Dr. Patrick Ulysse (Part 2): “What is the Meaning of Life?”

Voices of Haiti – Patrick Ulysse (Part 2): “What is the Meaning of Life?”

 

[Voices of Haiti intro begins]

 

Patrick: It was kind of surreal

 

Loune: I was there just after the earthquake. You have all the aftershocks…

 

Dimitri: And I could see all the chaos and destruction.

 

Anany: Why I should continue to live if all this have to happen to me?

 

[Intro fades out]

 

 

Leslie:  Byenvini or welcome. I’m your host, Leslie Friday. Thank you for listening to Voices of Haiti, a Partners In Health podcast that shares the stories of our Haitian colleagues as they reflect on the January 12th 2010 earthquake.

Last week, we heard from Dr. Patrick Ulysse, Partners In Health’s chief operating officer. When the earthquake hit, he was working two hours north of Port-au-Prince, in the community of Petite Riviere. We heard how he traveled to the capital to help provide first aid to the injured, and there found his friend, Honore. All of his friend’s limbs were broken, yet he was the one urging Patrick to help others in need.

 

 

Patrick: Honore was the one who was suffering. He was the one who had breaking leg, breaking hand, arms. He was the one who lost his partners. But he was the one who keep telling us "Oh, we have hope. We, we need to keep pushing." When you see, those kind of things, that gives you more energies, energy to continue to do more.

 

Leslie:   And Patrick did do more. For days, he helped transport the injured—including his friend, Honore—out of Port-au-Prince to any hospital that was open and could take them. Simultaneously, he led his team in Petite Riviere through a transformation so that the modest health center, with its tiny operating room, could serve as a trauma center for the gravely injured.

 

Patrick:  I would say the first five days after the earthquake, we was more focused on what can we do where we are working to make it more stronger to receive people?

And that was the same time we have different other folks from Haiti who used to work in different place in Africa come back, from U.S., a lot of people come back say, "What can we do?"

 

Leslie:  Patrick was among the leaders at Zanmi Lasante, as PIH is known in Haiti, to organize these international medical teams and send them throughout the country. One location was Petite Riviere, where the tiny operating room remained open 24/7, for weeks on end.

 

Patrick:  And that was the same time also the Ministry of Health like call different partners, PIH is one of them, to say can you help?

 

Leslie:  By that time, Zanmi Lasante had already been a partner of the Haitian Ministry of Health for more than two decades. So naturally, government officials asked the Zanmi Lasante to help run 4 camps for the displaced in Port-au-Prince. Patrick was the first one tapped for the job.

 

 

Patrick: Those camp, together, had more than 100,000 people there and we-we start working in the camp provide— first, provide, like, health care, at the same time, figure out, like, other way to work with other partners or if we don't- cannot have a partners coming to work, they kept trying to do the other part about, like the social part, like, or we organize where people are living or we could make sure you got, um, light on the camp.

Also we was doing a outpatient clinic, like seeing patient coming. But if the patient need more, okay, where we will refer the patient? To which hospital is available or which group is working to provide this specific services? And at the same time, when you refer the patient, let's say the group can tell you, "I can take care of the patient but I don't have ambulance to do the referral part." We say, "Okay, we'll provide that."

 

Leslie: Patrick dealt with each situation in the camps as it came up—putting out one theoretical fire after the next. He and his team helped residents access health care, food, and clean water. He ensured the camps were safe, and that families were guaranteed at least a bit of privacy in what was supposed to be a temporary tent community. He did this for nine straight months, until he left for Belgium to begin his graduate studies.

 

Patrick: I left to go back to for a program and that was a big, big conflict. And then a conflict at this time, when you feel like: should you go or should you stay? When you said your place is here and, again like the team in charged, like, at this time say, “Yes, I think the country need that. Go. We'll continue.” And things was starting to being kind of stable.

 

Leslie: So Patrick left. He left Haiti, where he was dealing with trauma on a daily basis, and arrived in Belgium, where absolutely nothing reminded him of home. Until that one day in class, when memories of the earthquake came flooding back.

 

Patrick: I remember when I went to the program, it was, um, in Belgium and one of the class was about, like, emergency response. And I was in the class when the-the-the professor invited a group who come to talk about that and the f- one of the image they show that was the image of the earthquake and-and that's where I feel like all the flashback of what you-you've see in the past come and you feel like kind of blackout in the situation.

We didn't talk too much about... Me personally, I didn't talk too much about that. Yeah. It was a group like where you talk. You discuss. And the professor at this time was really like-like full contact with the student and this time, like, asked to take a break and talk about that, like, “Okay, oh, do you want to continue? Do you want to be part of it? Do you want to share your experience?” And this hour was like more a kind of therapy like, "Let's talk with Patrick on that. Not focus on the big program," and yeah. I think it’s important. Important as a Haitian, important as a person, important as human.

Today we talk about the earthquake. Um, it's already 10 years but I think for a lot of people, it's like today. Take some time to talk about it, to go through it. Continue to look at, like, all the beautiful thing that happened. After that, what do we learn from that?

 

Leslie: And that’s the beauty of people like Patrick. Ten years later, after all the loss and destruction of the earthquake, he still looks for the good that emerged from an absolute tragedy.

Maybe because he had to-to keep moving. But also, because there was good news to share—especially when it came to the medical residency programs at PIH’s University Hospital, which opened just three years after the earthquake.

 

Patrick:  After the earthquake, we have the first, and I will say the only, four years' intensive program on O-B-G-Y-N and five years' program about surgery. Um, we have the only, ICU come up after the earthquake in Mirebalais. Those things wasn't there, but coming from the earthquake, what do we learn? What's the best way today to have more people train, to have more things available to address any of the challenge? For me, that's beautiful.

 

Leslie:  And what could be more beautiful than the creation of a family? You might remember that in episode 4 we talked with Loune Viaud about Zanmi Beni. She started a children’s home for orphaned and abandoned children that opened as a result of the earthquake.

 

Patrick:  Zanmi Beni is a concrete example. Children who was at the general hospital at this time, and most of them don't have the full capacity to-to move. Have a place where you can take those kids, keep them, keep feeding them, teach them how to read and provide activity to them. Until now, 10 years after, you keep continue to be with them, that for me is beautiful because those kids could be everywhere. Even alive, there were like people, they was dead because no one can take care of them. We got a lot of beautiful things that happened after the earthquake.

When you have a situation…like for me, having a situation, the earthquake, where you could die, you're still alive. Living in the moment in your life where it's not about like who you are, like doctor or non-doctor or whoever you are. It's about like, survive. That's push you to ask a lot of question to yourself like, okay what is the meaning of life? And I think if every day for me I wake up I have the feeling or I can feel I did something meaningful for someone else, that's for me make me feel good.

When you can witness, um, people like we keep having hope when normally you say those people should give up. I think that tell me like, oh I need to keep having big hope. And hope for me coming from the situation, it’s didn't mean you have a clear picture about the next step. It just, this is what you have to do now. Even the clear next, the next step is not clear, do it because this is what you have to do now.

 

Leslie: Continue to learn and explore more stories about Zanmi Lasante and PIH by visiting P-I-H-dot-org-backslash-haiti.

Follow Voices of Haiti on Spotify, or subscribe on Apple Podcast and Google Podcast. And look for us @partnersinhealth on Instagram or @pih on Twitter, and DM us with any comments or questions. As always, thank you for listening, and talk to you again on the next episode.

 

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