Miss Michelle – Always Caring & Dedicated

Let me introduce you to Miss Michelle, our nurse-supervisor who began her nursing career at St Damien's old Hospital in Petion-ville in 1997. Not only is she a nurse-supervisor in St Damien's Children's Hospital, but also at St Luke Family Hospital. She lives and breathes the St Luke motto of “Care and Compassion” for all our patients, their families and our staff. She started at St Luke in 2011, during the height of the cholera epidemic where her experience and professional in the development of the hospital.

She is always smiling, caring and ready to take on any challenge. Her days are long, the staff of both hospitals are like family to her and she is always there for everyone. If you have grown up at “Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs” (NPFS), been a staff member or volunteer, you know that Miss Michelle will always be there for you. For the children, she can remember, their medical history on the top of her head, she never forgets their history. To the children and adults of NPFS, she is like a mother to so many of them...They never forget her kindness and professionalism when they have been at their sickest.

 Miss Michelle, her husband and teenage son live about 20 minutes away from the two hospitals. During the rainy season it can take up to an hour to get home through the deep ruts and the sticky mud. If the sun is out, you will often see Miss Michelle sit elegantly side-saddle as she takes a moto-taxi home or to work. Always impeccable, always professional in her manner. Just like the majority of Haitians, Miss Michelle lives with an irregular electricity supply, hence, she wakes up in the dark or by lamp-light, prepares food for her family and leaves home in the dark to arrive at work on time.

Her weekdays begin early at St Luke Family Hospital, where she supervises their staff, collaborates with all of the various teams, and checks on the patients. In Haiti, many families struggle to pay even the smallest of hospital bills or provide food for the family member accompanying the hospital patient. Miss Michelle and her team of nurses collaborate closely with Wilflo and the Social Services team to ensure all the needs of the abandoned patients are cared for. Together, the nursing and social services team do their best to look after all of the needs of the most vulnerable and abandoned patients.

 Miss Michelle is well-known for her ability to find the almost invisible veins of patients, in both adults and children, she has much experience, most notably with cholera patients. She is so gentle and calm, the patients relax, they hardly feel a thing as she seeks out and successfully inserts the life-saving catheter and I.V. We have all been thankful for Miss Michelle's expertise over the years.

Four evenings per week Miss Michelle is the nursing supervisor at St Damien's Children's Hospital, where her expertise and kindness are greatly appreciated by all. She is the vital bridge between the two hospitals, she knows everyone, everyone knows her too. If you need to find a person or a life-saving item, she will know where to find it. When a patient has for example a hemoglobin level of 3 (normal hemoglobin levels for adults are between 12 & 17.5) and they require an immediate blood transfusion, through her expertise and knowledge, she will do her utmost to ensure that the patient receives the life-saving pouches of blood. If there is blood available, she will source it.

Often a child will be admitted to St Damien's for malnutrition, the nurses and doctors will transfer the mother to St Luke for malnutrition or another illness. Miss Michelle and Wilflo, in collaboration with the Social Services teams of both hospitals will ensure that the needs of both the mother and child are cared for, often for long periods of time. When a staff member of St Damien's was admitted to St Luke Covid Centre this year, Miss Michelle was the link between her and her family and her colleagues, passing on all their messages of love,  their prayers and best wishes.

Sadly, every nurses in Haiti and those in hospitals across the Developing World admit patients who arrive at  their hospitals too late to be saved...these are the heart-breaking moments of most days. If only, they had come even a day earlier or a few hours early. This is a sad reality of poverty.

The sad moments are balanced by the highs, when everyone is working well as a team and patients who arrive close to death's door leave our hospitals well on the road to good health.

Free time to relax in Haiti is a luxury for so many, Miss Michelle spends her non-working time caring for her family, doing her chores, going to church and preparing her work uniforms and the school uniforms of her son. She is so proud of her son; her face lights up with pride when she speaks of him.  

We are all so thankful and honored that Miss Michelle is such a dedicated and caring nurse.