Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Doctor: Haiti Needs Basics, Medical Supplies

UM Doctor Operates On Earthquake Victims

POSTED: Tuesday, January 19, 2010
UPDATED: 7:41 am EST January 20, 2010

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MIAMI -- A South Florida doctor who has been traveling to and from Haiti, treating victims of the earthquake, gave a glimpse Tuesday into the situation there.

Dr. Barth Green, of the University of Miami's Project Medishare, was among the first medical personnel to arrive in Haiti and begin to help those wounded in last week's earthquake.

"In the city itself, every two minutes, a pickup truck -- there's no ambulance, one, two for millions of people -- a pickup truck will pull up, and our doctors say, 'Incoming,' because they used to watch 'M*A*S*H,'" Green said. "On the back of the truck will be the most horrendous injury you can ever imagine. We have the most amazing team, and they're on this injury. They pull the patient onto a table, and they're amputating.

They're stopping bleeding. They're resuscitating."

Green's team had resources in place in Haiti before the earthquake struck because of its previous work there.

"The biggest challenge in Haiti right now is the fact that millions of people are on the streets. They can't go back to their houses, and they have no shelter, no food and no water. So we're coordinating a massive airlift of those commodities," Green said. "There's tens of thousands of amputees.

There's not one prosthetic place to give artificial limbs. There's no wheelchairs or canes or crutches. We're flying in hundreds of orthopedic surgeons."

Green recounted an emotional conversation he had with Haitian President Rene Preval.

"Everybody in the world cares, and everybody's doing everything they can. I told the president last night, 'Haiti is the world, and the world is Haiti now. It's no longer isolated, because everybody feels your pain and everybody wants to rebuild your country.' And he started crying," Green said.

Read more at:
http://www.justnews.com/news/22273356/detail.html

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Doctor in Haiti: Wounded children calling for missing parents

By Arthur Brice, CNN<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>cnnAuthor = "By Arthur Brice, CNN ";</SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>if(location.hostname.indexOf( 'edition.' ) > -1) {document.write('January 21, 2010 -- Updated 1415 GMT (2215 HKT)');} else {document.write('January 21, 2010 9:15 a.m. EST');}</SCRIPT>January 21, 2010 9:15 a.m. ESTJanuary 21, 2010 9:15 a.m. ESTJanuary 21, 2010 9:15 a.m. EST

Excerpts:

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Pediatrician Elizabeth Bellino was supposed to start work in Africa this week. Instead, she found herself trying to save lives Wednesday at a field hospital in Haiti's capital.

She wishes she had more painkillers and antibiotics, and she wishes some parents would do what's best for their children.

"We're seeing a lot of kids getting amputated," Bellino said. "We've also seen a lot of refusals from parents, and they left.

"So those kids will probably die."

She'd seen three cases of parents walking out with their children in the past 24 hours, Bellino said late Wednesday afternoon.

Although she just arrived Tuesday, Bellino has already seen too much.

"It's been intense, sad," the doctor said. "We've seen a lot of kids calling for their moms and dads, and we don't know where they are.

"It's heartbreaking."

"She brought 40 pounds of antibiotics with her, but the field hospital needs more. It needs painkillers, too, as well as other medicines.

"So we're having to treat them with what we have and not necessarily the right thing," she said.

Bellino can't understand why the hospital can't get more medications, especially since it's adjacent to the airport, where aid shipments arrive.

She also wishes she'd thought to bring more baby bottles and formula.

"A lot of the babies were being breast-fed, and their mothers died," Bellino said."

Full article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/20/haiti.pediatrician/index.html

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Click Image to Enlarge
KRISTEN GREENE/Provided
Dr. Craig Greene, of Baton Rouge, wearing a Saints surgical cap, prepares a pregnant woman, who was injured in last week?s Haitian earthquake, for surgery Tuesday at a small missionary hospital on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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BR doctors, others providing aid in Haiti

By SANDY DAVIS 
Advocate staff writer 
Published: Jan 21, 2010

Excerpts:

"Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Craig Greene, of Baton Rouge, spent several frustrating days cutting through red tape to get to Haiti, but he?s finally at work repairing the broken bones and spirits of some of the victims of last week?s earthquake."

"Doctors are making do with what little equipment the hospital has on hand.

?My husband told me that when they do triage, they?ll write the patient?s information on a piece of paper and put it on the patient?s chest. I guess it?s their version of a medical chart,? she said.

