Forget the usual "I use it for everything" line – We have re-defined "everything"! This is the collective story of Kevin (the writer), Loren, Jamie, Raymond, Neil, Ramon, and Travis. We, an eclectic group from Canada and the USA, were in Haiti working on a humanitarian irrigation project when the quake hit on January 10, 2010. We immediately dropped our work and began doing heavy first aid, evacuating wounded to the Dominican Republic for amputations, dug the wounded and the dead from rubble, and generally did whatever we could find to do. Among our group we sported five Waves, one Surge with bit kit, and one "other brand".

 

Every day found us doing stuff they don't teach you in Harvard, your neighborhood first aid class, or the class on how to be an office punk. Every day generated a new "Let me tell you what I used my Leatherman for today" story competition. During the wee hours the morning after the quake, yours truly finished amputating a toe (by flashlight) that a hunk of concrete had started. The next day, when working down a hole burrowed down to the third floor of a six story school that had collapsed, Neil sawed through some wooden school benches for 20 minutes to free somebody trapped behind them. When doing medical triage, we had most/all of the tools in a container of iodine solution, the best disinfectant we could lay hands on. Another patient ? – no problem, reach for the closest Wave and go to work! They're calling "Doktor!" from over there? – just a minute, let me grab my tool kit. Another head injury from falling concrete blocks? You say the skull is showing and there are lumps of dirt in there? – I'll be right over to dig the dirt out! We gotta rig some shade over these wounded to keep off the afternoon sun? - I'll get ‘er done. Whad'ya mean the hole in the IV bag isn't big enough? – let me show you how to get that open! That needs to be extracted? – I've got an extraction tool right here!

 

Imagine our delight a few days later when we went to the Eco Depot, the only building supply store in Port-au-Prince worthy of the name. There on the wall was this sticker! (For the office guys out there, it reads "I have a LEATHERMAN. I can help.") Man, I gotta get me one of those.

 

Kevin B.

Winton, CA