J.P. is a 60 year old woman with severe asthma. She has multiple asthma exacerbations every year and occasionally needs oxygen. We buy steroid inhalers from Blessings International  and she uses the max dose. Long acting beta agonist inhalers reduce the number of exacerbations she experiences but they are not available in Haiti and are more difficult to find elsewhere. So she uses short acting beta agonists multiple times a day. Her daughter lives on another Caribbean island and purchased a long acting beta agonist inhaler and is going to try and send it to her via DHL. I suspect she also has vocal cord dysfunction contributing to her symptoms. But there is no ENT physician currently available in Haiti who can evaluate her for this condition. And there are no speech therapists in Haiti who can provide therapy for vocal cord dysfunction.

She came to clinic on Friday evening last week in respiratory distress. Her oxygen saturation was low at 80% and her lungs were very tight. She improved with supplemental oxygen, systemic steroids and continuous albuterol nebulizations. She was slowly weaned off oxygen over the next 2 days, but did not want to go home because she was scared. So she slept at clinic for another day so she could monitor her oxygen. She does not have electricity at her house and so cannot use a nebulizer machine at her home. Fortunately, she lives very close to clinic and can come for albuterol when she starts to feel poorly.

The lack of medical resources in Haiti can be so frustrating. But I am thankful for electricity (supplied by solar power, inverters, batteries and generators), oxygen concentrators and the medications we can obtain to help this patient. A heartfelt thank you to all who donate to ensure these life preserving resources are available when our patients need them most.