NAGE Member Simone Adelugba Returns from Volunteer Trip to Haiti
February 18, 2010
Simone Adelugba works as an ICU nurse working at the VA Medical Center in Baltimore and is a member of NAGE Local R3-19. She recently returned from volunteering in Haiti after the earthquake disaster last month. “Devastation everywhere,” is how Simone Adelugba described conditions.
Having been born in Haiti, Simone was already planning to volunteer in the country at some point. Then she received an email request for volunteers shortly after last month’s earthquake. Simone responded to the request quickly and within a week she boarded a plane from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, traveling onward to Haiti by bus.
Once in Haiti, Simone joined other volunteer doctors and nurses whose activities were coordinated by the International Medicine Corp. She spent the first day working in the Emergency Room of the General Hospital before being assigned to an outdoor clinic in Petion-Ville, an outlying neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
At IMC’s Petion-Ville clinic, Simone saw two hundred patients a day. When she arrived, the facility consisted of two benches, a school desk, and sheets on the ground, with patients treated in the open. The clinic’s resources improved during Simone’s stay. By the time she returned to the United States the Petion-Ville clinic had a tent for shelter and privacy, and most of the medications needed (but not all -- some supplies like asthma inhalers were still unavailable).
Simone explained the IMC is making much progress, but more remains to be done. When she left Haiti, the clinic still needed a generator to power fans for ventilation, and refrigeration for cold-storage vaccines, like tetanus. Despite the challenges, Simone is anxious to return and offer additional assistance. She hopes to make another trip to Haiti in March or April.
“I ask all NAGE members to join me in appreciation of Ms. Adelugba’s contributions, and the efforts of other health care providers throughout the nation who volunteered to travel to Haiti to assist in recovery and rebuilding,” said NAGE National President David Holway.