At the beginning of April, Dr. Jay Rudd and his son Justin joined a group of doctors on their biannual trip to Haiti. For one week Dr. Rudd worked at free clinics and performed eye surgeries for some of the residents of this country still recovering from the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince more than a year ago.

The following is an interview with Dr. Rudd about his experience in Haiti.

What's Haiti been like since the earthquake?

We arrived in Port-au-Prince on a Saturday. The trip from the airport showed us the devastation, though some locals told us that we were seeing the "good area" of town. There are tent cities and piles of rubble everywhere. Many of the buildings were decimated during the earthquake and people were sleeping in their cars because they didn't know if the buildings were safe to enter. Eventually one of the government agencies began stamping building doors with different colors to indicate the relative safety of each building.

Haiti is very economically depressed-- they just don't have the government resources to rebuild. We were there during the presidential election and were warned that if Mirlande Manigat won, there would probably be riots. The people there are so desperate for change that they elected a pop singer (Michel Martelly) for President.

There is hope among the people that there will be change.

What were the clinics like that you worked in?

We worked with a local opthalmologist, Dr. Pascale, during part of our trip, as well as a group called Friends of Haiti, which have 7 different clinics around Port-au-Prince. 

One of the clinics was in a city called Grand Boulage, which is about an hour away from Port-au-Prince, up in the mountains. There were very few cars or motorcycles and most people walked. The clinic was run by a local church and at that time was charging patients $2 for each visit, so no one ever came. While we attempted to work out a compromise, we decided to make house calls. Most of the houses were basically mud huts with no running water or plumbing of any kind. People came out of the woodwork when they heard there was a doctor in the village. Initially we saw about 50 people per day, but once we convinced the priest to stop charging for visits, that number grew to 400-500 patients per day. Those patients that we were able to treat were given a year's worth of meds but unfortunately we lacked proper medication to treat glaucoma.

What did your son do during your trip?

Justin served as a runner for us and played with some of the local kids. It was a great experience for him as it put into perspective our needs vs. wants in the US. He saw how underprivileged yet happy the locals were. It made him realize that he should be very happy with what he has and should try to give back.

There was a man who walked to the clinic in absolutely ragged shoes. Justin gave the man his own shoes for the walk back. I think this entire experience taught Justin some very valuable lessons.

What kinds of services did you provide to patients in Haiti?

I performed about 15 surgeries while I was there, both for cataracts (darkening of the lens of the eye) and pterygium (a mass of tissue that grows over the cornea). The tools available weren't as modern as what we have in the US. As a result, I performed a type of cataract surgery I haven't done in about 15 years (manual removal, which results in a longer healing time). I brought several lenses with me for replacement surgery. While we didn't have the resources to restore vision perfectly, all the patients were very grateful as many were essentially blind before the procedure.

Any plans to return?

The group I joined visits Haiti twice a year, so yes, at some point I would love to go back. I'd like to convince some of my dentist friends to join me next time because dental care is in such short supply. Also, it would be great if we could get 6-12 opthalmologists to commit to the trip so that we could provide eye care to the villages year-round.

More photos of the trip can be seen on the Clarus Eye Centre Facebook page.