Humanity First: Pockets of survival in Haiti sustain sport's spirit

 Humanity First, the humanitarian organization ..., adopted a community that has settled on a soccer field. Seven thousand displaced residents currently call the plot of land home.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Haiti
Source & Credit: National Post | February 23, 2010
By Tim Rindlisbacher, BSc (PT), MD, Dip. Sport Med

Severity Of Injuries; Fractures, breaks are not like we are used to seeing

The words "sports medicine" and "natural disaster" don't belong in the same sentence. So, to discuss sports injuries in the context of post-earthquake Haiti would trivialize the daily misery experienced by its survivors. Youth sport, however, has survived the Earth's seismic insult. Haitian parents forage for food and water with absolutely no time for leisure. Haitian children are left to carry the legacy of sport albeit in severely confined playing spaces. Their story deserves to be told.

During my recent medical relief mission to the impoverished nation, I witnessed sport rising from the rubble. Most of the basketball courts in Port-au-Prince now serve as well-defined living quarters for scores of families. Humanity First, the humanitarian organization with which I worked, adopted a community that has settled on a soccer field. Seven thousand displaced residents currently call the plot of land home. A dusty sliver of the field, formerly out of bounds, is currently the sole venue for soccer. Impromptu youth matches are

themselves legacies of Haiti's national sport. This tiny pitch was one of the few sites where I witnessed spontaneous smiles. The earthquake demolished physical structures, but it couldn't touch the purity of sport.

An interesting aspect of sports medicine is that each injury is essentially the same regardless of the sport during which it was sustained. For example, the characteristics of an anterior cruciate ligament tear are determined more by the mechanism of injury than by the specific field of play where they occur. Similarly, bones will fracture and heal according to the forces exerted upon them. This tenet of consistency was shaken during my visit to the earthquake zone. Falling bricks and cement shattered bones, but unlike with sports injuries, the traumatic pressure was maintained, sometimes for days. As a result, many of these fractures were complicated by associated nerve and muscles damage. In addition, open wounds became easily infected and numerous of them remain so.

There are no Olympic Games for Haitians. There will be no World Cup of soccer for them this summer. Gradually, sport will return to normal. Unfortunately, the standard of living has been deplorable for decades and a new category of poor has emerged following the quake. But there is hope: Haitians have proven to possess endurance that transcends sport in their struggle for survival.

-Tim Rindlisbacher, BSc (PT), MD, Dip. Sport Med., is director of Sports Health at the Cleveland Clinic in Toronto.

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