Dr. Chartelin

[posted by Linda Manz]

Dr. Chartelin with Nurse Elvita

I had the opportunity to have a longer talk with Dr. Chartelin.  He is 27 years old and is the physician at the clinic at Holy Family Parish in Cerca Carvajal. Becoming a doctor fulfilled a dream he had had since childhood;  he wanted to help his people.  

He attended primary and secondary school, after which he had to take exams to qualify for university.  He applied to a private university where about 120 applicants out of about 800 are chosen. Fortunately, I was one of the 120.  It is even more difficult to get into the state university.  It is a 5 year program, followed by one year of internship, which is owed to the state. His father paid for his first two years and several parishioners of St Edward Parish paid for the remainder.

His profession is very satisfying for him because he is able to care for patients and dispense medicines to help them.  He really doesn’t become frustrated because of the lack of equipment and supplies, he just does the best that he can with what he has.

The most common health problems that he sees are malnutrition, pelvic infections, pneumonia, and gastrointestinal diseases such as ulcers.  He sees an average of thirty malaria cases per month. Infants and children are not vaccinated in Haiti, but this is something that hopefully is being worked on with the health officials.  Juvenile diabetes is not something he has come across here.  For adult cases of diabetes, he provides oral medication and education for the patient.  The patient is asked to follow up in a week for lab work and then they are followed monthly with lab tests and medication adjustment as needed.  One of the biggest concerns for these and all the patients is the lack of keeping return appointments.

He would like to enlarge the clinic to provide better emergency care with the capability of the physician to stay overnight with the patient. At the present time, a patient in an emergency situation would be brought to his house.  From there they would go to the clinic.  If he is unable to help the patient, he/she would have to be transported to the hospital at Hinche by motorcycle or whatever means available.

He plans to become an orthopedic surgeon or maybe pursue a master’s degree in public health. Coming from a private university education, it is difficult to get into a residency program.  There are less than 70 places in the program for all private university graduates.

His hope for the people of Haiti is the provision of basic things such as education, food, good health care, jobs, utilities and a stable, effective government. 

He asked me to express his sincere and deep gratitude to the people of St Edward the Confessor Parish. He would not be a physician without their help.