Inspiring

If I am not watching CNN these days (and actually can only do that aftermy munchkin has gone to bed), then I am reading the site, or related sites. Haiti is breaking my heart, and now, especially the babies.
It was in going throughstories on the little ones that I came across articles about Fr. Rick Frechette.

I know Fr. Rick, and have had the pleasure of first watching this compassionate man and his volunteer teams work, in my first summer in Haiti, and then stepping in to work with them, during subsequent trips if happened to be where they were, too.  I was even his "patient", myself, on one occasion.

The days they would arrive at the Brothers' Hospital in Pele, or at St. Joseph's Clinic in Cite Soleil were always good ones- REAL doctors (Fr. Rick also became a physician when he saw the great need in Haiti), real nurses, real supplies and medicines. And, even when those supplies too quickly ended with the sudden influx of people in need, his gentle touch and ready smile helped to calm.

 I can recall helping "Dean" a medical student working with Fr. Rick to cut and drain a very large abcess from a teenage girl's pelvis. She was in incredible pain, and the infection could easily spread and create much greater problems, so the decision was made to "operate" right there, on a guerny, in 90 degree heat. I got the IV in, the sheet with a "working hole" (my name, not the technical term) cut out, Dean has his utensils sterilized and ready, and then we discovered that there was nothing to freeze the area, let alone knock her out.

Fr. Rick had just finished the baby clinic and was coming through the back room where we'd set up to work. We told him the dilemma. He looked around the storage behind us. His gaze fell on a few cans of Solarcaine gathering dust on a top shelf ( really people, Solarcaine in HAITI???) and he smiled. After a second of staring blankly at him, it dawned on us, almost simultaneously, that the deadening ingredient in Solarcaine is
Lidocaine, and what does lidocaine do? Temporarily freeze the area it is administered to, usually by injection. He smiled again, and went on to where he was needed more, trusting that, improvised or not, primitive conditions or not, we'd get the job done (and oh sweet Jesus was it hard to stay committed when her freezing began to wear off only 20 minutes into the process) and get the girl relief, in the long run.
So, anyway, I seem to be talking like Fr. Rick is gone- no, no, thank God. He is okay. I am writing about him b/c here is a man who has been recognized for his humantiarian efforts by the  Hollywoon elite, and true to form, did not change him a bit. He still went back to Haiti on the next plane after the awards ceremony, he is still in the field, as much as ever, and was (is) there during the devastation of the earthquake.

In his words:
"Stories of deaths of people who are dear to us keep coming in. We spent the rest of the time managing the countless people with serious and severe wounds, coming to our hospital.

We are doing our best for them, under trees and in the parking lot with ever-diminishing supplies. We will work throughout the night and beyond. No stores are open, no banks are open.

Diesel is running out. Will be out in two days if we don't find a solution, which will mean no power at all. The hospital is without water since there is some broken line between the well and the water tower.

Structural damages to the hospital seem superficial at first glance, but about half the outer perimeter walls have fallen. The old hospital in Petionville is in ruins.

WE HAVE NO INTERNET. OUR PHONES DO NOT WORK. IF A CALL DOES GET THROUGH WE CAN'T HEAR OR BE HEARD. Robin has Internet access through a satellite. I asked her to send this message for me, and to read my e-mails and answer them as best she can for now.

Please continue to pray for us. We pray for you too."



Fr. Rick Frechette is one of the true heroes of Haiti-  I cannot imagine what he must feel now as he watches his people, the babies suffer in a whole new, even more devastating way.   Pray for him, and all he serves.