Greene said the paper looked like it was ripped out of a loose leaf notebook.

?Anytime someone does something with the patient, they add the information to the piece of paper and put it back on the patient?s chest,? she said. ?I guess it?s working for them.?

But injuries from the earthquake are not the only challenge facing doctors.
?Besides the traumatic injuries and even the experiences these people have endured over the last week, many of them are also HIV positive,? Kristen Greene said.

Another challenge is there are few doctors who are trying to treat thousands of people.

?The doctors have to set an end time each day or they will get overwhelmed,? Kristen Greene said. ?Right now, Craig is planning to operate on people 12 to 14 hours a day.?

Joining Greene today will be Dr. Brad Gaspard, 37, a Baton Rouge family practitioner."

"Gaspard is bringing sterilization equipment with him that apparently is desperately needed ? especially by Greene."

?Also, they don?t have an X-ray machine but one is being flow down there either today or Friday,? Robin Gaspard said. ?It?s really difficult to set a broken bone without one.?

Both doctors are being supported in their efforts by the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge along with several other organizations.

Read more at:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/82223642.html?showAll=y&c=y

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

South Jersey doctors pitch in to help Haiti

By EILEEN STILWELL ? Courier-Post Staff ? January 20, 2010

Excerpts:

"CAMDEN ? Dr. Mike Gollotto, an anesthesiologist at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, put $2,000 on his credit card Monday for medical supplies and two tickets to the Dominican Republic.

After days of rounding up a medical team, a relief group in Haiti, a translator and ground transportation on the devastated island, he and his wife, Katie, a sports medicine physician in Marlton, will leave their Medford home and two young children Friday on a 16-day medical relief mission."

"We'll take everything we can to the airport. A friend will follow us. What Delta won't let us take on board, our friend will take and ship. That plus a garage full of stuff we've collected -- meds, clothes, toys. We already delivered a lot to McGuire Air Force Base," said Gollotto. He credits his wife's "amazing organizational skills" for marshaling the donations and coordinating the trip."

"Given the cost of the trip, the drain on vacation time from their real jobs, health risks and the emotional toll of working amid misery and chaos, Gollotto answers the question "Why go?" quietly and without hesitation.
"Because we can," he said."

Read full article at:
http://beta.courierpostonline.com/a...1/South-Jersey-doctors-pitch-in-to-help-Haiti

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Portland truck dealer donates corporate jet to fly Oregon doctors to Haiti

By Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian

January 20, 2010, 7:16AM

A Portland truck dealership has donated its corporate jet -- and its CEO to pilot the jet -- to transport seven doctors and other health professionals from Oregon to Haiti this morning.

In a news release, Dave Schwanke, corporate marketing manager for TEC Equipment, Inc., said employees pledged and raised money for the cost of the round trip flight, which is estimated to use 4,000 gallons of jet fuel.

The team of doctors are from Medical Teams International, which already has crews on the ground in the earthquake-ravaged country.

TEC Equipment President and CEO Dave Thompson will pilot the small jet.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/portland_truck_dealer_donates.html

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Haiti wants to move 400,000 out of capital

Suburb picked to start; aid still backed up with 1,400 flights waiting

msnbc.com news services
updated 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

Excerpt:

Dying from infection

Most of the basics in Port-au-Prince are still missing or barely functional. Hospitals are overwhelmed and doctors lack anesthesia, forcing them to operate with only local painkillers.

Doctors Without Borders cited 10-to-12-day backlogs of patients at some of its surgical sites as well as infections of untreated wounds. "Some victims are already dying of sepsis," the group said.

"The next health risk could include outbreaks of diarrhea, respiratory tract infections and other diseases among hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in overcrowded camps with poor or nonexistent sanitation," said Dr. Greg Elder, deputy operations manager for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34928950

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Florida Hospital flying five tons of supplies to Haiti doctors

By Joe Ruble
@ <ABBR class=blogPubStamp title=2010-01-20T22:01:52-05:00>January 20, 2010 10:01 PM </ABBR>Permalink

Excerpts:

"Hospital employees in Orlando spent their Wednesday loading up 20 pallets of supplies that will be flown to Haiti via cargo plane on Thursday.

Florida Hospital is working with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) to find out what is needed in the earthquake stricken nation."

"It will be receiving a shipment of 30,000 gloves, 1,000 gowns and 2,000 bars of soap, along with I-V kits and powdered Gatorade."

