Hope For Haitians.....And For Us!!
I wonder if it is the times in life when we feel the most content and stable that we are thrown into situations that are inconceivable and we then look for solace, for hope, for a way out.
On January 12, 2010 I felt fairly good about life, about future plans, and about the work I had been doing over the previous months to help those in need in the developing world. Then I heard news reports about the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti which caused such suffering, such loss, and an incomprehensible death toll. I felt the call to go and help but initially listened to the arguments from friends, colleagues, family, and myself that it was not my role or my job to go and help, that safety was a major concern, that we should allow others more experienced to move into the fray. For a few days I battled with the decision to stay or go……
Our medical team of 16 landed in Port-au-Prince on a Canadian government sponsored aircraft one week following the earthquake and were put to work immediately caring for those who had lost almost everything in the disaster; their homes, their loved ones, and even their own limbs. Our team of doctors and paramedics worked to offer medicines to ease their pains, to treat their infections, and to anaesthetize them for procedures and operations. The degree of suffering was astounding. US armed forces brought in more patients by the hour, all of whom had been suffering, often alone, for over a week. We worked in the desperate heat in tents and under tarps as best as we were able but yet always wondering when the patients would stop coming, when the suffering would end.
I tried to imagine how I would deal with the same loss, the same suffering and could not conceive of coping with what they had to endure. Everyday upon entering the city we would find people who had died during the night lying on the side of the road as their families had no way of dealing with their bodies. How could anyone cope with all this??!! And yet, on our third day, I awoke before dawn, went outside our compound and heard a sound I had not heard before. After listening for some time, I realized it was the sound of people singing, making music, finding peace and joy in song during a time of unspeakable suffering. How could this be? I asked some local Haitian friends later that day about the singing and they concurred that there was singing everywhere, at night especially, in the tent cities, and in the slums. Music was a source of peace, of calm, and of hope. Music helped to sooth their aching bodies, their troubled minds, and their broken hearts.
I realized that as a team, our medical knowledge and skill as well as our medicines were important and much needed, but the people of Haiti had also found refuge in music; they had found comfort in joining their voices together in song to help with their suffering. Healing music had sprung from their suffering, giving them some hope….hope for Haiti….and I realized hope for our team…..and hope for me as well.
I know there are people singing in Haiti tonight….what joy….what hope for Haiti!
Anthony L Brown MD CCFP
Medical Advisor, FTC Canada
Editor’s Note: In his fourth year of medical school at the University of Western Ontario, Tony spent three months at a mission hospital in Kenya, where his passion for medical missions in the developing world took root. Since then, he has led church and medical missions to Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti with Medical/ Dental teams from FTC (Feed the Children) Canada. www.ftccanada.ca
Dr Brown is a Family Physician, GP Anaesthetist and Coroner for Durham Region. He lives in Port Perry, Ontario with his wife and three daughters, and enjoys running, golfing, skiing and bird-watching.