Scott Smith

One day two years ago my mom, Shelley Smith, as president of my volleyball booster club received a call saying that our volleyball bills weren’t being paid. She was very confused but immediately consulted our treasurer. She said she had paid them. This was a lie however. My mom later discovered that our treasurer, one of her friends, had been embezzling money out of our account for the past two years, almost $17,000. My mom had to deal with this but she needed help. She looked to our brand new vice president Mrs. Cindy Hawks. Through months of meetings, discussions, secrecy, and then publicity this horrible situation was resolved. Through this very stressful awful situation a friendship was also created that otherwise would have never began. My mom and Mrs. Hawks stayed friends outside of volleyball and grew even closer.
5 months ago my mom received a call from Mrs. Hawks, “This might be a long shot but would your husband be interested in going to Haiti?” This was more than a coincidence. My dad had been searching for the past few days for a way to get down to Haiti since the earth quake. He had been to several web sites, called tons of people including the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and everyone said there was no way to get in.
My dad is the ideal guy they needed in Haiti. He loves camping, which means he can live in rough situations with not a lot of food. He is an orthopedic surgeon, which is exactly the type of doctor they needed for all of the fractures caused by the earthquake. He is also in his own practice so he is in charge of his work schedule and he could recruit other doctors to go too.
That night after my mom talked to Mrs. Hawks my dad was at a meeting planning to go to Haiti with a group from Hill Country Bible Church which is the church Mr. Hawks is a pastor for. They had no idea how they were going to get there but they all knew they wanted to go.
The next day Mr. Hawks called my dad with great news. A man from his church had two planes that they could use to get down to Haiti. The man had woken up in the middle of the night and called the Haitian air port to try and find a time that he could land. Another “coincidence” happened. A cargo plane had canceled moments before and there was an hour and a half of open landing time (45 minutes per plane) that they could use.
A few days later my dad was in Haiti with 12 other doctors as well as nurses paramedics etc. When his group arrived the airport was a wreck. They had their 45 minute space to completely unload their plane and get off the tarmac. Getting to the Mission was also hectic because of the huge amount of people now homeless living on the streets.
Once they arrived at the mission they met Dr. Cheryl. She is the medical director at Mission of Hope. The group decided that an operating room was a priority. They converted to clinic’s lab into an operating room because it had tile floors and air conditioning. The most primitive operating room that my dad had ever operated in however one of the best in Haiti at the time. It was so good that the US Navy was sending people in to Mission of Hope to be treated.
My dad and his team treated around 70 patients while there. The story that sticks out to me the most from his this trip is this one:

One day two haitian woman came in needing amputation revisions. After the earth quake traumatic, unsanitary amputations were done all over Port au prince to get people out of the rubble that the city had become. These two woman were both in critical condition so my dad and his partners made a decision to do the surgeries together. Because of the limited resources available these woman had to be totally awake while their surgeries were done with a spinal tap to block the pain. These woman had to listen while their legs were further sawed off after a horrible traumatic experience they already had just had to endure. If I was to have to go through this I wouldn’t know what to do. I would be very upset and feel very alone. However these woman proved to be some of the bravest and most faithful woman my dad had ever come across. As the saws were going they started to sing. In translation they were saying, “Thank you Jesus. I love you Jesus.” The faith they showed in the absolute worst moment of their life was amazing. Faith that is unimaginable to an American.

When my dad came back to the US he had a few things to say. From the Haitians he learned so much. The important things in life aren’t material items. They are your faith and your family. These life lessons are ones I never fully grasped until I got to experienced Haiti for myself, but it was amazing to see how Americans can be helped be Haiti just as much as we can provide help.