"Medical professionals are encouraged to volunteer to care for evacuees in Central Florida, or to head to Haiti on short notice.

Volunteers are asked to check out a special website for more information."

Full article at:
http://wdbo.com/localnews/2010/01/florida-hospital-flying-five-t.html

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

<SMALL>JANUARY 22, 2010</SMALL>

Medical Care for Haitians Falls Short, Group Warns

Exerpts:

"Outside the capital's main hospital on Wednesday, armed guards in tanks kept out mobs. Inside the hospital's gates, dozens of patients recovering from surgery lay outdoors on beds under makeshift tents. Many had amputations.Two newborn babies cried. The smell of infection hung in the air, and visitors wore masks to keep out the smell and dust.

At any time, more than 1,000 people are waiting for surgery at the hospital, said Andrew Marx, spokesman for Partners in Health, a U.S.-based aid group that has been providing health care in Haiti for two decades.

Partners in Health warned on its Web site Tuesday that as many as 20,000 people in Haiti might be dying every day from infections such as gangrene and sepsis, raising the possibility that as many people could die in the days and weeks after the quake as died in the actual 7.0 temblor.

"Tens of thousands of earthquake victims need emergency surgical care now!!!," the group said in its online statement. "The death toll and the incidence of gangrene and other deadly infections will continue to rise unless a massive effort is made to open and staff more operating rooms and to deliver essential equipment and supplies."

The Haitian government's minister of communications, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lass?gue, disputed the notion that large numbers of Haitians were still dying every day. "There are seven medical centers functioning. The general hospital is open. We have foreign doctors, we have medicines coming in," she said. Asked about the estimate of 20,000 a day, she said: "No, that's way too high."

Others also said the aid group's fatalities figure was likely way too high.
"I've seen that figure, and it seems too high," said Sir John Holmes, a United Nations Under-Secretary-General and its emergency relief coordinator. Haitian government officials also disputed the figure.

The dire medical situation is being helped somewhat by Wednesday's arrival?a day ahead of schedule?of the U.S.N.S. Comfort, a hospital ship carrying 550 medical staff and 1,000 beds. A U.S. military helicopter delivered the first two patients, a six-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man, to the Comfort in the early hours of the day, according to the U.S. military."

Full article at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015141368581502.html?mod=fox_australian

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Delaware medical team to set up clinic in Haiti

Hospitals donate supplies for mission

By BETH MILLER ? The News Journal ? January 21, 2010

The narrow neighborhood street in Arden was suddenly choked with traffic. It was Tuesday evening, and vehicle after vehicle stopped outside the home of Dr. Nadiv Shapira, a thoracic surgeon, while scores of Delaware medical professionals unloaded supplies to assist doctors traveling to Haiti to treat people suffering from injuries sustained in last week's 7.0 -magnitude earthquake.

Inside, doctors, nurses and their children ripped open packages of drugs and poured pills into big plastic bags to make them easier to pack for their commercial flight Wednesday to the Dominican Republic. The floors, tables and counters were covered with boxes ---- latex gloves, biogel, disposable underpads, rolls of gauze, creams to numb skin before injections, crutches, antimicrobial expansion kits, pumps, baby formula, chest drain valves, eye shields, surgical drapes, syringes, intravenous connectors, anti-diarrheal medicines. All nonessential packaging had to be stripped. Each bag had to be relabeled and packed into suitcases.

The plan to send a delegation of 20 to the seaside town of Jacmel came together at Shapira's home Sunday night. Shapira, his wife, Lynn, Dr. Reynold Agard and his spouse, Ingrid, Dr. Vinod Kripalu and Dr. Chetana Kripalu heard from native Haitians living in New York City that Jacmel had been hammered, but was not getting the help it desperately needed.

"It's unbelievable," said Cliford Francois, a sergeant in the U.S. Army who met with the Delaware doctors. "They didn't hesitate to help our town. I'm honored. I feel like they're more Haitian than me."

Full article at:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100121/NEWS02/1210353

Pathfinder · Jan 21, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

BALTIMORE -- A team of Shock Trauma doctors and nurses is preparing to launch a long-term medical relief mission in Haiti.

From 11 News:

Dr. Andrew Pollak has been instrumental in coordinating several medical relief efforts in Haiti. He said victims will continue to suffer and die needlessly if stockpiles of antibiotics, bandages and surgical tools don't reach the disaster zone immediately.

