By Cindy Strodel McCall
The large duffle bag that contained hundreds of dollars worth of medical supplies, donated to the CRUDEM Foundation by Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, NY this past April, could tell quite a story, if it could talk.
The third such generous donation made by Crouse Hospital, since anesthesiologist Tim McCall joined a Central New York general surgery team who volunteer their services at CRUDEM every year, the bag contained medical essentials including anesthetic drugs.
When Tim and his wife Cindy McCall cleared customs in Turks and Caicos, ready to embark for Milot, they found no trace of the two bags they’d checked in Syracuse, one of which was the medical supply bag. Airline records showed the bags were delivered to the Turks and Caicos airport. After that, no one knew what had happened. After a fruitless search was made of all luggage areas in the Provo airport, with the help of perplexed airport personnel, the surgical team decided to go on to Cap Haïtien. Fortunately they had met up with American Airlines baggage handler Etienne Dor, a Haitian from Port au Prince living in Providenciales, who realized medical supplies for his country were at stake. Although Etienne was not employed by the airline carrier, US Air, which had lost the bags, he assured the McCalls he would follow up on the problem, and do his best to get the supplies on a flight to Haiti as soon as they were located. Cell phone numbers were exchanged, but the surgical team left without much hope of recovering the supplies.
Once in Haiti, calls to US Air accomplished nothing. Attempts to obtain phone numbers of US Air personnel at the Provo airport were unsuccessful. The bags, when found, would be returned to Syracuse, airline officials said, if they were not claimed in three days. And in the meantime, no one knew where the bags were.
On day three of the surgical mission in Haiti, Tim McCall’s cell phone rang, with Etienne Dor on the line. Dor had discovered the bags had been erroneously delivered to a resort hotel in Providenciales. They were to be returned to the Provo airport that afternoon.
Dor needed, however, to be authorized to pick up the baggage. Using Dor’s phone, which Dor handed to a baggage agent, McCall spoke to US Air personnel in Providenciales and authorized them to release the bags to Dor. “At this point, although we’d only met Etienne briefly in the airport, we trusted him. Also, we had no other options. We didn’t want the airline to ship the supplies back to Syracuse,” said Tim McCall.
The bags were scheduled to be sent on to Haiti the next morning, on the one daily Air Turks and Caicos flight to Cap Haïtien. CRUDEM personnel arranged a pickup at the Cap Haïtien airport to retrieve the bags, but weather moved in.
Heavy rain postponed the Air TC flights, with planes unable to land that morning. By the end of the day, flights had been diverted to Santo Domingo, and the Cap Haïtien airport had closed. “Were the bags in Santo Domingo by then? We had no idea,” said Tim McCall. “They seemed to be enjoying a Caribbean vacation without us.”
Dor’s cell phone was called but it went straight to voice mail. Later that evening, Dor called back. He had arranged for the bags to go out the following day to Cap Haïtien. He also had the Air Turks and Caicos baggage tag numbers of the McCalls’ checked bags.
On day five when the surgical team returned to the Medical Compound they found the duffel bag awaiting them. A quick check verified supplies were unopened and intact, with everything in place including the anesthesia drugs.
“It was so great to have the medical supplies arrive, as they were desperately needed. It was also nice to have some clean underwear,” said Cindy McCall, who had accompanied the team on the mission, and had managed most of the phone calls.
On the return flight back from Haiti to Provo, the first thing the McCalls did when they arrived at Turks and Caicos was to meet up with Etienne Dor and thank him.
“What Etienne did was an example of the kind of open-hearted generosity and kindness that we found everywhere during our stay in Milot. In spite of all the problems in Haiti, Haitians know how important it is to help one another, whether you’re a long-time friend or a stranger,” said Tim McCall. Stranger no longer, the CNY surgical team and CRUDEM now have a friend at the Provo airport.“I’m looking forward to meeting up with Etienne next year and seeing how his 9 month-old twins are doing.”
Cindy Strodel McCall is a writer and teacher who lives in Cazenovia, NY. Her resume includes teaching English and Communication classes as an adjunct professor at Cazenovia College, and doing freelance writing for local newspapers such as the Eagle News and the Madison County Courier. She is currently employed by Cazenovia Public Library where she runs an adult literacy program that brings volunteer tutors to rural areas through partnerships with local area libraries and community food pantries.
