arrived fast, that's a plus. We also had many positive interactions with lower lever leadership. I spent a lot of time at General Hospital liaising with a company commander and his first sergeant, developing plans to provide shelter, as well as enlisting the help of his men to move patients. Second, the Army patrols we did encounter later in the weeks were willing to conduct side-by-side operations with us to facilitate better evacuations for wounded (we took the lead on that). I also ran into an Army captain willing to "secure" us a tent that a British SAR team was leaving behind. Perhaps the best thing I saw can be relayed in the following story. When the General Hospital building was finally cleared to be re-entered following the 6.1 aftershock, we had hundreds of critical patients who had been roasting in the sun all day and needed to be moved inside FAST. At that same moment, a convoy of Army trucks was entering the gated compound (facilitated by Mark's 'discussion' with the Colonel). I walked up to a captain and said, "Sir, I need your men to help us move these patients inside. I suggest you have your men drop their gear and find me, I will be determining the order of importance for patients." He immediately turned to a truck and shouted for the men inside to begin stripping gear. Those men hopped out and walked towards me, ready to take my orders. A quick glance at their uniforms and I realized I was looking at one Lt. Colonel, two majors, a captain, one sergeant major and two first sergeants. Basically a "who's who" in the 82nd Airborne Brigade. I pointed to the four highest ranking and said, "you, you, you and you, grab that patient over there and take her inside." I expected some incredulous looks because of my appearance and apparent age, but, to the man, the nodded their head and said, "you got it." It was that willingness to do what it takes that reinforced my respect for my military brothers.

Jake Wood, Team Rubicon Co-Founder

Tap Tap

2010-01-27T17:24:00.001-08:00

Paramedic Glenn Pinson in back of tap tap going out on mission

Army Medic John Sakmann saving a foot

2010-01-27T16:14:00.001-08:00

...in a back alley ( high on a mountain side no less)

Trying to save a foot

2010-01-27T16:12:00.001-08:00

Dr Griswell and other team members trying to save a foot of a young Haitian.

Today's prep

2010-01-27T16:11:00.001-08:00

At the church parking lot, paramedic Glenn Pinson and Zach Smith

Steep mountain trail

2010-01-27T16:08:00.001-08:00

This is the path we took going back down the mountain today.

I think she likes me!

2010-01-27T15:56:00.001-08:00

We treated her father for crushing injuries from the quake.
-Robin

Zach Smith with children treated high on the mountain side!

2010-01-27T15:49:00.001-08:00

End of day debriefing

2010-01-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

Gary and Mac, end of day

We treated 200+ patients today

2010-01-27T14:25:00.001-08:00

Today we went to a church and set up in the parking lot as a funeral was in service. These people were waiting under homemade tents waiting to be seen.

Brad Ratliff with a young girl we treated

2010-01-27T14:23:00.001-08:00

Hatian residents line up

2010-01-27T14:21:00.001-08:00

Many people still need to be seen by medical professionals

New location, more patients

2010-01-27T14:20:00.001-08:00

We hiked way up a steep mountain side and found and treated about 40 people!
-Robin

Zach treats a wounded foot

2010-01-27T14:17:00.001-08:00

Angie treats a fractured arm

2010-01-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

Street clinic

2010-01-27T09:04:00.001-08:00

Members of Team Rubicon treating patients at a street clinic set up in a church parking lot.

St. Ignatius' Prayer for Generosity

2010-01-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Br. Jim Boynton SJ leads the team every morning and evening in prayer

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

Jesuit Novice Edmund Lo Reports from Haiti

2010-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Snagged from http://archbishopterry.blogspot.com/
NEWS ON THE GROUND FROM HAITI

A couple of Canadian Jesuit Novices Edmund and Artur arrived in Haiti a few days before the 'quake. Edmund has been blogging about it and sent me a copy of his reflections. This is the latest, dated January 23:

Artur and I had relocated to another Jesuit community- the novitiate, to better aid the relief effort. Sleeping in tents because buildings are unsafe. Artur does things (LOTS of things) around the novitiate, including moving boxes of aid and doing inventory things, while I head out with a team of (mostly) American physicians, firefighters, medics and ex-marines everyday to help in areas where medical attention is needed.

