COUSIN STEVE AND THE EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI

“I don’t think I could live with myself unless I gave it everything I possibly could. .... We had to think, we had to improvise, we had to act and we had to be tireless.”  Steve Ross

Steve Ross is a distant cousin living close to where our ancestor settled before the Revolutionary War in West Virginia.  Steve and I trace our relationship back to my great-great-great grandfather Henry Isner but cousins count, no matter how distant, at least in Randolph County.

Steve, a very lively 50-year old, maintains a sizable farm raising everything from peacocks to cattle but flies regularly to Haiti as the chief financial officer of one of the island’s largest Internet providers.  He arrived at noon on January 12 and spent his usual day until the earthquake shook the island just before 5 p.m.  Ross said the office did not crumble and about 50 employees were there and all survived without injury.  “I was still trembling and I used one of our Internet phones and called my wife.  I told her, ‘We had a big earthquake and I’m okay and I’m not staying in the building to talk about it,’ and that was that.”   A succinct report which pretty well describes Steve’s everyday conversation and demeanor, at least to my observation.

A co-worker, Chris Taylor, was with Steve when the quake occurred.  They gathered up their belongings which included a laptop and all the bottled water and food they could find.  Then they went to the Villa Creole Hotel where they were staying.  The hotel is located near a children’s hospital that was totally destroyed.  He said people started appearing in droves at the hotel because they thought the hospital might still be in operation.  At the Villa Creole they found the lobby caved in and the restaurant area was destroyed and many people were injured and standing in front of the hotel.  “I don’t know how it happened, but we got our first patient, a young boy, at about 6:30 p.m.  Once people saw us treat the young boy, a man said, ‘I have two children up at the hospital.  They aren’t getting any treatment I’m going to bring them to you.’  I said ‘Okay.’  He brought me a little boy who had about a three inch gash in his scalp.  The little girl had a crushed hand.  We were able to give them first aid and put the gash back together.”

Steve’s first aid training came as a Boy Scout and a miner’s safety card to work in the coal mines.  At the hotel, four other men joined Ross and Taylor in providing medical care to victims.  Steve cannot remember their names.  “I went into the hotel rooms through the wreckage and stripped the sheets to use as bandages.  Some other people were cutting sheets because we needed bandages.  We lined folks up on the street.  We had two trucks running with the headlights on.  As we fixed a group of people, we would move the trucks back and fix another group.”

The six men continued treating folks throughout the night.  Although several other people came and went, he said they were the only people who were providing medical treatment the entire time.  Their “medical supplies” consisted of a pair of scissors, a pocket knife, two first aid kits and a bottle of Betadyne.  “We did have a swimming pool full of water.  It was a great asset.”  Their food supply was peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and a case of Coca-Cola.  “I felt bad that we couldn’t do more for them,” Steve said.  “We could only splint breaks.  We could only bind up wounds.  We didn’t have any Novocain, all the pain relievers we had were four  bottles of Tylenol or Aleve .... so we couldn’t set any legs that might be able to be set.  We had no way of stitching anybody up.”

Steve said he was not concerned about the blood he encountered with some victims.  “I assessed my hands for cuts and I wear glasses so I didn’t need to worry about splashing.  I kept my hands away from my face and while I knew HIV was very predominant, I just had to act and do what had to be done.  There was no way ‘I’m not going to treat these hundred people because I am personally afraid.’  So I didn’t worry about it.  .... I did the best I could, but I feel a little guilty that I couldn’t do more.” 

And so, there you have the heroic story of my cousin, Steve Ross.  A brave American and true Mountaineer from West Virginia.

(Since the earthquake, Steve has worked with a doctor from Elkins, West Virginia to set up a clinic in Haiti.  It is supported by donations to the local churches from folks in Randolph County.  Information for this blog was taken from a much longer interview by the Elkins Intermountain with Steve Ross.  The article was written by Ben Simmons, Staff Writer.)