It's estimated that 250,000 survivors are still awaiting medical care after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Rescuers said some victims endured crude amputations to escape the rubble, and still more survived with crush injuries that are now threatening to take their lives.

"The muscle, the tissue, everything that's in that arm or the leg or the body part that's crushed dies because of lack of oxygen. When that tissue dies and it breaks down, it releases toxic substances into the rest of the body that can be deadly," Pollak said.

"They're desperately in need of orthopedic implants -- the rods, the screws, the plates -- the things that are used to fix broken bones. But they're also in need of the simpler stuff -- the scalpels, the dressings. The doctors are there, the patients are there. The equipment is available in the United States. We just need to get transport in."

Read more at:
http://www.wbaltv.com/health/22279022/detail.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

New Orleans doctor in Haiti says medical needs for quake victims are overwhelming

By The Times-Picayune

January 25, 2010, 3:48PM

Rodrigo Abd / The Associated PressBesides medical help, housing is desperately needed in Port-au-Prince. Above, boys play soccer Monday at a makeshift refugee camp in the city.

Dr. Yvens Laborde of Ochsner DISPATCHES from HAITI
Dr. Yvens (pronounced e-vanz) Laborde is an internal medicine physician at Ochsner Medical Center and a native of Haiti. Laborde arrived in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 19 by way of the Dominican Republic as part of a national surgical team that will provide aid to earthquake victims. Laborde is medical director of Ochsner West Bank Regional. He has family in Haiti, including a brother. Dr. Laborde will be in Haiti for the near future. We will publish his dispatches as long as he continues to write and is able to use e-mail.

"I've been here a week and while I'm treating more than 100 or 150 patients each day, there's still so much to be done." Dr. Yvens Laborde reported late Sunday.

He said he is traveling to some of the poorest and most affected areas in Port-au-Prince.

"This is a grass-roots medical effort," he said. "Conditions remain deplorable and the need for basic supplies is tremendous.

"The city is in desperate need of supplies."

Laborde plans to remain in Haiti for the next three weeks. "There is too much to be done to leave," he said.

Read more at:
http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2010/01/new_orleans_doctor_in_haiti.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Local Doctors Return From Haiti Medical Mission

Doctor: 'It Brings Tears To Your Eyes'

POSTED: 7:38 pm EST January 28, 2010

Excerpts:

"DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --A group of Central Florida doctors who went to Haiti to help survivors of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake have returned to Volusia County."

"Dr. John Akers said he had never seen anything like it in his 30 years of practicing medicine.

"We saw injuries? multiple leg injuries, hand injuries, facial injuries," he said, adding that they had to perform many amputations to save lives.

All of the doctors said the trip was overwhelming."

""It was really hard to be there at times," said Dr. Vishy Broumand. "It brings tears to your eyes to see someone that has been stripped of everything, their dignity, everything they own, their family. And you try to give them a glimpse of hope."

Read more at:
http://www.wesh.com/health/22371140/detail.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

By Lauren Hardie
Winona ER doctor back from Haiti

Updated:<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> wnRenderDate('Friday, January 29, 2010 8:30 AM EST', '', true);</SCRIPT> Jan 29, 2010 7:30 AM CST <NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>

Excerpt:

"Patients from the capital flooded their tiny, under-equipped hospital. "We estimated that the operating room was circa 1950s with the equipment that was there." In one photo, as Dr. Schubert and others operated on a patient's leg, someone held up a light so they could see. Although Dr. Schubert had visited Haiti on a missions trip in the past, he said this time, the environment was completely uncontrolled.

Now that he's back he no longer watches video reports of the tragedy.

"I've gone to just listening to the radio or reading the newspaper. I just don't wanna watch."

He doesn't talk about his faith a lot, but said it got him through. But a sense of frustration still lingers. "If I could somehow beam these patients up that I saw in Les Cayes hospital to our ER I could do so much more for them."

http://www.kttc.com/Global/story.asp?S=11898383

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Spokane surgeon returns from Haiti with stories

Dave Erickson | KXLY4 Anchor / Reporter
Posted: 5:44 pm PST January 28, 2010

Excerpt:

"When I sat down and talked with people individually about the experience they had and about where they were when the earthquake hit and who they lost in the earthquake, it dawns on you that no one is ever going to hear all these stories because there are three million Haitians that have these stories."

Rawlins says it was heart wrenching and disturbing to have to practice medicine in those condition, comparing it to pre-civil war medicine.