This is called "Team Rubicon" and it is collaborating with the Jesuit Refugee Service. The team chaplain is Br. Jim Boynton, SJ. In 5 days we had been to four refugee camps and helped get the Port-au-Prince general hospital up and running again, while I had learned to (un)dress wounds, been a pharmacist, moved patients back into the hospital, and ran emergency clinic triages. It has been tiring but fulfilling.

Everyday we go to a different place, everyday we face a different situation. Team Rubicon has a blog site: http://blog.teamrubiconhaiti.org/

Today I will be going with a few Mennonites from Canada who are affiliated with L´Arche Canada to visit the L´Arche community near Port-au-Prince to deliver aids and set up tents for them. (As you know, I spent 6 weeks at L´Arche in Gatineau) Also to assess if there is a need for our team to move in and give them a hand on the medical side.

OK, all for now. Love you all and God bless. Yours in Christ, Edmund Lo

The man who started this with a Facebook post asking for volunteers.

2010-01-27T07:04:00.001-08:00

Jake Wood is a natural leader. Personality, character, and physical presence. I would follow him anywhere. Jake and I are preparing an After Action Report to capture the lessons learned from Team Rubicon's first deployment. Lingering question: Can the Rubicon model be employed in other disaster situations? We think so.

William McNulty
Team Rubicon Co-Founder

The team

2010-01-27T06:50:00.001-08:00

Dr Griswell, Robin Houghton, RN, and Dr Joseph, just before the storm

Glenn Pinson treats eye injury in a young boy

2010-01-27T06:49:00.001-08:00

We didn't expect to deliver babies!

2010-01-27T06:48:00.001-08:00

This woman came to the compound for help--fortunately Dr. Griswell was available.

Additional photos from Day 1

2010-01-27T06:14:00.001-08:00

At the Manresa refugee camp on Day 1, Team Rubicon's Mark Hayward watches as his patient plays Flight of the Hamsters on Hayward's iPhone. The patient was later evac'd for immediate surgery.

Wild rabbit and old fashioned Jesuit horseplay

2010-01-27T06:10:00.001-08:00

Team Rubicon Brother Jim Boynton SJ prepares to wake Dr Mauricio Consalter from his sleep. Boynton is notorious for throwing wild rabbits inside the tents of late sleepers.

a note from TL Gary Cagle

2010-01-26T18:39:00.001-08:00

We will be sending updates three or four times daily from our mission sites. Patient base is changing...more follow up at the locations we have been to before. Have locations of several (4 or 5) camps/sites on the edge of the city that NO medical care has reached yet. More on that as the intel firms up in the morning. A more detailed SITREP will be sent in the morning.

Gary

Javon

2010-01-26T18:37:00.000-08:00

This young man, very tough and brave, was operated on in a church parking lot by Team Rubicon. He was trapped with rubble on his legs for 2 days! Photo with permission

TR's transportation

2010-01-26T18:36:00.001-08:00

It's called a tap tap, because it normally is used as a taxi. They just tap the sides when they want to stop!

Donated medicines

2010-01-26T18:35:00.001-08:00

from Team Rubicon's Dr. John Griswell

Brother Jim

2010-01-26T18:34:00.001-08:00

The Jesuit that Team Rubicon couldn't live without! He is truely a brother!

Rubicon ready to deploy!

2010-01-26T18:32:00.001-08:00

Giving and receiving, by Mark Hayward

2010-01-26T13:35:00.001-08:00

100126 Giving and Receiving

I'm sitting on the runway at the Miami airport, shivering. I look and smell as though I've been sweating in my clothes for three days (which I have). If I were somebody else on this plane, I'd sincerely hope I wasn't sitting next to me. I'm looking forward to getting home, to a hot shower, clean clothes, my family, and my own bed.

