FEBRUARY 18, 2010 ISSUE
‘They’re Completely Overwhelmed’
Jeff Sutton Returns from Haiti, Shares Experiences
Dr. Jeff Sutton, owner of Family Eye Care in Boone, speaks about what he saw and did in Haiti while going over pictures another member of his team took. Photo by Corinne Saunders 
A common sight in Haiti, Dr. Jeff Sutton explained that millions of the countries’ homeless are residing in “tent cities”—extensive compounds made of blankets strung together. He fears for the wellbeing of these people when the rainy season begins in five weeks, he said. Photo used by permission 
A boy whose pelvis was broken as a result of the earthquake smiles after receiving treatment and a cast. Seeing two-and-a-half-week-old broken bones was common while Dr. Jeff Sutton was Haiti earlier this month, he said. Photo used by permission “I usually come back from these trips and get back into the swing of things pretty easily, [but] I have worked in Haiti every night since I’ve been home,” said Dr. Jeff Sutton, who recently returned from a trip to Haiti as a medical missionary.
Sutton, owner of Family Eye Care in Boone, was in Haiti from January 31 to February 8 as part of the fourth team sent by North Carolina Baptist Men (NCBM) in response to the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that rocked the country on January 12.
The 17-person team was comprised of “five physicians—two of them orthopedic, two family medicine doctors and myself, one PA (Physician’s Assistant), one respiratory therapist [and] the rest were nurses,” Sutton said.
Sutton is an optometrist but is also trained in emergency medicine, a certified mechanic and skilled in building maintenance. He feels it is not enough to just run a business in Boone “when I’m given the gift I am, to help and heal,” he told High Country Press prior to his departure.
“My family and I have served all over the country and all over the world,” he said at the time.
This trip, however, was different.
“I have been in conditions I would consider awful,” Sutton said. “To steal a term from Steve Byerly, this was ‘worse than awful.’”
He saw a lot of traumatic injuries from the earthquake, including eye, head and skull trauma, and he provided wound care for those who had been burned and had amputations.
“I also ended up being medical director for our team, which involved scheduling and logistics for our team,” Sutton said. “I even ended up acting as hospital administrator for a day. If you stick around there you get promoted quickly!”
Many of the burn injuries had been caused when a flour factory building collapsed and blew up—flour is combustible, Sutton noted.
More workers were seriously injured from burns from the explosion than from the building collapsing, he said.
The community in which the factory had been located is called Tintayen, which translates to English as “little nothing,” he said.
Sutton and the rest of his team “were fortunate enough to stay in a compound in Tintayen, but it was over the hill from many of the mass burial sites,” Sutton said. “There’s a distinct odor where you know what it is.”
While he was there, some Haitians with picks and shovels, whom he thought were going to help bury the dead, began digging up bodies to search for money or jewelry. As a result, to discourage other potential looters, the government reburied the mass graves with rocks instead of just dirt, he said.
“That’s a snapshot of how desperate the civilization is,” Sutton said.
As the excavation of buildings continues, Sutton expects the death toll to top 250,000 and has heard estimates as high as 280,000 people, he said.
Two and a half weeks after the initial earthquake, communication remained difficult because many cell phone towers had collapsed, so many Haitians couldn’t even contact their loved ones, Sutton said.
One lady who came to the hospital while Sutton was there had no idea who she was.
“I’m sure she has family out there somewhere who don’t know we have her here, [but] at some point they’ll assume she’s one of the bodies in a mass grave,” he said, adding that such “things [are] considered unacceptable [in the U.S.].”
Nonetheless, Sutton said, “We had a safe trip. We had a blessed trip. We did not keep count [of patients], but we saw hundreds per day between the two hospitals we were using.”
The NCBM Team No. 4 operated as a joint effort with Rescue 24, an international, immediate care group with the ability to be onsite in a disaster area within 24 hours, he explained.
