Jacob changed the lives of many in Haiti after the hurricanes
As part of my senior project, I recently worked in rural Haiti for ten days on a volunteer medical team. While a mere two-hour flight from Miami, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. One in three Haitian children dies before reaching their fifth birthday. Clean water and full bellies are hard to come by. We saw many suffering with malaria, typhoid, H. pylori and other diseases common in developing countries.
We arrived in Haiti six weeks after the flooding and devastation caused by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav and Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna in summer 2008. The United Nations reported that one million Haitians were affected by the storms and 800 people were killed. Gonaives, the fourth largest city in Haiti and the closest city to our location, was still encased in mud. Haiti, already impoverished and underfed, had become an even more desperate place. Many families were living upon their roofs under tarps, still digging the four-foot deep mud out of their homes and tending to flood-torn, soil-deprived gardens and farmlands. The floods tore away gardens and farmland.
A doctor who has worked in Haiti for many years said, "Giving people medicine for TB and not giving them food is like washing your hands and drying them in the dirt." Through the generosity of many, we were able to collect $10,500 in Seattle and Portland through fundraising events for rice, beans and food supplies for our patients. My mom and I personally gave two presentations about the conditions in Haiti and the dire need for food assistance.
Because of widespread food challenges our team found it challenging to procure the food supplies. We gave out 9,800 pounds of rice to all of the patients who came through the clinic doors and on the final clinic day gave away 15 bags of beans. Many more bags of rice remained in the depot for distribution after we left.
For me, it was a fantastic opportunity to be a hands-on assistant in a rural, clinical setting. The nurses and physicians on our team let me help with minor surgeries, take blood pressure readings, do fetal ultrasound scans, help deliver IV medications, fill prescriptions, etc. It definitely made me eager to pursue medicine or science in college so that I can take newfound knowledge back to countries like Haiti and help save lives like the doctors on my team.
Jacob attended the BioQuest Academy in August 2008. We asked him a few questions:
What was your favorite lab that you participated in while you attended the Academy? My favorite lab was the anopheles mosquito dissection. It was really cool to master something so fine-tuned and difficult. I liked the challenge.
How has the BioQuest Academy helped you? When I took the SAT Science subject test, it asked questions about malaria, which was a piece of cake after BioQuest. I also had more knowledge going into my AP Biology class this year. And with my senior project, I’ve been able to demonstrate how I took the classroom knowledge gained at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and translated it to clinical skills on a medical team in Haiti.
What are you doing now? I am an undergrad at Gonzaga University, where I’m pursuing a biology major on a pre-med track.
What hobbies do you enjoy? I spend most of my time playing hoops and soccer. I also love to read science fiction/fantasy novels. I probably spend too many hours on Xbox Live with my friends (but one of my physician-mentors said it helped my hand-eye coordination when doing an ultrasound!).
Now that you are a graduate of the BioQuest Academy, what advice would you give to an incoming student? Try everything. Ask questions. Soak up the knowledge of the scientists, their research and the labs. You will learn so much!
