Haiti native, friends work to get sister in care here

Francis Almonor hopes that his sister, who was severely injured in the earthquake in Haiti, can soon be reunited with family in Winston-Salem.

Almonor, 43, is a respiratory therapist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro. He returned to his Kernersville home last week after spending several hectic days in his native Haiti, trying to find his father and two nephews and secure medical care for his oldest sister, Myrtha.

Myrtha Almonor, 44, was trapped underneath the rubble of the school where she taught. Shortly after the earthquake hit, she was able to call a brother who lives in New York and tell him that she was alive but trapped. The family never heard back from her after that brief phone call. They also never heard from their father, who lives in the United States but was visiting Port-au-Prince, and Myrtha Almonor's two boys.

"We were calling every number in Haiti we could think of," Almonor said. "It was like that for two or three days. It was totally chaotic. We feared the worst."

Almonor decided the day after the earthquake that he would go to Haiti to try to find his family. He had hoped to fly into Port-au-Prince, but because the airport was closed to commercial flights, he flew to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. En route, he learned that his sister had been injured and had been taken to a hospital in Santo Domingo.

Almonor made a beeline for the hospital. He found her lying in the hallway, the only place left in the overcrowded hospital. Both of her legs are paralyzed, and she has limited movement in her left arm. After she was pulled from the rubble, she spent about three days in a tent with no medical attention.

"She wasn't talking. She didn't know who I was. She was really in bad shape," Almonor said. "I knew that if I left her, she wasn't going to make it. There was no question in my mind. An infection, at the least, would've killed her."

He immediately called his wife, Aline, and told her: "We have to find a way to get her out of here because if she stays, she will not survive."

Almonor, his sister and a medic traveled in an ambulance, which was equipped with nothing more than a stretcher, and made a nine-hour drive to Port-au-Prince, where they hoped to find a flight to take her to the United States.

The city, he said, was filled with debris, dust, dead bodies and an awful stench. "It looked worse than a war zone," he said.

Friends and co-workers at Baptist and Moses Cone, as well as the Guilford County Sheriff's Office, where Aline works, rallied to find a flight for Almonor's sister. Eventually, she was put on a U.S. Air Force plane, flown to Miami and later taken to West Palm Beach, where Almonor said she is getting excellent care.

While in Port-au-Prince, Almonor found his father and two nephews, who were not injured in the earthquake. His father's home is intact, but there are cracks throughout the house, making it unsafe. The family is sleeping outside on sheets in a makeshift tent.

Almonor also found a space on a military plane, and after visiting his sister in West Palm Beach, returned home. Co-workers at Baptist are now trying to help him bring her to Winston-Salem.

Ken Bishop, the disaster-management coordinator for the hospital, researched medical-evaluation flights and found one that would cost $10,000.

Jim Chesson, the associate director of respiratory care, works with Almonor. He contacted family members to help Almonor figure out how to set up a restricted bank account that could be used for donations toward the flight. Almonor is in the process of setting up that account.

Chesson said he was moved to help Almonor after hearing about his sister. "Francis is the epitome of a respiratory therapist and health-care provider and giver," Chesson said. "Any person who drops what they are doing and leaves the comfort of his home to go to a distant land that has been devastated and rescue his sister, that says a lot about his compassion and love for his family and courage."

Doctors have told Francis Almonor that it is unlikely that his sister will walk again.

"But we are very faithful and have a strong belief in God," Almonor said. "We know it may be medically impossible, but we have faith she will one day walk again."

lodonnell@wsjournal.com


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