S.L. doctor speechless as Haiti clinic in ruins

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Utahn Jeff Randle found himself speechless this week as he got his first look at the Healing Hands for Haiti rehabilitation complex he helped found more than a decade ago.

Concrete apartment buildings and homes were pancaked by the horrific Jan. 12 earthquake that has devastated Haiti.

Other buildings in the compound might not have been completely destroyed, but they are severely damaged and cannot be accessed. So not only are no facilities available for use, but the clinic cannot salvage the medicine, wheelchairs, crutches and cots stored in its warehouse.

"I thought I was going to cry when I saw this," said Randle after he completed his tour of the complex's 6-acre grounds in the La Vallee de Bourdon district of Port-Au-Prince. "But my heart is crying."

Randle's heart and healing hands have long been wrapped around Haiti — before founding Healing Hands, he served an LDS Church mission there. This week, he has been treating patients, and visiting and speaking with residents in their native Creole as one of the doctors on the medical team sent on a humanitarian mission to the shaken nation by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The tragedy at Healing Hands extended well beyond broken buildings. The organization rented out some of the apartments to supplement operating funds. As one five-story apartment building was flattened, two tenants — a man and a woman — were trapped alive inside. Would-be rescuers spoke with the victims, but they could not be excavated.

The two died inside the rubble.

For Randle, eight days after the original quake, the smell of death and the silenced voices of the victims underscored the futility and fatalities.

The deceased woman's son visited the site Wednesday to plead with the half-dozen workers he hired in hopes of retrieving her remains.

Randle was met by Antonio Kebreau, the clinic's operations manager, who gave him a list of updates, including news that CNN had produced a report on the damaged clinic the day before.

Kebreau had to talk Randle out of trying to salvage anything from the damaged buildings.

One heartwarming silver lining for Randle was learning that a clinic employee, John Francillon, who was thought to be dead, was in fact alive.