I jettisoned everything I could think of when I left the novitiate house. I gave my tent and sleeping pad to Brother Jim; he'll use them during Team Rubicon's continuing operations, and will give them to one of the displaced Haitians when he finally goes back up north to his school. I gave my folding shovel, Gerber multi-tool, and North American Rescue trauma leg-bag to the new Alpha team leader; they're very useful during daily triage, treatment, and transport ops, and he in turn will hand them off to his replacement or to one of the locals when he rotates home. My black Crocs, my 511 tactical khakis, in fact all my clothing, with the exception of my undergarments and what I'm wearing now, have already been donated to the community of displaced Haitians in the novitiate compound. I did set aside my MEP scrub top and polo shirt for Brother Jim. (I hope that for years to come there are sightings of the MEP logo all over the island of Hispaniola!) :-) The command element was glad to get my portable tool kit, brick of rechargeable batteries and charger, 700watt DC power inverter, surge protector, and 12VDC and 110VAC power splitters, all of which will go to good use keeping the new Team Rubicon administrative hub up and running. My two favorite pieces of luggage, my American Tourister carryon and the Kal Gav bag that I picked up at the Norwegian PX in Sarajevo, are now part of Alpha team's medical support package, along with every combat tourniquet, specialty field and wound dressing, and H&H kit, tool, and packet that were in my house when I was packing. I left a Littman Cardiology III stethoscope, which will hopefully be of some use to a Haitian doctor rebuilding his practice. I left the lightweight REI jacket that kept me warm every night at 3AM; an Army canteen, a Gerber belt knife, a Petzl headlamp, an LED flashlight, two camelbacks, my prized aircraft-aluminum spork, and everything else that I thought could have any use to the Team or our displaced Haitian family members. I brought down a thousand dollars in cash for the op fund, purchased inbound and outbound plane tickets to the tune of another $800, and ran up a cellphone bill that I'm afraid to check. So that's what I "gave up," in strictly material terms, to be a part of this mission.

And in exchange?

Well, I can either give the "right" answer, or my own answer.

The "right" answer, of course, is that I received an opportunity to be of service to my Haitian brothers and sisters. I can say this without any reservations because it is absolutely true. I have a completely changed perception of the Haitians, and I will never forget their strength, their patience, their courtesy, and their honorable behavior under unimaginably challenging circumstances. The "right" answer also makes reference to the fact that by going to Haiti, I was able to serve as a representative for a multitude of my North American brothers and sisters, who saw the suffering in Haiti and wanted to help. With the exception of the very short list of material resources that I donated myself, everything that passed through my hands was a gift from someone else to the people of Haiti, and it was my privilege to deliver those gifts. Frankly, the same can be said of everything I did there, and indeed, anything I do anywhere. Our Father in Heaven provides breath in my lungs, the earth beneath my feet and the sky above my head; whatever good thing I may make or give or do is ultimately a gift from Him, and I have the privilege of passing those gifts along as I see fit. If I wish, I can also choose to live selfishly, to hoard or squander the blessings I am given on a daily basis. My experience and my faith confirm for me that my life is most joyous when I freely share what our Father has so freely given into my hands, and I believe that this principle is true for every one of us.

And all of these things are true, and all of them are part of the "right" answer to the question of what I gained in Haiti. However, they are not "my" answer. My answer is simple: in Haiti, I found my brothers. Jim Boynton: a man who has dedicated his life to the service of our Father, and who serves with wisdom, intelligence, insight, and a great sense of humor. Jake Wood: a natural leader, a man of vision and integrity, the man I want leading my team no matter what the challenge is. David Griswell: an emergency physician who is the equal of any I have ever met, and a man of individual compassion even in the midst of the most far-reaching suffering. Eduardo Dolhun: a brilliant, guileless, and utterly monomaniacal advocate, of oral rehydration in particular, and of doing simple things well in general. Jeff Lang and Craig Parello: "ordinary" Americans, who had never even gone on vacation outside the US, but who volunteered to help mitigate a third-world disaster of biblical proportions, and who did so with presence of mind, ingenuity, and a calm unflappability. William McNulty: smart, well-educated, well-travelled, with plenty of very pressing reasons NOT to go to Haiti, who chose nonetheless to put his other activities on hold and devote his considerable talents to working behind the scenes, laying the administrative groundwork for the mission, and letting the world know what Team Rubicon was doing. Clay Hunt: a man who personifies loyalty and what it means to be a true friend. And Zak Beck: an entrepreneur and fellow soldier out of uniform, who chases his own lions. So in the end, although I went to Haiti for the "right" reasons, and from a sincere desire to render aid to others, what I found there was at least as much a gift for me as for anyone else. The "big picture" of Team Rubicon's work in Haiti deserves to be underscored by Saint Ignatius' prayer, which Brother Jim led us in as we set out and returned each day. But for me, the "little picture" is best summed up by a line from Shakespeare: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

