Medical Teams at Work in Field Hospital on Carriacou

Looking out over the coastal hillside where Carriacou’s hospital had operated just weeks before, the neatly rowed white tents of the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital stand out starkly against the desolate landscape of Carriacou.

Our field hospital is providing support to the local medical community, many of whom are grieving their own losses. Our work will help stem the tide as the local hospital and staff restore capacity in the area.

“We are very grateful that we have the field hospital,” said Sherrien, a staff member of Carriacou’s medical system, standing under the blue Samaritan’s Purse tarp that now covers the former hospital. Sherrien said our field hospital will provide critical time to get back online.

“It has been a buffer for our system while we refurbish the hospital. We’re very grateful for all the help that we can get,” she continued. “We are thankful to God. God is a merciful God. And I think that even though the buildings have gone down, the people are still together.”

Since the field hospital opened July 7, Samaritan’s Purse medical teams have treated more than 200 patients, including the young boy of a man named Aistan.

Aistan recounted what many Carriacouans experienced July 1 as Hurricane Beryl roared ashore.

“The wind—everything was flying,” Aistan said, clearly emotional. “My house went down, right down.”

He and the boy had sheltered with a neighbour when the winds and rain began. Powerful gusts whipped through their community. Aistan said in the midst of that they stepped into the storm and found a woman trapped and crying for help.

Aistan had to catch her children as she dropped them one by one from an upstairs window. It was their only chance of survival.

As he shared this, his boy, who had cried throughout the storm, clung to his father as they waited for the doctor.

Soon the boy would receive treatment for his condition, likely caused by a reaction to contaminants or waterborne diseases. Many on the island are growing sick from living in conditions without proper sanitation and shelter.

“Everything got destroyed by the hurricane,” Aistan said.

The Healing Power of a Hand to Hold

Another patient, an elderly man named Henry, arrived at our field hospital dangerously dehydrated and very weak. He couldn’t remember his last meal. He’d gone without food for “most of the week,” he said.

After sheltering at a friend’s home, Henry had returned after the storm to find his house flattened.

“It was gone. No place of rest,” he said. “What I had on me, that’s what I have.”

Henry had nowhere to go after that. He had no family on the island. He sought refuge in an overwhelmed homeless shelter.

But the sweltering heat overcame him, triggering an epileptic seizure, likely caused by days without his medication.

Only after ending up at our hospital did he finally eat and receive the medication he needed. As an I.V. gave him fluids, he ate his first meal in several days.

“The majority of our patients are in their 60s and 70s,” said Christine, one of our nurses. “We’ve even had a gentleman as old as 97. We are certainly caring for the most vulnerable here. Most of these individuals have lost everything. They’ve lost their homes.”

Many, she said, are alone in their suffering. Before he was brought to Samaritan’s Purse, this was true of Henry.

The Healing Presence of Hope

In less than two weeks since the catastrophic storm, Samaritan’s Purse has cared for more than 200 patients on the island of Carriacou.

Aistan’s son received love and care while being prescribed medication, otherwise unavailable on the island, for his severe allergic reaction. Additionally, their family is able to use one of our nearby reverse osmosis systems to retrieve clean drinking water for all their daily needs.

“This hospital is the best thing that could have ever happened,” Aistan explained. “Because otherwise Carriacou would have been nowhere. Everybody on the island has to work together and help each other, and then we could succeed.”

Henry is also growing stronger every day as our doctors and nurses tend to his medical needs and pray with him in the men’s ward. He is back on his daily seizure medication and is being cared for around the clock.

As we wait for him to recover enough to be discharged, we show him how Christ cares for him every day. When sharing how this facility has helped him, Henry said, “I needed to go to rest, you know? Get some treatment. Get my body lively.”

For the more than 200 other patients we have cared for so far, our team has been busy treating infections, supplying critical medications, and showing those on the island that they do not have to go through this alone. Without these services, many others would have died from infection, hypertension, and more.

Through every story of survival and healing, we are reminded of the powerful work that God continues to do through His people after disasters.

*Name has been changed