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Nursing grad opens eyes to the world
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After Patrick Mohney, right, graduated from Cabarrus College of Health Sciences, he hitched a ride to Haiti and put his skills to work.
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Published: February 27, 2010
The devastation of Haiti is where recent Cabarrus College Health Sciences graduate, Patrick Mohney, made the decision to begin his career as a registered nurse.
In the midst of unimaginable destruction, Mohney witnessed things that not only challenged his beliefs about nursing, but revealed to him the compassion possessed by ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations.
The trip began as an idea — something to do while he waited to begin work in a local hospital.
Mohney's aunt jokingly suggested that he contact his cousin Peter Tunney, an artist in New York, who is on the advisory board for an organization called Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ).
"She said, 'tell him you want to go and to put you on a plane,'" Mohney said.
A few days later, his phone rang, and it was Tunney saying, 'hey Patrick, we have a seat available on this private jet going down to Haiti and we want you to go.'"
The charity, established in early 2009, is a fundraising effort founded by Hollywood filmmaker Paul Haggis and other Hollywood friends. The group encourages peace and social justice and addresses issues of poverty and enfranchisement in communities around the world, according to their Web site.
The jet carried four other occupants, including Fisher Stevens, filmmaker and actor, who was recently nominated for an Academy Award, and his film crew. They had been filming a documentary on third world countries for the United Nations before the earthquake. The U.N. wanted Stevens to document what happened in Haiti.
Mohney spent the first two days with the film crew, viewing much of the destruction close up.
The group was based near the collapsed United Nations building, and saw the devastation where nearly 100 U.N. peacekeepers and colleagues lost their lives.
Their driver, a marine who worked for the U.N., told stories of rescues from the pile of rubble that was once the headquarters.
With a small hacksaw cutting through concrete, people worked to free survivors from the collapsed building.
"It's unbelievable there. The devastation and how they are going about cleaning it up. It's prehistoric. Picking things up in make shift wheelbarrows. It's just mind-blowing," Mohney said.
The group visited an area where food was being distributed to hungry victims, and food vouchers were given out.
"Only women could go in and redeem (the vouchers)," Mohney said. "The reason not to give it to men was the belief they would sell it for the money. Women would take it home and cook for the families."
Mohney described how desperation could make people lose their patience and their civility.
"I did see a tractor trailer driving down the alley way of the hospital I where I was staying," Mohney said. "I heard a commotion. It was stopped waiting to get in the gate, and a crowd of people broke open the back of the trailer and threw the boxes out. People weren't fighting for the boxes, but I saw one kid walk away with three boxes. On the side, I made out the words 'World Food Organization.'"
After two days, Mohney left Stevens and his film crew, eager to begin work at St. Damien's Pediatric Hospital in Tabarre.
At the hospital, he met people who had suffered great loss themselves, but still wanted to help those who lost even more.
One doctor Mohney worked with had lost her home in the quake. She now lived in a tent settlement near the hospital.
He worked with her in the triage tent. All patients went through her to be evaluated.
"The main patients I saw were amputations with dressing changes, checking for infections or external fixation and a broken bone (a leg or an arm)," Mohney said. "They have the screws from the outside screwing your bones back together. We were seeing a lot of those."
His days began at 7 a.m. with a mass by Father Rick Frechette. Father Rick, who is affiliated with APJ, worked in the slums of Haiti for years. He came to the country as a priest and soon saw that what they needed more were doctors. He began studying for his degree and continued working in the slums of Port-au-Prince.
"He was trying to get doctors to come down, and they wouldn't. His solution was to become a doctor. He is in the exclusive club of being a priest and a doctor," Mohney said.
Father Rick, according to Mohney, is the "big wig."
"Every morning he would conduct mass in this little chapel. The windows were shattered and the walls were cracked," Mohney said. "It was a surreal thing to watch, this man conduct mass in a building that was so damaged by the quake. It was uplifting."
The rest of Mohney's day was spent with patients in the make shift triage tent. There was no electricity, so work ended when it got dark.
They were long and exhausting days of helping to care for those who had been injured by the quake, Mohney recalled. The nights were for reflection and unwinding, and to get to know those who worked alongside each other.
What Mohney learned from his experience is something he never could learn in the safety of a local hospital or in a nursing class — a thought that holds so much more truth in the middle of a tragedy in a third world country, he said.
"Someone is going to care for someone in a hospital here, but that kid down in Haiti, they might not ever get seen by anyone," Mohney said.
It was such a harsh reality for a new nurse to face.
"There was an elderly man and a 20 year-old girl out of surgery at the same time," Mohney said. "You have to watch people after surgery. The young girl broke out into a hymn. I couldn't understand her, but it was clearly a hymn. The man was looking in my eyes, and repeating over and over again 'thank you, thank you.' They were just so thankful. When you care for someone here, if the tea isn't sweet enough, they're calling a nurse to complain about it."
A generation of amputees and prosthetics will further shape the troubled nation of Haiti.
For Mohney, his thoughts have expanded to where he can take his experience.
He thinks out loud about one day becoming a "travel nurse," and taking his experiences and the skills he has gained to places around the world that are lacking in medical care.
For now, the recent grad is hoping just for work at a local hospital.
"I am taking life as it comes for now, and trying not to micromanage and plan everything," Mohney said. "I am going to see what kind of job I can do here, and gain more experience. Then we will see."
• Contact reporter Robin L. Gardner: 704-789-9140.
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