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Buried alive for four days after January’s devastating earthquake hit Haiti, Kesner Salvent didn’t know whether he would live to walk, see the sun, ride his motorcycle or pick up his brush to create more colorful paintings showing the landscape and people of his native country.

When rescuers retrieved his crumpled body from under a pile of rubble in Port-au-Prince, Salvent had a severe spinal cord injury. Unable to move, he was shuttled from hospital to hospital until he was taken to a US Navy hospital ship, where he underwent surgery.

He was then taken to a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, but it wasn’t only his legs that needed work. His hands had trouble even holding a fork, let alone a paintbrush. His cervical injury damaged the motor functions in his hands and wrists.

But he’s back painting now, after months of additional rehabilitation in Maine that has included conventional therapy in a hospital, as well as occupational and physical therapy at a horse farm that has helped strengthen his hands and fingers by driving a carriage.

“I can paint,” he said. “I’m in life now.”

Salvent, 26, grew up in Cap-Haitien in northern Haiti and earned money selling his paintings. He moved to Port-au-Prince three years ago, where he worked construction for his daily job while creating his colorful acrylics on the side.

But his life took an abrupt turn on Jan. 12, when the earthquake struck. He was in downtown Port-au-Prince, where a building tumbled on top of him.

He had never been away from Haiti and he spoke no English — Creole is his native tongue. He later came to Maine at the urging of one of his best friends. Salvent is staying with his friend’s wife’s parents.

And for two months beginning in September, he went once a week to a place known as Equest Therapeutic Riding Center.

Equest has treated more than 2,500 patients for everything from autism and multiple sclerosis to brain injuries and retardation.

Therapists have helped soldiers and students and housewives and amputees, but Salvent was the first earthquake survivor.

“When he first came here, he had trouble holding utensils, and he couldn’t hold a pen,” said Sue Grant, a physical therapist who has been working with Salvent.

Salvent now can offer a firm handshake and has no problem holding things. But his hands’ fine motor skills still need work and his painting isn’t back to where he’d like it to be. Still, he feels the need to paint.

At Shepherd Center, Dr. Donald Leslie, the medical director, got Salvent an easel and canvasses so he could paint while undergoing rehabilitation there.

The hospital staff had to fit his hand and wrist with a special brace and make custom attachments for his paintbrushes simply so he could apply paint to canvas.

“He was very passionate about his painting. And he’s talented,” Leslie said in a phone interview from Atlanta.

As he spoke, Leslie received an e-mail from Salvent expressing again his appreciation for all the help and encouragement Leslie has given him.

Salvent is slowly bringing himself to paint, said Pam Lee, who is putting Salvent up in her and her husband’s home.

“He’s feeling better about painting now. Those weeks at Equest have put the finishing touches on his hands,” Lee said. “He’s not 100 percent. But he’s well on his way to 100 percent.”

He has at least one more painting he has promised — to the doctor who performed the surgery on him after his rescue.

“Three days after my surgery, I stand,” Salvent said in his halting English. “I talked to my doctor and said, ‘Someday I have to paint a painting for you. I’m going to do that for you.’

“I’m going to show you that God loves me. I’m lucky, and God had a plan for me. I have to show you.” 


Associated Press