East Catholic Alum Takes a Mission Trip

By East Catholic High School

At East Catholic, we have alumni doing amazing things all over the world.

One of those alumni is Dr. Michael Bourque, Class of 1970.

Dr. Bourque has just returned from another incredible experience in Dame Marie, Haiti as part of Medical Aid to Haiti.

“And I am more convinced than ever that when we all reach that final judgement moment, it will not be the ruler of American wealth and privilege we will be judged against, but the yardstick of the greater world where two billion good people live on less than two dollars per day,” he said.

Here is one story he told upon his return.

“Haiti is a harsh place, and there are no safety nets of any kind. If you are young, injured, without family or a sponsoring group, bad things happen that sometimes can be worse than dying. We met a very lucky young woman of 14 years this past trip. Daniela lost her parents at an earlier age, and she was kept by another family until she was turned out for reasons I have no knowledge of at this time. But she ended up on the streets with no means of support, and no way to obtain a steady supply of food or clean water. She ended up in some very rough hands, and was brought to the hospital physically damaged in many different ways. The treating doctor happened to be a special woman in her own right. This was Dr. Elinsa Gay, who we first met as a Haitian OB/GYN resident on one of our prior surgical trips. After she graduated, she was hired to work at the Dame Marie community hospital and try to reduce the maternal death rate that is one of the highest in the world. She happened to treat Daniela, and after she repaired her injuries, she took her in, and is now making plans to adopt her. Daniela has had very little formal schooling, and like most young people in the countryside in Haiti, there are few opportunities to acquire training or skills to help improve her survival. Now she has a chance better than many. But a severe price she had to pay before a special heart bound with her own. And if we had not started our regular trips to Dame Marie three years ago, Dr. Gay would not have trained with us or been asked to work at the community hospital, and Daniela would not have been saved. Looking back on the thin thread of chance that connects all the events that had to happen before she could be saved, speaks to the miracles big and small that all supporters of our program are helping to create. And in ways that are far removed from the medical and surgical changes we are bringing to this community.”

Dr. Bourque said that this trip was one of the heaviest turnouts that he has ever seen in the three years at Dame Marie, with probably over 100 people waiting when the team arrived on Sunday to set up the operating room.

“And for the first time, we had a list of patients already prescreened by the two medical physicians on staff at the hospital,” he said. “Unfortunately we also had people who had been referred from physicians in villages far away, as well as new patients who heard on the radio station we were to be in town. So there were three different groups all trying to get their ticket to better health converging on a small central hall below the operating room. It was chaos at its best, and downright scary at its worst. A quick conference was held, a system of tickets were handed out, and everyone reassured they would be seen.”

At the end of the week, over 400 patients had been seen and treated and 32 major surgeries were performed without complication – some involving tumors as large as 10 pounds.

“We were thankful that the Red Cross had established a presence in Dame Marie last fall, so that the several patients who needed blood were able to have their surgery and recovery go safer,” said Bourque.

At the completion of the week, when the team was about five minutes from leaving the hospital area, a patient was brought in, near death, who had been the victim of a machete attack due to a village Voodoo proclamation.

Due to the amazing skills of the surgical, anesthesia, and nursing teams, his condition was stabilized, his wounds closed, and he was sent off for overnight care in a Cuban hospital several towns over where he could be watched.

“We were gladdened to hear he survived intact with all his faculties,” said Bourque. “And it reminded us that we are in a very foreign land where the boundaries of civilization as we know it don’t extend too far beyond the community where we are stationed.”

During this February week of service, Bourque and the rest of the team were able to bring better health to many hundreds of patients. Every one of these folks has their own unique story of their struggle to carve out a happy life for themselves and their families. Mostly fisherman and farmers or tradesman, their life is a daily struggle with the forces of nature and poverty and malnutrition.

For more information about Bourque, the rest of the team, the mission, and how you can help, visit www.medicalaidtohaiti.org and www.stfrancisimm.org.