A brother and sister are walking near their home village, in the mountains. Without warning, a man attacks them with a machete. He cut the brother across his wrist and hand, nearly amputating several fingers. His sister is cut on her head in 4 places, on both arms in multiple places and through her knee cap. They are both bleeding profusely. They are several hours away from a medical facility that can help them. The man who did this to them has psychiatric illness and managed to cut several other people that morning before he could be stopped.

These patients arrived in Cazale almost 3 hours after they were attacked. Transportation is difficult to find right now due to the scarcity of gas. In addition, transportation is significantly more expensive than it was a few months ago. At clinic, the bleeding is stopped for both patients. The brother’s hand sustained serious injuries that will require an expert surgeon so that he can use his hand again. Most of his sister’s wounds were sutured, but she also had a laceration to her knee that cut the knee cap into 2 pieces that would require an expert surgeon. In addition, she had lost a lot of blood and needed a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, many hospitals are closed in Port au Prince due to a lack of diesel fuel to power their generators which supply them with electricity. There was also word of protestors blocking roads and gang activity on the route to Port au Prince. Haiti Air Ambulance and Hero were able to help us out. We drove the patients to Global Outreach- another missionary organization with a large fenced in field. Haiti Air Ambulance (HAA) met us at Global with a helicopter. Our female patient deteriorated on the drive to meet HAA, she was in and out of consciousness. She was flown via helicopter to a Partners in Health hospital in Mirebalais. Haiti Air Ambulance returned to Global Outreach and picked up the brother, and flew him to the airport in Port au Prince. There, a Hero ambulance picked up the patient and transported him to a Doctors Without Borders hospital. There is very poor cell service in Haiti right now, but we hope and pray that these patients received the care they so desperately needed and are now home.

During these increasingly difficult times, we are grateful we were able to partner with other organizations in Haiti to assist these patients- Global Outreach, Haiti Air Ambulance and Hero. Unfortunately, the situation continues to deteriorate in Haiti. A gang has infiltrated a missionary facility in our region. Another gang is robbing people who pass on the only road those in our area of Haiti have to access Port au Prince. They are even stealing the vehicles. Presently, we do not have safe passage to Port au Prince, not even in an emergency situation such as getting a dying patient to a hospital for life saving treatment. Please pray that peace and justice would be restored to Haiti. Pray for many missionaries who continue to minister in Haiti in this dire season. Pray for the Haitian people, millions of whom are living in the midst of gunfire, without access to health care- and clean water and food are becoming scarce due to lack of transportation and closed ports. It is a desperate time for Haiti, but, day by day, we trust God is in control.