NCBM, a “North Carolina and national response team,” usually concentrates on recovery, feeding and reconstruction—this disaster marks the organization’s first international relief effort, Sutton said.
“They were in the area on Day One and functioning on Day Two,” he said. “[NCBM] made a commitment to this hospital to work with them and see them through recovery.”
Sutton and his team members were split between working at St. Damien Children’s Hospital and at Petionville Community Hospital—a 75-bed hospital “that, in the first hours after the quake, received over 1,000 patients,” Sutton said.
“They’re completely overwhelmed,” he said.
International response, meanwhile, has not been scanty. One of the hardest aspects of aiding Haiti is simply getting into the country, Sutton said.
“Until February 13, no commercial flights [were] going into Port-au-Prince,” he said.
The airport was able to handle 250 flights a day while he was there, and these were private and military flights.
“There was a backlog of over 1,200 flights waiting to land…waiting for clearance,” he said.
“While we worked in these hospitals, we worked alongside many other U.S. relief agencies as well as other groups from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, Korea, Jamaica, Thailand, [Switzerland and France],” he said. “One group of surgeons came from Slovakia. It was neat to see the world put their differences aside come to help those people.”
Two and a half weeks after the initial earthquake, countless injuries were still untreated, he said.
“We were seeing 2.5-week-old broken bones no one had looked at,” he said, adding that they were able to ship some patients out to the University of Miami and other places taking cases.
“We’re fortunate we had that window of opportunity to refer patients out,” he said, adding that he fears many groups caring for Haitian patients free of charge now will not provide the same services for much longer.
“When offers are withdrawn, people will be sitting with these injuries,” he explained. “I hope people will be mindful and continue taking care of these people.”
At the hospital where Sutton spent a week and a half, “every square inch around the hospital has makeshift tents at this point,” he said.
Even after receiving treatment, the outlook for many was grim.
“You would think, ‘go home and recover,’ but home’s gone,” he said. “People didn’t want to leave the hospital. They had nowhere to go.”
The hundreds of people waiting to receive care or who recently received care stayed in tents outside, or if they were lucky, occupied a spot on the hospital floor, he said.
Amputees especially needed to be close by so “we could get to them and change [their] dressings.” Sutton said.
The hospital volunteers, meanwhile, slept on the roof of the hospital in tents, he said.
Want to Help? ‘Pray, Give and Go’
Sutton encouraged people interested in helping citizens of Haiti to “pray, give and go,” he said.
“I consider prayer a first resource, not a last resort,” Sutton said.
The Haitians did not just suffer physical damage from the earthquake, he noted, explaining that they need more than physical care—they need hope, he said.
“The majority of people in Haiti are into black magic, witchcraft, voodoo…there’s tremendous spiritual warfare there; it’s very obvious,” he said.
Monetary donations are also important for recovery efforts. People can donate to many organizations, such as NCBM, Samaritan’s Purse and “many others,” because “these efforts do require large amounts of money,” he said.
“On the worst day in our nation, we’re light-years ahead of where these people have ever been in their nation. Our donations go a long way there. I would recommend to give to a reputable organization where the money goes dollar-for-dollar into Haiti,” he said.
Finally, “if you feel called to go and have a skill that can be used, then go,” Sutton encouraged. “This is a long-term recovery. The need is not going away in a month or a year.”
In addition to nurses, physical therapists and those skilled in orthotics and prosthetics, Sutton especially encouraged “all builders and contractors who are out of work out there” to consider going.
“We’re now moving out of acute phase [and] transitioning into a recovery phase,” he said, explaining that reconstruction is sorely needed.
Problems of disease and lack of sanitation already abound, “and in about five weeks, the rainy season starts,” he said. “We’ve got a time window here to get people housed.
“I don’t want people to forget about them after the sensationalism dies down, [after] another headline replaces them,” Sutton said.
As he wrote in his journal on the final day in Haiti, Sutton said: “What a glorious opportunity to love these broken, hurting souls in the name of Jesus.”
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