Teamwork

I still want to will finish the second part of that Proud post.

But first this.

Seven days before the Haitian earthquake, a baby girl, Elizabeth, was born. When the earthquake struck, her family’s concrete house collapsed, leaving the new-born trapped under tonnes of concrete. She lay there for eight days, presumed dead.

Until Wednesday, when she was pulled from the ruins by a searcher from France Aide Urgence.

"It was the Colombian firefighters who put a mark on the building to say that there was probably a victim, a child, in this house," Mr. Lampert said.

. . .

"And after, we give the baby to Colombian rescue, because it’s a symbol."

The French team could only find Elizabeth because of the Colombians, so they gave her to them.

. . .

The Colombians rushed the child to the United Nations compound and gave her to Canadian medics.

Maj. Annie Bouchard, commander of a medical platoon with DART, Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team, worked on Elizabeth with several Canadian medics.

"The baby was a bit dehydrated and cold and a bit hypoglycemic as well," Maj. Bouchard said. "Her blood sugar was really low."

They gave little Elizabeth some oxygen, put her on an IV drip and a vital signs monitor, and stabilized her. They asked some Sri Lankan peacekeepers to drive them to the Hopital St. Michel, where an American pediatrician was working.

"On the way to the hospital, the ambulance bottomed out," said Master Cpl. Richard Paul of Halifax, a senior med tech with DART.

"They lost the spare tire and bent up the frame. At that point, we decided we’d walk into St. Michael’s. It’s about 200 metres."

So the Canadians walked down the broken streets of Jacmel holding the baby and the IV and monitor and delivered her to the American and Haitian medical team there.

"As soon as the IV kicked in, and a little stimulation, she started to cry and pee," Maj. Bouchard said. "It just made our day. When she started to cry, everybody started to smile."

Navy Lt. Christine Crawley of Vancouver said it was a great feeling.

"Everyone was working together: Colombians, Canadians, Americans, Haitians," she said. "It was incredible."

Perronneau Ronald, cousin of 18-day-old Elizabeth Joassaint
adjusts the little girl’s blanket as she sleeps in her crib
at Hopital St.Michel de Jacmel in Jacmel,Haiti, on Friday.
Elizabeth was rescued after spending days buried under
tonnes of rubble. Photos by TIM KROCHAK /Staff)

Now what do you make of that?

Mr. Mellet, who held little Elizabeth when she was pulled from the house, said there are two lessons to take from the story.

"All the time, all the time, espoir (hope)," he said. "Espoir. And when a lot of teamwork, and a lot of countries, work together, the possibility is very important. It’s a lesson. It’s a lesson."

Indeed.

A lesson for the world.

Proud

I can honestly say that I am proud of the Canadian military (I can just hear the gasp from some of my faithful readers). Whether it is in their UN peacekeeping work (note the rumblings of discontent from other faithful readers), in Afghanistan or now, in Haiti.

I am proud of the crew of the HMCS Athabaskan, who after a six-day journey dug in on Tuesday in Laogane, a small city just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to help by setting up medical tents and providing badly-needed medical supplies and medical care with insufficient equipment.

Sailors from the Athabaskan worked like dogs in the hot sun around the clinic all day, pitching in to set up shelters for patients to escape the heat, providing security, carrying patients and helping translate for the unilingual medical volunteers. They even built a shower so the medical staff could bathe in privacy. And, in typical Canadian style, promised to bring them a cooler of beer from the ship. Then, too cap it off they delivered a baby Tuesday night.

I am equally proud of the crew from HMCS Halifax, who cleared a road and an airstrip and started to deliver supplies in Jecmal, on the south coast of Haiti.

CANADIAN volunteers who opened a medical clinic in a field next to a ruined school on Wednesday and treated several hundred desperate patients in the blazing heat, cleaning infected wounds and mending fractures that have gone eight days without care.

Unlike several other emergency medical clinics in Leogane, where doctors are forced to do amputations without anesthetic, the Canadians have personnel capable of doing nerve block anesthesia so terribly wounded Haitians were treated with far less pain.

But they haven't stopped there.

CANADIAN SAILORS and soldiers have established a beachhead of hope in the port city of Jacmel, cleaning up, delivering aid, medical care and even toys, and laying the groundwork for a more ambitious effort in the weeks ahead.

Sailors from HMCS Halifax and members of DART, the military’s Disaster Assistance Response Team, have taken over the concrete pier and waterfront lot in the shadow of the ruined town, where lovely French colonial buildings have fallen to rubble.

They have cleared streets of debris, dug latrines for Haitians living in a new shantytown, delivered medical care in unbelievably chaotic conditions and extended a runway and are working to establish a proper medical clinic.

On the first day ashore, three sailors worked so hard clearing concrete rubble with their hands that they collapsed from heatstroke.

I am proud of the 200-plus Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) which received the call 12 hours after the quake and immediately deployed to Port-au-Prince with a reconnaissance crew . And precious little idea what they would be in for when they landed.

I am proud of Quebec's Vandoos, which complemented the 500 soldiers aboard the Halifax and the Athabascan. The Vandoos are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan next December, and many of the troops preparing to leave for Haiti are volunteers who've just returned from the war. This new contingent, tired but happy to be helping, brings along engineering units, and almost enough medical staff and supplies to man a field hospital. In the blistering heat Thursday afternoon, they were sweeping the grounds to get ready for the medical clinic that DART will set up.

I am proud that Hercules cargo aircraft that are flying in supplies and personnel, even though the airstrip isn't really big enough for the aircraft. When chainsaws used to cut back trees got fouled by palm wood, the sailors ended up cutting them with bowsaws. Perhaps that is why they're now known to the locals as the Canadian lumberjacks.

And apparently I'm not the only one proud of the quick response of the Canadian Forces.

IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, the Canadian Forces have deservedly earned themselves glowing praise and helped to inspire a sense of nationwide pride.

When they’ve been in need of it in the past, I’ve been the first one over the boards, dropping the gloves and pounding on their helmets, but in this instance I’m prepared to give credit where credit’s due, to both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Peter MacKay. They were uncharacteristically quick off the draw in pledging large-scale aid and mobilizing a military response effort.

What was even more impressive was the fact that our heavily engaged armed forces, which are supporting both the expeditionary force in Kandahar and the Olympic security operations in Vancouver, were able to mount such a major effort so quickly. Within just hours of the tragedy, the reconnaissance party from the Disaster Assistance Relief Team was airborne and en route to Port-au-Prince.

The highlight of the rapid response, however, was the deployment of Canada’s new C-17 heavy-lift aircraft. Their tremendous cargo capacity enabled the air force to transport two helicopters, complete with ground crew and equipment, to Haiti and begin ferrying out hundreds of Canadian nationals seeking evacuation home.

Which leads to me admitting that this one of those rare occasions when I am even almost proud(sorry, that one is a bit hard to swallow) of our current Conservative government. Both for its quick reaction (or at least getting out of the way of the Armed Forces) and increase in desperately needed aid to Haiti.

And, of course, I am proud of my fellow Canadians for doing what they can.

And yet, through all that pride I can't hlep but wonder ...

(to be cont'd)