Thus I simply close by saying "Thank you." Thank you, to my family and co-workers and employers, who made it possible for me to go to Haiti when I felt called to do so. Thank you, to everyone who provided resources so that I could deliver their gifts to people in need. Thank you, to my brothers and sisters in Haiti, who graciously accepted the best I had to offer, even when it was very limited. But most of all, thank you, to my fellow members of Team Rubicon, for allowing me the honor of serving with you; and thank You to our Heavenly Father, who blessed us with this meeting.

World's worst cheeseburger?

2010-01-26T12:12:00.001-08:00

Clay enjoys the world's worst cheeseburger in Santo Domingo. Clay and Jake should touch down in Miami in a few hours.

Haiti EYES ON Interview with William McNulty

2010-01-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

Read William's situation assessment here:

Dr. Mark Plaster Reports from Haiti

2010-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

Snagged from EPM Monthly. EPM's executive editor Mark Plaster, MD, arrived in Haiti on January 24th to assist in the relief effort. This is his account.

January 25: Getting to Work in Port-au-Prince
“When we got off the plane, Port-au-Prince was almost completely black. There is almost no light here. We unloaded the aircraft ourselves and it was just a giant scramble getting all the bags off. We had bags in seats and the inside of the aircraft was total chaos. It was shocking that we got all our gear off. We were met by a team Rubicon leader named Jake Wood, a 6' 5" ex-marine sniper who was now a medic. On his own, Jake had decided to come down to Haiti and help out. He’d grabbed a couple friends – some people he didn't even know – grabbed some sleeping bags and flew to Santo Domingo, DR. They rented a car and just drove in to Port-au-Prince. They made a connection with a Jesuit Mission and just camped out in the mission yard and started seeing patients as fast as they could. They were cutting off limbs in the field . . . it was pretty chaotic when they first arrived. That's when Jake Wood notified his father back in Michigan that they could use a second wave of team Rubicon. The team coalesced from all over the country – California, Texas, New York – and none of us know the other guys at all. We all just showed up and it's been amazingly well organized. The team leader down here, Gary Cagle, is a medical logistics guy who worked with the U.N. He was able to put together a 501-c-3 in a matter of about four days and he raised about a quarter of a million dollars in order to bring a team down here and get the job done. So they showed up at the airport, we off-loaded all our gear and came over to the Jesuit Mission, everywhere was pitch black. They told us to throw our sleeping bags down on the ground and they’d introduce us in the morning when we could see everybody. All night long I could hear planes coming and going because the runway was so close. I could also hear babies crying, but it wasn’t until the next day that I learned that this was because the Jesuit mission is a refuge for the homeless."

"The Jesuit Mission itself is a gorgeous old Spanish-style building, but it is unusable. It's about to fall down and nobody can actually go in it. It's a tragedy. Everyone is now living and cooking out in the yard. There are about 40 of us here now but there is a whole group that is leaving today, surgeons who have been here for a while and have to go home. People are coming and going all the time. But it's moving into a different stage at this point. We are now seeing wounds that were handled by people 5-10 days ago. I just took care of a little girl, probably three years old, who had her leg amputated traumatically and we were just cleaning up and redressing her wound. Whoever handled it initially didn't try to do a true amputation they just kind of cleaned up the wound and took the rest of the leg off. We've seen fractures – I just treated a guy with a lower leg, tib fib fracture that was never set, never seen by anybody. Somebody just got him some crutches and he's been limping around with an untreated fracture ever since. We're using cardboard and duck tape to stabilize his fracture because it's too late; we can't get it to set at this point. The surgeons at the local hospital operated until 10pm last night and they had another 200 cases waiting for them. There's a lot of open fractures down here, a lot of orthopedic work.

