La Jollan Kim Cullings is not one to accept the status quo. For 10 years, the civilian registered nurse at the Naval Medical Center San Diego has traveled around the world on medical missions. She has helped establish mobile medical clinics deep in the jungles of Guyana and worked for Mobile Hospice in remote villages in Uganda. In October, Cullings traveled for the first time to Haiti with Project Hope, an international health education and assistance organization that works closely with the Navy. She worked alongside Haitian nurses in post-surgical recovery and wound care for earthquake patients at Hospital Sacre Couer in Milot. Milot, a town of 45,000 located 70 miles north of Port au Prince, Haiti served as the evacuation site for about 500 earthquake survivors after the magnitude 7.0 quake hit in January. Hospital Sacre Couer had only 74 beds at the time, but through donations, equipment and volunteer surgical teams from the U.S. and worldwide, the hospital was able to treat 400 patients at a time. “Since the quake, the town of Milot has a paved road, a water filtration system and state-of-the-art donated medical equipment,” Cullings said. “The rest of Haiti, especially Port au Prince, is not so fortunate.” With the recent onslaught of cholera and tents “as far as the eye can see,” Cullings said Port au Prince will certainly have a long, difficult recovery. But the Haitian people remain tremendously resilient, she said. “They have such a strong faith that life will be better. I am inspired that people that have so little have such graciousness and dignity,” she said. Cullings said she often finds it difficult to articulate exactly why she commits so much of her time and effort to helping others. “It keeps my life in perspective and humbles me,” she said. “The needs in the developing world are so great that I have asked myself more than once if I can really make a difference, but the kindness that I receive in turn for even the smallest of gestures makes it all so incredibly rewarding.” Cullings said she expects the cholera epidemic to rage throughout Haiti with little hope of slowing down in the near future. She intends to return in next spring to provide her services again to those fighting the disease.
