By James B. Bartle
Ten years in the United States Army, serving hurricane victims from Katrina, Ivan, Wilma, Rita and many others still didn’t prepare Sullivan resident, MO-1 DMAT Greater St. Louis Bi-State Disaster Medical Assistance Team member and Clayton paramedic/firefighter, Jeff Counts, and his recent tour to help the people of Haiti following a disastrous 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12.
Counts and the 83 members of the MO-1 DMAT Team left Missouri on Jan. 23 for Haiti and returned home on Feb. 5.
The MO-1 DMAT Team set up operations in southern Port-au-Prince, just south of the harbor, where what used to be a University/Health Clinic.
“This was a pretty amazing and surreal effort,” said Counts. “You hear a lot of people complain about things not happening fast enough in Haiti. When we arrived in our plane, we landed on the only runway, had to be off the plane and unloaded in 20 minutes so the plane could take off again. The airport was very inhabitable. You could also see the international effort taking place as planes landing from Japan, Great Britain, France and Brazil.”
The 83 personnel that made up MO-1 DMAT included physicians, surgeons, nurses, medics, respiratory therapists and several other medical personnel.
Counts stated that surgeons would set many broken bones and then cast them and send people on their way.
During their tour of Haiti, the MO-1 DMAT Team saw over 3,000 patients, provided more than 200 surgeries, aided in 30 births and provided immunizations to all 3,000 patients in their makeshift hospital. All this was done with limited medical facilities and the 82nd Airborne standing guard of the facility.
Counts stated that while serving in Haiti the team saw numerous full-blown tetanus, tuberculosis, and countless broken bones. Even three-to-four weeks after the quake, the people of Haiti were still coming to the medical facility to have their broken bones set or operated on.
“I would have to say this was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” said Counts. “While you were there working, you really didn’t think too much about it; but, once you got back on the plane to come home, you just really couldn’t believe what we had just gone through and done.”
Counts stated that what little infrastructure the country had was in rubbles. For instance, the main hospital was a loss in more ways than just its structure, as 50 percent of the hospital’s staff was killed in the deadly earthquake, which included the entire second-year nursing student staff.
“We had to do a lot of improvising from what were accustomed to,” said Counts. “With Hurricane Katrina, there was a hospital to get people to maybe a 100 miles away; in Haiti, you didn’t have that facility.”
Counts stated that, while in Haiti temperatures were in the 90s during the day and humidity wasn’t too tough to take, but the smell of burning debris was all over the country as trash items were just piled and burned everywhere and, shortly after sunrise each day, a strong haze of smoke covered the area.
“The people of Haiti are amazing people that have wonderful family support,” said Counts. “We would treat them in our makeshift hospital and members of their family would help them with their day-to-day functions and recovery.”
Counts stated that during his 11 days in Haiti there were so many touching stories.
“For me, it was a very touching situation. I remember so many things. For instance, I had a 10 to  11-year-old orphan sitting on a cot in the hospital and, through an interpreter, we learned that his family had all perished in the earthquake. He only had the clothes on his back, no shoes, and his feet were cut up. I gave him my sandals to wear on his feet,” said Counts.
“We had a 12-year-old boy come into the hospital carrying his six-month-old sister. He told us that he lost his parents in the earthquake and brought his sister to us to make sure he was giving her proper care. You had these stories daily, and you had to know there was groups or organizations coming in to help these people and children.”
Counts stated that, when he first arrived, they had a five-day-old baby that had full-blown tetanus and several times the staff knew that the child was not making any progress, no movement, and was going to pass away; however, by the time his team left, somehow, some way, that child made it and was recovering well when they left Haiti.
While in Haiti, Counts stated they went through several aftershocks; some they could feel and some they wouldn’t. Food was tough to come by initially; once the team landed and was limited to one meal a day for the first few days until supplies began coming into the ravished country.
“Haiti was a third-world country before the earthquake and, now I would say, they’re even worse off and more of a fourth-world country,” said Counts. “You know, the hardest thing about this trip was going home and knowing that you didn’t fix the problems there. You want to fix everything there and you can’t.”
Counts does not know, at this time, if the MO-1 DMAT Team will return to Haiti anytime soon.
The MO-1 DMAT Team is made up of specialists from all over the state of Missouri.