Tulane medical student Alison Smith is keeping a blog for MTV as she helps out in Haiti, following the country’s brutal earthquake.
On Jan 15. -- three days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of Haiti -- in her first blog post, Smith tells why she came to New Orleans and what she learned from the difficulties New Orleanians have faced in a post-Katrina reality.
“People in New Orleans understand in a way few can what Haiti is facing,” she writes. "I came to NOLA three years ago for medical school because I wanted to help rebuild this beautiful place and to learn from its people. I have faced many daunting situations due to a lack of resources and infrastructure that have both saddened and encouraged me to work harder. Today I depart for Haiti not sure of what to expect. I have been to Haiti three times before and have been to the Dominican Republic four times working with Haitian refugees over the last four years. A place that I always have in my heart and mind — the people, the music, the unparalleled culture is suffering.”
Smith’s first impressions in Haiti confirm what many have been watching in tragic video being sent around the world: mass suffering and a place overwhelmed.
“General Hospital, the largest remaining hospital in Port-au-Prince, was atrocious,' she writes. People were lying everywhere, many already dead, many others near death. We tried to help who we could. We gave some pain medicines to people with broken limbs. I changed the dressing of foot wound on a pregnant woman. We found a boy with an infected leg and tried to make him more comfortable.”
A day later, her experiences remain just as harrowing:
On Jan. 17, she writes, “The most moving experience of today was a boy who had passed away en route to the hospital. His mother pulled down the towel, recognized him and starting wailing. We told her that we needed to move the body and that she had a few minutes with him. She began a chant and was singing and thrashing about as she sent his spirit to heaven. It was such a heartrending experience to watch. What we are seeing is simply unbelievable.
“There are people camped out everywhere, with no plan of where to put those whose homes are gone. Many refuse to leave the hospital grounds because of that.”
