Blog entries

Hot!!

juliebriggs

Well it is getting super hot these days!!although Ive heard its warming up in Northern Ireland??
Anyway enough about the weather I want to tell you about a patient I had today.

He is 17 and in September he had a car accident and now is paralysed from the waist down. After the accident he went to hospital in Port au Prince (the capital city) and stayed there for a month, then went to hospital near his home in Cap Haitian for a few weeks then they sent him home. Except [...]

Busy busy

juliebriggs

well busy week!!!So because I wasn't overly busy in the clinic before now we put an announcement on the radio saying I was here and what sort of problems I can treat so this week I have seen about 70 patients and its not even friday yet!!It is great though because I want to do as much as I can while I am here. So the kind of things I have been seeing are lots of back pain, lots of arthritis and a few babies who I think have cerebral palsy and its so sad because there mums have no idea b [...]

home visits

juliebriggs

In the past few weeks I have had the chance to do a couple of home visits to patients who cannot come to the clinic. The first was qith a nurse from the clinic in the place were she lives, a lady had had a stroke and they could not bring her to the clinic. She had no family and some people from the community were looking after her, all I could do was give them some advice on how to look after her but you know they were doing it all already and its amazing how instinct takes over when you haven&# [...]

Praise God

juliebriggs

Ive got lots of thing to praise God for this week. First a patient who I had been working a lot actually I will tell you his story his name is Fritznel and he is thirteen. He first came to the clinic in December withan infection in his lung which had to be drained manually with a needle he had this done each week, he was also put on TB medication. His mum wasn't around and he was staying with a girl who works in the clinic. He came back in January just after I arrived very sick, he [...]

Another week

juliebriggs

The longer Im here the more my eyes get opened up to what life is like for people in Haiti. I was talking to a couple of guys this week, one of them was just 19 he had 6 brothers and sisters and his mum all lived in the same house. In Haiti the people are really loyal to their family and that is pretty much the most important thing to them. So this guy has the responsibility to look after his family because his father is dead and he is the oldest son yet he is still at school but somehow has to [...]

month two

juliebriggs

So I have been in Haiti the for two months now and can't believe how fast time is going. Last week we had a wee miracle in the clinic, on monday a little baby came in just 15 months and she was very very sick. She had a high temperature and her respiratory rate was way to high and she wasn't reacting to anything really and when Dr Gavin saw her he said he thought she was going to die she was so sick. So he gave her some IV antibiotics, she did not move when Gavin put the needle in. A gro [...]

Some Patients

juliebriggs

So this week in the clinic has been hard work and a bit overwheleming I suppose, I guess God was just breaking me in gently the first few weeks. Ive been treating (well trying to) patients whose pain is so preventable and if they had proper treatment when something happened it could of been prevented. Part of it is because of the health care here, its pretty awful and the other part is because of money. The people just don't have enough money to pay to go and see the doctor then they don' [...]

Month One

juliebriggs

(I wish I could think of more original names for the title!!)
Ive been in Haiti for a month now, and time is going so fast like the weeks just fly by. Im getting busier which is why I have written anything for a while. Ive got a lot more patients in the clinic, a few challenging ones which Im not overly sure what to do....but Ill try different things. Ive also had a few patients who have had a stroke, they are difficult to treat with just a bed and just me with no physio assistants and prope [...]

week two!

juliebriggs

Well I have been here two weeks, it feels like the time have gone really fast but I feel like Ive been here longer!I am definately settling in much better than last week and am starting to feel more at home.

So this week I have done alot, first on saturday I went to the beach it was amazing a Carribean beach...its hard being a missionary!!!only joking it was lovely to just relax at the beach.And the drive there through the mountains was beautiful the word Haiti means mountains [...]

Week one

juliebriggs

Well this the third time Ive tried to write this so I hope it works!
As most of you know Ive arrived safely and on time last Thursday. My first impressions of Haiti were hot, although I have definatley got used to it I have a cardigan on most evenings and mornings!It was busy there are alot of people everywhere. And it was poor, There are people at the side of the street selling things anything really, people washing cars to get money and kids trying to help me with my suitcase to get a lit [...]

Thank you

juliebriggs

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came to support me in the table quiz last night, there was alot of money raised which was brilliant and I hope you all had a good night.
Thanks, julie

Haiti & Bethesda Medical Clinic Video

juliebriggs

Hi everyone. Thought i would post this video to let you all see a bit of Haiti and Bethesda Medical Clinic where i will be working.
{flv}haiti{/flv}

fundraiser

juliebriggs

I'm having a table quiz to raise money for going to Haiti,
Wednesday 14th nov at 7.45pm in the sports hall in church, teams of 8 but don't worry if you have more or less. There will be prizes for the winning and losing team!
hope to see you there

Julie's Blog

juliebriggs

Hi, my name's Julie Briggs, I'm 23 and from Bangor in Northern Ireland.
In July I graduated from the University of Ulster with a degree in physiotherapy... and I am going to Haiti to spend 6 months working as a physiotherapist in the Bethesda Medical Clinic, run by OMS International.
Currently the clinic treats over 200 patients a day. All the staff are Christians and seek to help the people both medically and spiritually and they are seeing people give their lives to Jesus throu [...]