One serious problem down here is the lack of follow-up. Some docs are putting in external fixators, but they are leaving them with nobody scheduled to follow it up. A lot of people are walking around with X-rays and medical records and hoping that at some point somebody will take the bars off their legs.

Today we drove away from Port-au-Prince and found a place to park under some trees. We've got two trucks out here and just set up a bunch of chairs to see people. The people have been very obedient and calm, we just have to make sure we're not passing out food and water. We don't see starvation but people are certainly not happy. But at the same time in Port-au-Prince people are coming back out. They can be seen sitting outside eating and drinking."

Team Rubicon, 3 teams on the move with new members

2010-01-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

2 medical 1 surgical on the road. 12 person team of Haitian- American doctors and nurses with own logistical support hooks up with us. They heard of TR from Jesuit contacts. I think the Jesuits and Team Rubicon make a pretty good team!

7 year old writes letter to the team.

2010-01-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hello,
My name is Griffin. I am seven years old. My dad is a Marine and tells me how important your job is. So does my mom. Thank you for helping these people. They need you. I am glad I have a house to live in. We are going to send money to help you. I hope you are safe.

You are in my prayers.
Griffin

Props to Air Calvary for provinding helo lift for the Team

2010-01-25T16:53:00.000-08:00

They took Clay, Griz and Jake to the DR while making a food drop to an orphanage way out in the boonies. They operate on donations and they sure helped us out. Look them up. They are a good outfit.
Website here

Clay, Jake and Dr. Gris safely in DR

2010-01-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

This is Clay Hunt, and I have commandeered my phone once again. Jake, Doc Griz and I are showering up and headed to eat large hunks of cow.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Update on Bravo by Team Leader Gary Cagle

2010-01-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

We are up via satellite! Team Rubicon has full internet connectivity downrange here in Haiti (will not be up/on all day...will discuss with the team, and set up scheduled comms windows daily, and will let you know).

We should have Skype voice call and video call availability...will test those components tomorrow.

Working the details to ensure continual flow of updates from the teams (via Blackberry) during the course of the day, so that the blog can be updated regularly. Should continue as before as of tomorrow. Please let the TR supporter who provided them know that they are working perfectly...many, many thanks! (Tammy and Dustin Troxell)

Lots of good stuff going on...truly sorry to see Jake and the others depart today. It felt like a historic moment when he and I shook hands, signifying the change of command. The end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. Team Rubicon will continue the mission. I do not as of yet have the email addresses for Jake and Will on this machine. Please pass this on to the both of them, as well as anyone else you think might be interested.

Gary

Brother Jim Boynton, S.J. and the Original 8

2010-01-25T16:19:00.000-08:00

The Original 8

Years ago when my cousins would come and visit for the 4th of July or Christmas we would always have a great time. I was the “home” cousin who grew up in the same town as our grandparents, and therefore when they came to visit family they were on my turf. I enjoyed being the host and knowing the locals, but also was very sad to watch the car pull away at the end of the visit; each of us going back to our former life. Today I had a feeling in my gut that had net been there in over 30 years, but this time instead of watching my cousins drive away from St. Ignace, Michigan, I watched the last original members of Team Rubicon fly away in a helicopter. They will go back to their lives, changed forever, but no longer physically here. I will stay. Now we begin the transition to new doctors, firefighters, and military personnel. They original 8 have left behind enough dirty clothes to last me a long time, but more importantly they left me with memories and friendships I will never forget. Today I stayed behind and did not go to the camps. It was good to get a break, and it was good to spend some last moments with the original Team Rubicon. We now have uniforms, maps, internet, solar panels, and a well organized and supplied group. We have come a long way from the group of men who crossed the border from the Dominican Republic with the sole intention of helping a wounded people and nation. Yes Team Rubicon has come a long way. My hope is that Haiti will too. My hope is that eventually the large machines like the Red Cross and United Nations will be able to be here for the long haul. Team Rubicon was the first responders to countless people in need. We now begin another stage.

Brother Jim Boynton, S.J.