Dr. Philippe Dimitri Henrys’ story: “I Knew I Had to Move Forward”

Voices of Haiti – Dr. Philippe Dimitri Henrys’ story:

“I Knew I Had to Move Forward”

 

[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. Let me introduce you to an ER doc who’s revolutionizing care in Haiti.

Dimitri: My name is Philippe Dimitri Henrys,I work in Hôpital Sainte-Thérèse de Hinche. It's ​in Haiti.​ In the Central Plateau in Haiti.

Leslie: Dr. Dimitri completed his residency at PIH-supported University Hospital in Mirebalais, and is among 18 emergency medicine physicians who graduated since the program began in 2013.

Dimitri:  My father is a doctor, and my mom is a nurse,​ ​none of them are from Hinche actually.​ ​My parents have been working in the Central Plateau for more than 20 years. That's how I ended up being born in Hinche.​ ​I feel that​ ​having the opportunity to go back there and work, and do great stuff to help people is part of reconnecting with my roots, with where I came from, and this is really valuable to me.

[Pause]

 We have a difficult reality​ in Haiti about healthcare, and it is even,​ ​ more specific to emergency healthcare.​ ​Until recently there's been virtually no- no one trained into,​ ​providing​​ ​emergency healthcare.

In 2010, basically for the 11 million people at the time, there was no​ formerly trained emergency physicians in the country.

 

 

Leslie:   This episode may be triggering for some listeners, as Dr. Dimitri dives into his memories of the first moments following that devastating earthquake. He, like many others you will hear in future episodes, has not shared his story in this way before.

 

Dimitri: The earthquake, when it started I was in medical school in class. In Université Notre Dame d’Haïti ​is​ in Port-au-Prince.​

I remember it was my dad (laughs) doing his course because he was also a professor at the university. And it was 60 of us, around 60 of us students in there with him. And it suddenly started shaking​.

​I went to the classroom door where we were. It was on the, on the last level, the​ ​upper level of the building. And I could see the whole bay of Port-au-Prince from where I was, and I could see all the chaos and destruction, uh, all the dust raising from the city.

[Pause]

All the students, we rapidly take the stairs and went down to the, uh, parking lot of the building. And it took us a couple minutes, maybe an hour, to figure out exactly what was happening, what was going on. ​

And I can remember a couple of us rapidly gathered and figured out that, we- we need to do something because right behind the university building, there was, um, this neighborhood, this a poor neighborhood actually, so the constructions were sort of shuddy, and there were a lot of wounded people, a lot of dead people.

And we just did a couple groups of students. There was some faculty, some professors, and we moved like straight to this neighborhood, and we started right away, next hour, to help people, right away.

​Certainly there were this aftershocks. We were scared, afraid, but we knew it was the right thing to do. We knew that that's what we should be doing at this moment.

​My dad….he was there, but he had to stay on the parking lot because he had more than 600 students he was managing at this moment. A lot of streets were blocked, and a lot of parents could not reach the university to get their daughters, their sons. And at this point, I remember, he took me apart and he explained to me what was going on, what was happening.

[Pause]

He was very calm and serene and he told me he needed to stay there, but he trust me on doing the right things, on being safe and take the right decisions.

It was reassuring. ​Um​ ... I mean, seeing him being calm and, like, in control of everything,​ ​um,​ it was like he was exuding some, some, some feeling of interior peace and, and calmness. And this, this, actually this uplifted me, sort of. And, yes, it, it, was really a good thing. And that was it. So I had to go, and I knew I had to move forward.

 

Leslie:​  What would you have done in that situation? Would you have reacted in the same way? It’s estimated that around 300,000 people died from the earthquake alone. Almost 3.5 million people experienced strong-to-extreme shaking and aftershocks, including the entire population of Port-au-Prince, the city in which Dimitri, his father, and more than 600 students were having class that day. More than 50 hospitals and health centers collapsed as a direct result of the earthquake, as did the national nursing school, killing all third-year students and instructors in class at the time. 

[Pause]

Dr. Dimitri knew that if he and his fellow medical students didn’t act, few others would be able to.

 

Dimitri: So when all this happened, it was clearly evident that there was a lack of not only professional health care providers in emergency medicine but also systems and structures available to face this kind of huge problem.

In Haiti, one aspect of it is the lack of emergency,​ medicine trained physicians and healthcare providers, and another aspect is also,​ ​ ​the resources ​available to really ​address emergency healthcare problems.

 

Leslie:   Dr. Dimitri took this all in, and it influenced how he specialized as a doctor. He was selected among an elite group of doctors who trained in residency programs through Zanmi Lasante, as Partner In Health is known in Haiti.

 

Dimitri:  I've done my residency program in Emergency Medicine at HUM in Mirebalais. It's been three years from 2015 to 2018, and now I've been working at Hôpital Sainte-Thérèse de Hinche with Zanmi Lasante since 5 months now.

And now there ​two trained emergency physicians in Hinche.​ We’re working alongside with other general practitioners and other nurses, and we're really working to, to change the landscape of emergency healthcare in Hinche right now. ​The emergency room is working 24/7, and step-by-step, we have started implementing​valuable ​procedures, strategies, to really reach the desired quality ​of-​ of healthcare we are providing in the ER.

 

Leslie:​  Though 10 years have gone by, Dr. Dimitri has not forgotten how the earthquake, and the conversation he had with his father that day, had an impact on his life--and that of many others--moving forward.

 

Dimitri: ​ I figured ​at some point that ​I would never want to be in ​a situation where someone is having an emergency and it's turning up to me, and I wouldn't be able to, to answer appropriately. I wouldn't be up to the task. I wouldn't be able to face it.

[Pause]

And​ ​I think ​this event, alongside with other events that happen after this, have play a huge role in the person I am today, in becoming an Emergency Physician.

 

Leslie:  Continue to learn and explore more stories about Zanmi Lasante and PIH by visiting pih-dot-o-r-g-backslash-haiti. As always, thank you for listening and talk to you again on the next episode.

 

[End]