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Siblings Moni and James Saintil lived together in Port-au-Prince. James was a student while Moni worked as a medical technologist. James was walking in the road when concrete blocks fell and broke his leg. He has been treated by traditional doctor, Saurel Saintil, 50, who has been practicing his craft for the last 25 years. He learned the trade as his father and father before him and specializes in bones. If a patient has wounds or HIV he refers them to the hosiptal. ©Evelyn Hockstein/CARE
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Traditional medicine and the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake
Rick Perera, CARE Haiti Communications Coordinator
In earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where broken bones and open wounds far outnumber doctors, people have grown accustomed to long waits for medical attention. But many who turn up at Saurel Saintie’s mud-brick home have waited longer than most. These patients have traveled five hours or more along a rutted, dirt road -- aboard battered old buses, in backs of trucks or perched by threes and fours on motorbikes – to escape the ruined capital, Port-au-Prince. Many have gone weeks without having their injuries attended to.
Once they arrive in the rural northwestern Haitian district of Gros-Morne, their first stop is to see the “bush doctor.”
The patients line up to enter Saurel’s dark but tidy two-room house, where a narrow mattress lies on the floor beside a shelf full of delicate china figurines. The traditional healer uses homemade braces, plasters and massage techniques to treat some of the injuries inflicted by countless collapsing buildings.
“I’ll put a cast on him for a month, and we’ll do physical therapy every three days,” Saurel says, gently touching a protruding bump on Fidelien Joseph’s shoulder. The 34-year-old construction worker was at his home in Port-au-Prince when it collapsed, sending concrete blocks toppling onto him. He can’t lift his arm. “He should be OK after a few weeks,” says the medicine man.
Many of the rural migrants who populated crowded, precariously built neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince found themselves suddenly homeless when the quake hit. Those who survived, some with serious injuries, took the first opportunity to leave the city. Tens of thousands have streamed back to their native farms and villages.
CARE, which has been working in Haiti since Hurricane Hazel hit in 1954, has identified practitioners of traditional medicine as key partners in its community-based approach to emergency response. “Traditional healers are an important part of the health care network here,” says Francoeur Jean-Joseph, Program Manager for CARE’s Gros-Morne office. “People tend to make a first point of contact with them, and we work to educate them how to refer cases that need more urgent care.” He adds that practitioners like Saurel take some of the burden off the local health facility, 20-bed Hôpital Alma-Mater – which has already treated and discharged nearly 90 earthquake survivors.
The 50-year-old Saurel learned his craft from his father – in a family tradition that stretches back generations. He specializes in orthopedics, treating simple sprains and fractures; more complex cases, including open wounds or internal injuries, are referred to Alma-Mater.
Saurel is aware of the limits of his practice. He regularly sends patients with HIV and AIDS to the doctors at Alma-Mater for antiretroviral treatment. But he is also confident in his ability to help.
Those rural places were poor to begin with – that’s why so many of their residents, especially young people, left for the city. Coping with a flood of displaced people is taxing limited resources to the limit. Along with food and shelter, medical care is in short supply.
Like most permanent residents of Gros-Morne, Saurel looks tired but less stressed than the new arrivals from the earthquake zone. He is working harder than usual and helping support his own relatives who have taken refuge here.
He turns to 16-year-old Jocelyne Philoma, who, like so many others, had gone to the capital to get an education. When her aunt’s house collapsed, she suffered bruises and broken bones – but is relieved to be alive. “I’m happy to be here, because I’ve returned to health after my fractures, she says solemnly. “They are better now since the doctor treated them.”
Saurel smiles, and moves on to his next patient.
To donate for this emergency, please contact your closest CARE International member.
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