12/06/2018
Reprinted with editing from the Missionary Signal
Breast Cancer Clinic at
Pierre Payen, Haiti By Scott G. Barnes
There is now a Breast Cancer Clinic at the hospital in Pierre Payen, Haiti.
To the best of my knowledge there are only three breast cancer clinics outside of Port au Prince in a country of almost 11 million peope. This one came about through prayer.
I am a retired Hematologist/ Medical Oncologist from a specialty group associated with the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center of Johns-Hopkins University. When a group from my hometown was planning to go to Haiti in October 2017, I was praying whether I should go. I was at peace the day I left and I felt that was a good sign.
In Pierre Payen, I met Donna Binkley. She and her late husband, Victor, spent years providing medical care for this community through Project Help. After a long discussion about cancer screening in Haiti, we concluded it would be impossible in such an impoverished land.
When I went home, I could not forget our conversation or the huge obstacles to establish cancer screening in Haiti. I frequently prayed about it. Then I began to dream not only of breast cancer screening but therapy, too.
Early January 2018
Since I had spent over 30 years doing research as well as practice I was familiar with establishing new programs. After scouring medical literature, I wrote a 25-page program on the possibility of breast cancer care in Haiti. It dealt not only with therapy but also a strong education program to involve patients and
the healthcare community. I sent my project to some of my former colleagues to see if they agreed that this program was worth pursuing. They confirmed that this was a viable option.
I knew I had to share this with Donna. I sent her a copy of the Tamoxifen
study for Haiti.
Donna was glad she was seated when she opened my email. She shared that she and Victor’s sister Rebekah Binkley Montgomery had been praying for over 6 years that the Lord would send someone to Haiti who was knowledgeable of cancer and its treatment. Then I was glad I was sitting down! To realize that I was being used by God to answer the prayers of others was so very humbling to me.
God has continued to open doors and bless this project in ways I had not imagined. For example:
Dawn VanDervort, RN, serving in Haiti with her husband, Mike, have not only opened their home to me when I go to Haiti 4 or 5 times per year, but she also agreed to serve as the Breast Cancer Coordinator with Nadia Joseph as her assistant. They have a designated cell phone to receive calls from patients as well as physicians desiring to have their patients in the study. They can evaluate the efficiency of therapy and distribute therapy free of charge to patients.
I am in the process of writing grants to fund this work for at least the next five years as well as praying for funds to purchase a mammography unit for the hospital. Several radiologist friends have already agreed to come to Haiti to teach the staff how to operate the unit. We hope to get a digital unit, so we can transmit
the studies back to radiologists to read the mammograms and then, with the push of a button, send a report in French and English back to Haiti.
We are also collaborating with other groups from the US to help with the patients
when they go to Pierre Payen to receive therapy for breast cancer..
There is no end to this story because our God is always at work. I am already seeing opportunities for treatment of other cancers, but I’ll just watch and wait to
see where the Lord wants this to go. And yes, keep on praying. After all, that is how this whole thing got started.
