Haiti mission trip fulfills longtime goal for local woman

By KANDACE McCOY Times-Leader

McLEANSBORO — When Karla Heil made plans last year to participate in a medical mission trip to Haiti, she didn’t know she’d be providing disaster relief.

Heil, the administrator of Hamilton Memorial Nursing Center, said she learned about the mission trip from Susan Bullard, a registered nurse at Mt. Vernon Countryside Manor.

Bullard has been on four mission trips — including the recent trip to Haiti — since 2004. 

“Originally, I was in a group called World Changers and acting as a health-care coordinator for a trip in Kentucky and Evansville, Ind.,” Bullard said. “When I was in Kentucky, the doctor there was talking about going to Africa ... and I told my husband on the way to Indiana that I’d really like to do a medical mission overseas. ... I felt like — more than anything — that God had given me a little bit of knowledge and I ought to use that knowledge to help others.”

Last year, Bullard explained to Heil that she went to Haiti with a medical group sponsored by Glen Echo Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio. Heil immediately felt she was needed, she said.

“I have been wanting to be on a mission trip since I was 21,” Heil said. “I felt God was in control of this trip; everything was already orchestrated.

“We made plans in 2009. The earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12 — a few days after I sent my passport off.”

Bullard said when she learned of the earthquake, she “wanted to hop on a plane and just go” to Haiti.

“Actually, because of the earthquake, two orthopedic surgeons hopped on board with our group,” she said. “It was because of the earthquake that we got extra doctors in. Some would have been there anyway, but the orthopedic surgeons just jumped on board.”

The medical mission group of 32 individuals — all from Southern Illinois, Canada, South Carolina and Ohio — saw and treated 1,300 Haitians in the town of Forte Liberte, approximately 125 miles from Port-au-Prince, Heil said.

“I did minimal work as a registered nurse,” she added. “I took vital signs and did admissions. These poor people were so accepting and loving and appreciative. One woman said in Creole to a translator, ‘God has sent you to us.’”

Heil and Bullard said many people were flocking to Forte Liberte to get away from the earthquake devastation.

“One little boy was crying and crying for his daddy,” Heil said. “His aunt said when the earthquake had happened, they dug the 2-year-old boy out of the rubble.”

“The sister of this family (the aunt) lived on the top floor of a building, and her family lived on the bottom floor,” Bullard added. “When the earthquake happened, the whole building crumbled downward. ... They had lost everything, but they were still somewhat happy and thankful because they saved the child.”

Heil said many of the patients whom the medical group saw were treated for depression and insomnia because the patients were afraid another earthquake would happen. Other patients were treated for medical conditions such as goiters or cysts, and received other medical treatments which Heil says “we take for granted.”

“They’re just so happy to have anything,” she said. “I was never scared, but frustrated sometimes with the crowds trying to be seen. They would crowd into our building because they were afraid they wouldn’t be seen.”

However, Heil stressed the trip would not have been a success without the compassion and generosity of the McLeansboro community.

“The community gave a lot. I got money and donations from the hospital, doctors, York’s Pharmacy, and three churches here gave money that went to medications; I was also able to purchase antibiotics with the donations,” she said. “It was a wonderful thing.”

People also donated from Jefferson and Wayne counties, Bullard said.

“People from work gave me money and said, ‘Use this for someone there,’” she  added. “One woman gave me kid shoes that I took over to Haiti in my suitcase. I received $500 from New Hope General Baptist Church, too. People were so generous in their donations because they saw it in the news and knew what was going on. That has never happened on my mission trips before. To me, that helps designate the fact that God was definitely in the trip.”

“We all pulled together,” Heil said. “There was a lot of emotion and compassion from everyone. What you notice (in Haiti) is how poor they are — the dirt roads, the streets littered with trash. ... There was an orphanage down there that if we all wrote letters to Ty Pennington of ‘Extreme Home Makeover,’ what a show he could have. Kids were moved out of the orphanage because they were afraid the building would fall on them.”

But despite the poor living conditions and the tragedy of the earthquake, the Haitians continue to gather and remain thankful, Bullard said.

“In the morning, I would wake up there and hear them singing,” she said. “We were right above a church and we could hear them gathering together and praise God. With as little as what they had, they’re thankful for what they’ve got, and that makes me shameful.”

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