Moved to action

Dr. Michael Ettner knows first-hand the heavy toll of daily life in Haiti.

Through his travels to the least-developed and poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Ettner, an emergency room physician at Kootenai Medical Center, has tended to the urban and rural population of more than 65,000 Haitians who live in the city of Hinche and surrounding countryside 45 miles north of the capital Port-au-Prince, where during the dry season most survive on scant meals every three days. There, life is a constant struggle, as it is everywhere within the borders of the island country that’s slightly smaller in size than Maryland.

Amid the backdrop of beautiful beaches, palm trees and tropical heat, Haitians have been plagued by lack of clean water, scarce electricity and endless cycles of political violence for decades. Unemployment rates hover at extremely high levels, while 80 percent of the population lives under the poverty line and more than half live in abject poverty, according to the CIA’s Factbook web site about Haiti.

Then the earthquake hit, and a country on the threshold of chaos tipped over the edge.

Like many Americans who felt an urge to help after images were broadcast around the world of the 7.0 magnitude temblor that toppled buildings and left its victims piled in the streets of Haiti’s capital, Ettner wanted to do something – anything – for those affected. And like Ettner, people around North Idaho are finding ways to provide relief in any way they can, from monetary donations to medical supplies to traveling to the devastated nation to provide on-the-ground care.

Some of the donation drives are of the more familiar variety, such as collection boxes placed at businesses and companies matching employee contributions, such as at Avista Utilities, where workers had pitched in more than $4,000 as of Jan. 22. Others have found more novel ways to help, including an all-day donation drive at Highlands Day Spa, where the $20 minimum for each massage last Sunday went toward the American Red Cross Haiti relief effort, and an all-day doughnut drive at both Donut House locations in Hayden and Coeur d’Alene, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Red Cross, too.

About a week ago, KMC’s Ettner traveled to Hinche, the same area of Haiti he has been nine times. Through the nonprofit Haiti Endowment Fund, a nondenominational Christian organization that’s been helping Haitians for roughly 25 years, he led a team of volunteers in various medical professions, including another doctor, four registered nurses, a Whitworth college intern, and his wife, a respiratory therapist. Ettner was planning on spending a week abroad during the trip, which was actually planned last summer, while others on the team planned on staying longer.

The goal is to help as many as possible at the nonprofit group’s hospital, a complex featuring dormitories, surgery rooms and reliable power. The team, which received donated medical supplies from Kootenai Health and paid their own way, will take day trips to outlying rural villages to hold medical clinics, too. Prior to the trip, Ettner said he anticipates more than 350,000 refugees have crossed the two mountain ranges separating the countryside from the worst-affected areas just to receive medical treatment, making their way despite injuries and other ailments, such as broken arms and legs and severe malnourishment.

Before leaving on Jan. 23, Ettner spoke with a Haitian doctor who was overwhelmed by amputee patients and lacked the supplies to treat them. The doctor had been using garden hose as tourniquets, performing surgery with hacksaws and no anesthesia.

With all-volunteer groups from the endowment fund heading to Haiti in shifts throughout the year, he added, “We’re going there to staff that hospital, and we’re going to stay there until this crisis is over, which could be a year, two years or longer.”

Meanwhile, North Idaho residents and businesses are reaching out to those affected by the disaster, adding thousands of dollars to the billions of dollars of international aid.

At Highlands Day Spa in Post Falls, 200 appointments had filled the books for the donation drive days before it even began, according to Misty Sellars, a massage therapist. With almost 60 massage therapy students and 20 certified therapists lining up to offer their services free-of-charge, and a minimum payment of $20 per 55-minute massage, Sellars expected the business to raise at least $6,000 for the relief effort.

“We just decided, ‘why not?’ I mean, nobody is going to turn down a $20 massage,” she offered about the event. “We opened our doors to any massage therapist in the area to come in, and they definitely answered.”

Coeur d’Alene resident Karen Holm heard about the spa event as well as the Donut House’s doughnut drive and knew that’s how she could help. After buying a dozen pastries the day before, Holm was at Highlands on Sunday for a massage session.

“You kind of feel helpless; you watch things on TV and want to do something, and this is a way to do that, even in a small way,” she explained, adding that she has a 9-year-old nephew who was adopted from Haiti so it was important to support the cause. “Little by little, it adds up.”

A donation box at the Salvation Army’s Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene has raised more than $2,000, and a matching amount was donated through its church service. According to Major Ben Markham, the center’s associate director, it’s no surprise that North Idahoans are offering their support to the countless people affected by the earthquake.

“The community has been fantastic,” he said. “I think people have a genuine concern for anyone suffering like the people in Haiti. Americans in particular are a generous people; when you see these kinds of things, it’s part of who we are to want to help out.”

Last weekend’s doughnut drive at the Donut House businesses in the area quickly saw swarms of customers lining up to make their donations, emptying the cases of every last filled and glazed pastry before closing time at both locations, owner Matt Gross said.

“It went really well – too well, actually,” he joked about selling out of stock. “I wasn’t sure how it would go, but as a small business in the community, people really pulled together in a different way, and it worked.”

As for Ettner, he said his first reaction upon hearing news about the disaster was heartfelt shock. While his medical expertise has taken him around the world to help those in need, Haiti has always stuck out in his mind as place of dire need, from medical treatment to education to infrastructure.

“My response was tears,” Ettner said. “There’s no other people on earth, except maybe in Bangladesh, that already had been suffering so much. I was just glad we had scheduled a trip months ago. It became a call to further action.”