Young Luther nursing student in
epicenter of quake; forced to
decide about limb amputations
By Lissa Greiner
When Luther student Lindsay Pruis decided to spend her J-term on a mission trip to Haiti, little did she know she'd end up treating the survivors of a major earthquake -- in many cases making life-and-death decisions.
"It was just utter chaos," said Pruis of her experience, which found her smack dab in the center of the quake.
A junior from Eagan, Minn. majoring in nursing, Pruis traveled with a group of 36 others as part of Mission E4, a group based in Massachussetts. They departed Jan. 9, arriving in Haiti just three days before the historic quake.
About their mission
Pruis said while they were there, she and her Mission E4 colleagues planned to orchestrate some children's programs for schools, as well as help with some much-needed building projects.
"Our primary goal was that we wanted to be able to show God's love through our actions as we were building things and helping the people," she said.
Sharp detour
For the first four days of their trip, things went according to plan, as they embarked upon some building projects at an orphanage and several schools.
It was on the fourth day their mission took a sharp detour.
"We were on our way back to where we were staying in Carrefour - probably only about two minutes away from our hotel, the Villa Ormiso, when we heard a loud crash and saw a wall come right down beside us. There were 15 of us on the bus and we were all very confused because we didn't know what was happening," she said.
"The bus started rocking back and forth like a boat and there were people running in a panic up and down the streets. That's when we heard someone yell out 'Earthquake!'" she said.
"It seemed to last only about 30 seconds, and then there was mass chaos in the streets. We saw a girl missing her arm run by and saw dead people lying in the streets. We knew it was bad, but we didn't know how bad or how far it extended," she said.
Ahead of Pruis' group was a second bus full of Mission E4 travelers.
"They encountered a truck on a narrow street, and they had to stop to let it back up. Seconds later, a telephone pole fell right in front of the bus, and the entire wall of the Villa Ormiso fell down. If they wouldn't have been waiting for that truck, they would have been getting off the bus right where that wall collapsed," she said.
Standing guard
Safe at the hotel, the group waited to hear news from their group's leader, Scott Long, who had been visiting a boy in a hospital in Port-au-Prince with a Haitian pastor.
"We didn't know his status at first, and there was obviously no communication. But a few hours later he returned and we found out the hospital had collapsed around them," she said.
Pruis said the travelers next wondered if they'd be able to stay safely at the damaged hotel for the night, but the group was able to rest easier after hiring some Haitian men to guard the building.
Splitting up
The next day, the Americans split into two different groups.
One traveled to Lejeune to assess the damage to the E4-sponsored orphanage, school clinic and store.
"We didn't know if they were even still standing," she said.
Pruis' group was told it would travel to Port-au-Prince with any medical supplies it could gather.
"We had brought a bunch of supplies with us from the states. We had a suitcase and two backpacks full of supplies," she said.
Wednesday morning, Pruis' group walked 20 minutes into Port-au-Prince and set up a triage center in a grassy area against a wall.
"There were about 2,000 people in this pretty small area, and people just started bringing their loved ones to us," she said.
Training pays off
At just 20 years old, Pruis said she quickly came to the harsh realization she was the person with the most recent hands-on medical training in the group.
"There were two older women trained as nurses, but one was a nursing-home nurse and the other was a psychiatric nurse," she said.
Before she knew it, Pruis was holding the fate of the injured in her hands.
"There I was, telling these people whether or not I thought their limbs would have to be amputated. That's a position only doctors are ever put in. It was scary to know that I would be the one making these decisions," she said.
Prius said they developed a system, whereby if the limb looked like it could be saved, it was flushed with salt water and covered with gauze and antibiotic cream.
"We had taken all of our sheets and ripped them up and used those to wrap the wounds. If the limbs looked like they needed to be amputated, we applied a tourniquet," she said.
"To be honest, mostly children were injured and we couldn't tell who their parents were. A lot of them were brought in by random people. One boy, maybe six or seven, was carried in in a wheelbarrow. His foot was wrapped up and when we took it off, it looked like his foot had exploded. It was split right down the middle," she said.
At one point, Pruis said a United Nations doctor showed up and was able to perform an arm amputation.
"The biggest issue was we had access to zero pain medication, aside from Tylenol," she said.
"It was just utter chaos. I also saw a woman's heart exposed. She had a piece of rebar stuck in her and it had gone through her arm and chest. It was unbelievable," she said.
After about six hours, the group exhausted its store of medical supplies and was forced to return to the hotel, much to the protest of the untreated Haitians.
"It was hard to leave. They kind of crowded around us, so Scott had to tell them in Creole we needed to get more supplies so we could help them," she said.
The next day
On Thursday, the group traveled to Lejeune, accompanied by an American doctor who had been doing mission work in the north.
"We set up three stations there, and the environment was much more controlled ... One thing I really want people to understand is that outside of Port-au-Prince, we saw no violence. People were praising God everywhere you turned and people were really coming together," she said.
During the eight hours spent in Lejeune that day, the American doctor performed the amputation of a young girl's fingers and a baby's toes.
"The screams were horrific. It's something I'll never forget," she said.
In addition, the group did its best to set a number of broken bones, cutting apart furniture to make splints.
"This one boy came in and his leg looked like the letter 'S'," she said.
Mentally spent
After two long days of ministering to the wounded, the group was both tired and strung out.
"Scott saw that mentally we really couldn't do more," she said.
"So Friday we did a building project in Lejeune again."
After the group received word it might be an additional week before it could find a way home, they were granted a reprieve.
"Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports sent three of his private planes to get missionaries and supplies in and to get Americans out of the country, so we were able to get out on Saturday," she said.
Taking stock
But Pruis said it wasn't until she and her friends returned home and saw some of the news coverage, they fully realized their good fortune.
"When we got home and found out we were in the epicenter of the earthquake, that's when it really hit us we were lucky to even be alive. And no one (in the E4 group) even got any injuries," she said.
"I truly think every single one of us on the trip realized God had put us there for a reason. Every person on the team was absolutely vital to helping the people in Haiti ... When I found out about this trip, I didn't know if I'd have the financial means to go. Looking back on it now, I can see exactly why I felt I was meant to be there," she said, adding her mission work didn't end when she left Haitian soil.
"I feel like I have a bigger mission here at home, to use my voice to raise support for Haiti," she said.
Pruis said she has already lined up several speaking engagements in an effort to continue her work.
For more information about Mission E4, visit www.missione4.com.
