U.S. nurse kidnapped in Haiti opens up about her terrifying experience

An American nurse who was kidnapped in Haiti last month with her daughter opened up about her experience for the first time since their release. 

Alix Dorsainvil and her young daughter were abducted while serving in their community ministry at the El Roi Hati’s campus near the capital city of Port-au-Prince on July 27. She was working in the clinic when armed men broke in and took the two.

The nurse and her daughter were safely released by their captors after being held for 13 days on August 8, with the help of U.S. law enforcement and State Department representatives. 

Speaking for the first time since she was released, Dorsainvil shared her experience and said she held “no grudges” against her captors. 

“For the gangsters, I have a message for you: I want you guys to know that everything I said during my time in captivity was sincere,” she said in a five-minute video posted on the website of El Roi. 

“They were not the manipulative words of someone desperate to escape, but simply the truth, especially when I told you my clinic doors are always open to you or anyone in need.”

Despite her terrifying experience, Dorsainvil said she promised to treat the gang members who kidnapped her at the clinic run by the Christian group founded by her husband. 

“I want you to know that I hold no grudges against you in my heart. That doesn’t mean that I agree with what you are doing. Especially what you are doing against your Haitian brothers and sisters,” she said.

“Even if ransom is paid and the victims are released, this particular event leaves a scar in their hearts. That will never go away.”

The nurse did not offer any additional details regarding her kidnapping and did not clarify whether the $1 million ransom requested by the gang members was paid. 

Kidnappings in Haiti have increased along with gang violence since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. In many cases, women and children are taken by the gangs and then asked for ransom in exchange for their release, according to the U.N.’s Children’s Agency, UNICEF.

There have been at least 389 kidnappings reported in Haiti during the first three months of 2023, three times more than those reported in the previous quarter, according to the human rights group CRDH.