Healing in Haiti

Healing in Haiti
JOHN A. TORRES
9 June 2008
Florida Today
(c) Copyright 2008, Florida Today. All Rights Reserved.
JOHN A. TORRES
FLORIDA TODAY

BON REPOS, HAITI -- As Dr. Stephen Badolato listened to 6-month-old Thomas Jubiter's heartbeat, he asked the boy's mother if she had any questions.
"Can you find someone who will adopt my baby?" she said in Creole.
Badolato, a Melbourne physician, leaned back and gave her and the 15-pound baby a sad smile.
The mother and the child have AIDS.
"I know I'm going to die," the 30-year-old mother said through an interpreter. "I only came here to try and get my baby adopted. I pray about it."
Badolato was part of small medical mission team that spent four days in Haiti treating more than 100 women and children in a village about 10 miles north of the capital, Port-au-Prince. He and the others returned Sunday.
The group stayed at Ruuska Village, a haven for women who have been victims of domestic violence or abandoned by the fathers of their children. With no means to care for them, many of the mothers seek to have their children adopted by Americans.
Recent violence in the capital of this small nation -- with an estimated population of less than 9 million -- has been spurred by food shortages and debilitating inflation. During the weekend, it gave way to peaceful demonstrations.
But there also is growing resentment toward the U.N. forces patrolling the streets.
All was quiet in Ruuska Village, save for the clamoring of women and small children waiting for medical treatment. As children shared bags of cheese-flavored snacks and tried to stay cool in the intense heat, the women lined up with coughs, stomach pains, toothaches, yeast infections and AIDS.
"Back in the states, there would be a lot of options for a baby like this," said Badolato, shaking his head amid the backdrop of breathtaking mountains and cries of hunger. "The mother is sick with AIDS as well, and all she cares about is finding a place for her child. She's suffering, too. I thought that was pretty unselfish of her."
Longtime aid worker Barbara Walker started Ruuska Village years ago after receiving a $10,000 gift from an American couple she helped with an adoption.
"Many have no one to help them. That's why the babies come to me almost dead," said Walker, who has braved kidnapping attempts, shootings and widespread violence to continue caring for these women.
Refusing assistance
The medical team met its first challenge only hours after leaving Indialantic at 2 a.m. Thursday to fly from Fort Lauderdale. Spirit Airlines initially denied team members from taking a second bag. This would have forced them to leave behind the thousands of dollars in donated medical supplies, baby formula, diapers and feminine products.
However, $321 later, the bags were allowed.
Hours after landing, doctors saw their first patients.
Even with interpreters eager to lend their skills, the language barrier was almost as tough as the social barriers for the medical team.
One woman, who was being seen for irregular bleeding, refused to talk about the situation with Dr. Lance Maki of Merritt Island even though he has been an obstetrician for 20 years.
"She wouldn't discuss it with me," said Maki, who was accompanied on the mission by his wife, Kris Maki, a women's health nurse practitioner. "She's going to come back with her husband. We'll be here."
Maki then enlisted the services of an interpreter to write down some simple medical terms phonetically in Creole. Soon he was walking around with the piece of paper, asking women when they had their last periods, whether they were pregnant and where the pain was.
Kris Maki, a nurse for 20 years, said she found her first missionary experience eye-opening and satisfying.
"When my husband asked me to come, I realized at this time in my life, there was absolutely no reason, no excuse to say 'no,' " she said.
Badolato's aunt, Lisa Bahary, a nurse from Sarasota, was on the mission as well.
'All you could do'
The four medical workers grew quiet when the Rev. Tony Cortesi of a nearby orphanage showed up with two children who had severe disabilities and needed attention.
One, 4-year-old Peterson, was left with Cortesi two years ago.
"The hospital threw him out because he wasn't dying fast enough," Cortesi said of the boy who was blind and whose head was three times the normal size. "He's been living with me for the last two years. I only take the abandoned and the dying."
Badolato was amazed at how much the boy's head weighed. An infected shunt put in years ago was slowly killing the boy.
"It was shocking, devastating and gave me a feeling of helplessness," Badolato said after treating the boy. "I changed his bandages and prayed for him. That's all you could do."
Knowing the medical clinic would hardly cause a ripple in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, Badolato thought the medical care he provided was only part of what he had to offer.
"I really wanted to help those who needed it the most," he said. "We need to make sure they are not forgotten."
Contact Torres at 242-3649 or jtorres@floridatoday.com.
_______________________________________________
Who was involved?
--- The medical team that traveled to Haiti was made up of Dr. Stephen Badolato of Melbourne; Lisa Bahary, a nurse from Sarasota; Dr. Lance Maki of Merritt Island; and Kris Maki, a women's health nurse practitioner.
--- Also with the team were Titusville missionary Joe Hurston and water purifier technician Joe Prussel of Suntree. The pair spent the weekend doing maintenance work on more than a dozen Vortex Voyagers donated by Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen. Hurston is president of Air Mobile Ministries, which has taken water purifiers and other supplies to impoverished and disaster-stricken locations worldwide.
--- FLORIDA TODAY reporter John A. Torres and photographer Craig Rubadoux accompanied the missionaries and helped. Torres' wife, Jennifer Torres of Indialantic, and son Danny of Satellite Beach, were part of the mission support team.
_______________________________________________
How to help
For information about Air Mobile Ministries, call 567-0332 or find a link to its Web site at floridatoday.com