Welcome

Nadia poses with Healing Hands staff after accepting a position as the first ever SCI Patient Rehabilitation Support Worker in Haiti

It is with extreme pride that Team Canada HealingHands, is able to fund the position which will employ Nadia Bernavil as the first ever SCI Patient Rehabilitation Support Worker in Haiti. Nadia now works for Healing Hands for Haiti at their Kay Kapab Klinik in the centre of Port au Prince.

Her remit is to;

· Provide telephone consultation with SCI & Rehab patients

· Provide community visit support of identified patients

· Organizing group activities

· Advise peers on how to adapt to new lifestyle (useful techniques)

· Co-ordinate monthly Peer Support Group sessions

· Talk to Students, Nurses and Medical Staff

· Talk to visiting NGO Teams/volunteers

· Act as ambassador for SCI/Rehab patients in the Klinik,

· Link with Disabled Associations, Minister of Reintegration of the Disabled, MSPP and other relevant associations

· Provide liaison between Klinik staff and patients

· Attend SCI and Rehab classes to increase knowledge

Nadia was on the 2nd floor when the building she was in collapsed during the January 12, 2010 earthquake. She was extracted from the rubble after 3 or 4 hrs by her neighbours. She did not have any loss of consciousness but sustained a T11/T12 dislocation and displacement of her spine during the earthquake.

She was briefly evaluated at a Port Au Prince Field hospital then transferred to the Dominican Republic (DR). After a week she was repatriated to a hospital in the North of Haiti, then transferred to Haiti Hospital Appeals (HHA) in early February 2010. It was at HHA where we were first introduced to this remarkable young woman.

Nadia, who speaks three languages, was a practicing Registered Nurse prior to the 12 January 2010. Unfortunately she lost her only baby, brothers, sisters and parents in the earthquake. She also lost her ability to walk and is now a complete paraplegic. She was an inpatient at the HHA SCI Unit for eight months and was an integral part of the ‘family’ of patients on the ward.

Nadia was on bed rest for many months due to her extreme pressure ulcers. But with regular positioning, a focus on healthy eating and daily wound care, total healing was achieved. Surgery was not available to Nadia - for either her spine or her wound.

Nadia quietly observed the nursing care and rehab care given and naturally became a patient/peer advocate.

She spoke to student nurses on their six week placement to the HHA SCI Unit and was able to talk with them about how it was to be an SCI patient, providing invaluable information for them – and the staff working there.

Nadia would often speak of her wish to return to nursing one day.

It was with a mix of happiness and sadness that she was discharged home to Port Au Prince in September.

Since September 2010, Nadia has been living independently, with her husband, in an adapted home that her family built for her, and is managing all her SCI needs herself (skin care, bladder and bowel programmes, exercises).

It is with great happiness that we welcome Nadia to the HHH team. We know the contribution she will make to our clinic and patients, staff, and volunteers will be invaluable.

Three members of Team Canada’s first team of 2011 arrived in Port au Prince on January 8. Ten more members will join them on January 11. During the time in Haiti members will provide education at Healing Hands for Haiti and Wings of Hope in the capital. Members will travel to Cap Haitien for training at the Spinal Cord Centre at Haiti Hospital Appeal, as well as training and service delivery at clinics in the city of Jacmel and an orphanage on the island Ile a Vache.

On Tuesday our group working at Healing Hands’ Kay Kapab Clinic will be visited by Huddle for Haiti, a CFLPA, WestJet and Oxfam Canada driven initiative that supports Haiti relief one year after the devastating earthquake. Seven players from across the Canadian Football League Players Association will spend 10 days in Haiti during the anniversary of the country’s devastating earthquake. They will spend Tuesday at the clinic working out with some patients and helping the therapists design some fun athletic activities for patients to participate in.

Other members of the Huddle for Haiti group that will be at the clinic are from WestJet. We’ll take this chance to thank our friends there for allowing Team Canada to participate in their rebuilding Haiti program. WestJet provided flights for us to help in getting some of our many volunteers to Haiti in 2010. And actually one member of our first group in 2011!!