Update on the medical team
I’ve been going to Haiti for 9 years and have made probably a dozen trips over that time—taking quite a few staff members from The Community Health Center of Burlington with me from time to time. So when the earthquake happened I felt an immediate need to help out in a place I already knew so well—my home away from home, really. This trip was different though. Even very different from when I was there immediately after the back to back hurricanes in 2008.
As I’m sure you’ve seen on TV, the city of Port au Prince is a real mess—most of it completely leveled. There are lots of aid agencies there from all over the world but very little coordination. I spent almost 2 weeks there with 2 other docs and 3 nurses. We were stationed at a Saint Damien’s hospital in Port au Prince. Saints Damien’s is a pediatric nutrition center turned trauma/tertiary care center after the quake. We worked with doctors and nurses from all over the world. Dr. Andersson-Swayze and I spent our days doing clinics in the “tent cities” that have popped up everywhere and in the slums of Port au Prince taking medical supplies, food and water and doing what we could do to help. We did a lot of wound debridement, treating infections, casting, splinting, and evaluation of fevers. We delivered a baby to a mom that was probably 6-7 months pregnant (the baby did fine). There were a lot of people (including myself) sick from the poor air quality due to the dust from the rubble, burning garbage and burning bodies. The tent cities and slums were heart breaking- to see the people, hear the stories of loss and hunger. We wondered what the hell they were going to do now with often nothing but the clothes on their back. We figure we saw 100-125 patients a day over 10 working days. We would come back to the hospital in the late afternoon (bringing any patients with us that needed to see a surgeon) and then see patients in the ER, post op and peds floor as the help there was not coordinated very well.
We slept on the roof of the hospital, ate granola bars, thankfully had access to a shower and clean water ourselves. The city felt like a war zone with a lot of military around, helicopters flying overhead constantly, fires burning, and buildings in rubble.
I feel we made a contribution though it felt like a very small one in the wake of such a huge disaster.
Patti
Patti Fisher M.D.
Medical Director
The Community Health Center of Burlington
January 17th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Dave, Hello we are from ARGENTA and headed to Haiti with a medical relief organization. We have been doing work in Aceh ever since the tsunami. We are associated with Direct Relief and are a small team of 4 very experienced disaster relief workers and medics/ midwife. We are flying into Santo Domingo on the 25th and then picking up supplies and then making our way into Haiti. We have not been assigned a location, yet.
In Aceh we made our way to a community and set up a clinic. The clinic is still the only functioning clinic in Aceh. So, we may just head in and find a community that we will set up our clinic and then have the other organizations come to us. Do you have any suggestions? We are trying to purchase a solar water filter to bring. Do you know of the possiblities of hiring a boat and getting to Jacmel. They have not seen any aide as of midnight last night.
I know you are busy, but maybe we can help each other (?) We are also coming in with supplies, trying to avoid PAP, unless we are meant to be there. We will be in Haiti on the 29th. Coming in any way that we can. Our NGO is Bumi Sehat. And we ar coming straight from home (Argenta).
Sending you strength and support to you in any way,
Kelly Dunn and Josh Sarvis
January 18th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Dear Kelly and Josh,
Thank you for your interest and support of Pure Water for the World. I don’t know about hiring a boat to Jacmel. Would you be able to land in the DR and drive to Jacmel? At this time most of our staff is in PAP, but there are many other towns that are affected. If I receive any other information on other towns, I will pass it along. We have a medical team flying down later this week, but they are going to PAP. Can you give me your email address or send me an email at info@purewaterfortheworld.org. I can then send you more information on other areas of Haiti as we receive it.
Thank you again, and I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Jamin Peck
Executive Assistant
January 20th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
We have figured out all logistics into Jacmel. We are currently working on getting food supplies to Haiti, 1 container a week for MANY months. We would love to keep in touch with all to know how we can help. If we have access to PAP, we will come with food and basic supplies for your crew. We do want to help we will be in Jacmel on the 28th with supplies. Sending strength – Kelly Dunn, Josh Sarvis/ Bumi Sehat