UK HealthCare Team Helps Former PICU Nurse Open Community Health Clinic in Haiti

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 12, 2016) —  The adage, “build it, and they will come,” didn’t apply when former pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurse Kristyn Mickley and the Reach Haiti medical mission broke ground on a health clinic in the secluded mountains of Haiti.

An estimated 40,000 patients living in a medically underserved region of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere were already in dire need of basic medical care. Before the clinic opened its doors on March 5, as many as 20 villagers flocked to Mickley’s doorstep in the early morning seeking medicine for their ailments.

“Once people realized we were there, they just started showing up on my front porch,” Mickley said.

Mickley, who started visiting Haiti on short-term mission trips in 2013, resigned from her nursing position at Kentucky Children’s Hospital in 2015 to embark upon an adventure and fulfill a personal calling to serve the health care needs of children and families in Haiti. She joined the cause of Reach Haiti, a faith-based medical mission that built and operates a small community health clinic in the geographically isolated mountaintop village of Foret De Pins, Haiti. The Reach Haiti medical team consists of Mickley and pharmacist Daniel Abercrombie with support from Abercrombie's wife, a nurse. Most of their patients come from farms or small villages interspersed throughout the region.

Mickley sold all her belongings and boarded a one-way flight to Haiti last August, settling into a house across the street from the clinic and acclimating to the Haitian lifestyle. She and her fellow medical missionaries waited for months while the clinic was under construction. She soon learned that many necessities taken for granted in the United States require extra effort to acquire in rural Haiti.

“You focus on the medications you have to hand out, or the sick patients coming your way,” Mickley said. “When you live here full time, you have all that, plus just everyday life. If you want drinking water, you have to arrange that.”

Before moving to Haiti, Mickley, who graduated from the UK College of Nursing, started her career as a PICU nurse at Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) in 2012. She worked in the unit with Dr. Scottie Day, chief of pediatric critical care for KCH and now associate chief medical officer for UK HealthCare, who shared her passion for serving the medical needs of underprivileged people and populations around the world.

While Mickley was an invaluable asset to the pediatric critical care team, Day and the entire PICU staff rallied to support Mickley when they heard her plans to move to Haiti. In the weeks leading up to her move, the PICU staff hosted a fundraising event for Reach Haiti’s first endeavor.

“In a way, she was a loss to KCH but she was a gain to children elsewhere,” Day said of Mickley. “I’m also so proud of what she’s done — she’s made a huge difference in a short period of time and laid a foundation for more to come.”

Day and other UK HealthCare faculty members didn’t lose interest in the mission when Mickley left for Haiti. Day committed to helping the Reach Haiti mission by traveling to volunteer his medical expertise and forming an ongoing partnership between the ministry and multidisciplinary medical teams at UK HealthCare. He led a team of UK faculty members, including KCH pediatrician Dr. Robert Dillard, to Haiti for the clinic’s official opening in early March. The team was joined by Day’s 10-year-old son Dalton, who learned the importance of helping others while accompanying his dad on the trip and created a video of memorable moments and people. The medical members of the team provided additional support to respond to an overwhelming influx of patients throughout the opening week, as well as deliver specialized care for complex and emergency cases presenting at the clinic.

More than 300 patients were treated in the first four days of service. One patient presented to the clinic with an infected tonsillar abscess that had degraded to sepsis, and the team coordinated resuscitation and then stabilized the patient with fluids and oxygen before transporting her to the distant hospital. Mickley called the case a “flash back” to her days in the PICU.

“Having Dr. Day and other UK faculty here in Haiti serving at the facility brought such joy — they jumped in and quickly became part of the team,” Mickley said.

Video produced by Dalton Day. 

After operating for a few weeks, the clinic now functions much like a doctor’s office, providing examinations and treatment for common conditions such as respiratory illness, hypertension and pregnancy. With the nearest hospital a four-hour drive on rough terrain away, Haitian villagers also come to the clinic to triage injuries or illness that requires more advanced care. The building includes three examination rooms, a mini-triage area, a pharmacy and a reception room.

“It’s just become this safehouse — it’s something the community wanted,” Day said.

The patient load has reduced to about 20 to 25 patients per day, but Mickley said the mission plans to hire more medical staff. Sometimes scheduled patients must wait to be seen because of unexpected emergencies. As the only full-time staff members, Mickley and Ambercrombie begin every day in the clinic with a prayer for their patients, and then they bring in patients waiting outside the building in groups of three at a time. Challenges range from getting patients to return to the clinic for follow up care to having enough medical supplies to treat every symptom or condition.

“Our patients are sick, but tough,” Mickley said. “Most of them have never seen a doctor before, or if they have, it’s been very limited care.”

Day is interested in sending more UK volunteer groups to the clinic to help manage patient loads and supply additional medical support. He plans to organize groups of students and faculty members representing various disciplines across six health college at UK to learn how to practice medicine in environments with a lack of resources, as well as gain the impressionable and humbling life experience of serving in underprivileged areas of the world.

“It will be a continual investment, it’s not just involving the children’s hospital and people from this university,” Day said. “It’s a way for UK HealthCare to partner with community members who are already invested. That’s what is really nice about this program — it’s UK HealthCare and KCH working with other community leaders and other nationalities.”

Mickley is excited about the prospect of hosting UK groups, including some of her friends and former colleagues in the PICU, for medical mission work in Haiti. Now that she’s confronted with the unmet health needs of sick and suffering patients everyday, she welcomes more helping hands in the clinic.  

“Watching two nations come together to bring health care to such a devastated area brings me so much joy and hope,” Mickley said. “When I first started here, I thought I would see a lot of just colds or cuts. But the level of illness is so beyond that. I am reminded daily that this clinic is not just a want, but a need for these people.”

To make a financial contribution to the Reach Haiti ministry and get updates on the clinic’s progress, click here.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Adams, elizabethadams@uky.edu