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N Engl J Med. Returning Home to Haiti ? Providing Medical Care after the Earthquake
Returning Home to Haiti -- Providing Medical Care after the Earthquake (N Engl J Med., point of view, extract, edited)
Published at www.nejm.org February 19, 2010 (10.1056/NEJMpv1001789)
Returning Home to Haiti ? Providing Medical Care after the Earthquake
Paul B. Delonnay, M.D. <sup>
</sup>
As I left an anesthesiology lecture on January 12, someone stopped me to ask whether I had checked on my family in Port-au-Prince. When he explained that there had been an earthquake, I breathed a sigh of relief ? earthquakes, I reassured him, are a frequent occurrence in my country. It was not until I saw the news on television moments later that I realized the gravity of the situation.
Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, I completed medical school at the Universit? d'?tat d'Haiti and then served as a general practitioner for Haiti's Department of Public Health in the port city of Jacmel. When I came to Boston to start a residency in anesthesiology, I did not expect to be returning to my homeland after only 6 months of training to apply what I had learned.
I hastily prepared to return to Port-au-Prince to help in any way I could. Another Haitian resident and three faculty members from our department decided to accompany me. Together, we gathered medical supplies donated by Boston-area hospitals and took a minimum of personal items, all stuffed in duffel bags. We flew directly to Port-au-Prince on a chartered plane, arriving 96 hours after the earthquake, on Saturday, January 16.
From the airport, we traveled to a makeshift hospital where two big tents, originally intended as warehouses, were filled to capacity with earthquake victims. There were two double rows of cots set less than a foot apart from one another. Every cot held a patient, and injuries ranged from minor wounds to severe, life-threatening ones. Men, women, children, babies, elderly patients ? all were crowded together in this chaotic scene. The suffocating heat and stench brought me back instantly to the harsh realities of health care in Haiti.
Most patients had limb fractures, many of which were open and infected. Others had gangrene of their limbs, necessitating immediate amputation. There was hunger, dehydration, and pain. One could hear patients screaming during dressing changes and from the pain of accidental movement of fractured body parts. Some were sobbing over loved ones they had lost. Others slept, owing to extreme fatigue, in spite of the environment.
Critically injured patients who seemed more likely to survive were transferred to better-equipped field hospitals. Those who were clearly not going to make it were hydrated and received analgesics. No supplemental oxygen was available.
(...)
[Full Free Document following the link below...]
<cite cite="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMpv1001789?query=TOC">NEJM -- Returning Home to Haiti -- Providing Medical Care after the Earthquake</cite>
Returning Home to Haiti ? Providing Medical Care after the Earthquake
Paul B. Delonnay, M.D. <sup>
</sup>
As I left an anesthesiology lecture on January 12, someone stopped me to ask whether I had checked on my family in Port-au-Prince. When he explained that there had been an earthquake, I breathed a sigh of relief ? earthquakes, I reassured him, are a frequent occurrence in my country. It was not until I saw the news on television moments later that I realized the gravity of the situation.
Born and raised in Port-au-Prince, I completed medical school at the Universit? d'?tat d'Haiti and then served as a general practitioner for Haiti's Department of Public Health in the port city of Jacmel. When I came to Boston to start a residency in anesthesiology, I did not expect to be returning to my homeland after only 6 months of training to apply what I had learned.
I hastily prepared to return to Port-au-Prince to help in any way I could. Another Haitian resident and three faculty members from our department decided to accompany me. Together, we gathered medical supplies donated by Boston-area hospitals and took a minimum of personal items, all stuffed in duffel bags. We flew directly to Port-au-Prince on a chartered plane, arriving 96 hours after the earthquake, on Saturday, January 16.
From the airport, we traveled to a makeshift hospital where two big tents, originally intended as warehouses, were filled to capacity with earthquake victims. There were two double rows of cots set less than a foot apart from one another. Every cot held a patient, and injuries ranged from minor wounds to severe, life-threatening ones. Men, women, children, babies, elderly patients ? all were crowded together in this chaotic scene. The suffocating heat and stench brought me back instantly to the harsh realities of health care in Haiti.
Most patients had limb fractures, many of which were open and infected. Others had gangrene of their limbs, necessitating immediate amputation. There was hunger, dehydration, and pain. One could hear patients screaming during dressing changes and from the pain of accidental movement of fractured body parts. Some were sobbing over loved ones they had lost. Others slept, owing to extreme fatigue, in spite of the environment.
Critically injured patients who seemed more likely to survive were transferred to better-equipped field hospitals. Those who were clearly not going to make it were hydrated and received analgesics. No supplemental oxygen was available.
(...)
[Full Free Document following the link below...]