DrChrono Blog

Yesterday morning we woke up with the sun and departed for the village of L’azil. The bus took us as far as it could, and then we jumped off to continue on hiking. I can’t wait to post some photos for you all to see once I get back. DrChrono’s EHR program in Haiti has been a successful start to a bright future of better health care delivery in Haiti through a dependable, robust documenting system.

We started clinic immediately upon arriving to the mountain village. Hypertensives were abundant, and so we educated them and gave them a 3 month supply of blood pressure medications while telling them to make sure they return in April for followup. Our local cook made us a delicious dinner that included a cake that apparently took 10 hours to prepare!

We stayed the night in the small village and got a taste of the way Haitians lived there. It helped us understand some of their complaints much better in clinic. For example, many of the women complained of headaches because they cooked in small kitchens with poor ventilation which causes carbon monoxide poisoning. We educated them about this and provided some pain relievers.

The next day we started clinic when the sun came up, but had to leave early because we heard there might be some civil unrest after they announced who would be on the presidential ballot. On our way out, there was a pregnant woman near term with elevated blood pressure and symptoms of headache and blurry vision. She was experiencing preeclampsia which could lead to seizures and death if not treated properly. We decided it would be best to start an IV line with normal saline and transport her to a hospital. We also administered some magnesium sulfate to prevent her from having a seizure. I walked alongside her on the hike to the bus with the normal saline bag held high. Then, a 3 to 4 hour bus ride to Port au Prince where we dropped her at Doctors Without Borders. They were happy to take her in and help her through her delivery.

Tonight we are staying in the Worldwide Village guest house, and tomorrow we are flying back home.

This has been an amazing experience with fantastic people. I’ll reflect more on my blog when I return as for now I plan to enjoy my night in PAP…