"To have to practice and deliver care to human beings at much lower and base level was very painful to be involved in it and there were times you just wanted to not be involved in it and you felt like the care you were giving was so sub optimal that you just didn't want to do it," Rawlins said.

?Then you walk back out in the hospital courtyard where all these patients are out there waiting to be treated and you realize the other option is they just parish overnight and so you continue to do it."

Rawlins says while he did make a difference it was just a drop in the bucket in the big picture."

Read more at:
http://www.kxly.com/news/22371585/detail.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Jan 28, 2010 5:38 pm US/Central
Local Doctor Brings Patients From Haiti To Chicago

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Daniel Ivankovich Spent The Last Week In Haiti

CHICAGO (CBS) ―

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<DD>Northwestern Memorial Hospital orthopedic surgeon Dr. Daniel Ivankovich spent the last week in Haiti and brought back two patients. CBS

</DD></DL>
Two Haitians who suffered paralyzing injuries in the devastating earthquake arrived in Chicago Thursday for life-saving care.

As CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports, it's due to the efforts of one surgeon who battled bureaucracy to get them off the island.

The charter flight arrived at Midway with precious cargo: a 52-year-old Haitian woman left a quadriplegic when her home fell on her; and a 28-year-old student with a crushed spine, after the building he was in collapsed.

With them was Chicago's Dan Ivankovich, the towering, colorful orthopedic surgeon who worked feverishly to get them out.

"We started out with two (severe spinal cord injuries) and ended up with 50. I was just shocked that nothing was being done for them," Ivankovich said.

He was part of a 15-member team that arrived in Haiti with 3,000 pounds of medical supplies. But hospitals were overwhelmed with fractured limbs and amputations, and simply had no way to deal with severe spinal cord injuries.

"These are serious, serious injuries," said Ivankovich. "Untreated, they die. They can't move; they're in their own filth. They were doing the best they could caring for them. They didn't even have x-rays to do the diagnosis. We had to do that clinically."

Read more at:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/haiti.local.doctor.2.1455341.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Local doctor on trip to Haiti: 'It made me cry, and I am pretty tough'

By Shomari Stone
Story Published: Jan 28, 2010 at 5:38 PM PST

SEATTLE -- Even after spending two weeks in Haiti, Dr. Dan Diamond has yet to come to grips with the stunning level of devastation he witnessed.

"Haiti blows the whole scale to smithereens," he said. "It is the most devastation, and the largest number of injured people that I have ever seen in my life."

Diamond just returned to Seattle from Haiti, where he performed surgeries and treated hundreds without basic medical supplies, including pain medication, X-ray machines or even a lab.

Despite his efforts, the doctor says he couldn't help everyone. A 7-year-old boy contracted gangrene in his broken leg and died after an amputation.

"It made me cry, and I am pretty tough. I have been doing disaster work for a long time," he said.

Read more at:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/82991787.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Basic medicines running out as doctors, aid groups treat Haiti?s thousands of sick and injured

By Ben Fox, AP
January 29th, 2010

Medicine running out at Haiti hospitals, clinics

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? Doctors and aid workers say treating the tens of thousands of Haitians injured by the earthquake is taxing the country?s devastated hospitals ? as well as the efforts of physicians from around the world who are providing emergency care.

Basic medical supplies such as antibiotics and painkillers are running dangerously low at some hospitals and clinics in Port-au-Prince, the capital, and in the countryside, alarming doctors who are struggling to keep up with demand.

The shortages complicate the effort to treat 200,000 people in need of post-surgery care ?and an unaccounted number of people ? with untreated injuries,? Elisabeth Byrs, of the U.N.?s humanitarian coordination office said Friday in Geneva.

Dr. Nancy Fleurancois, volunteering at the damaged hospital in the Haitian coastal town of Jacmel, told a visiting U.N. official Thursday that her team is treating 500 people a day ? many for the first time since the Jan. 12 quake ? and desperately needs antibiotics and surgical supplies.

?You see people come here and they are at death?s door,? said Fleurancois, a Haitian-American from Newark, Delaware. ?More help is needed.?

Read more at:
http://calamities.gaeatimes.com/201...at-haitis-thousands-of-sick-and-injured-4251/

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

New Orleans doctor in Haiti expects 'thousands of amputees'

By The Times-Picayune

January 28, 2010, 2:24PM

Charles Trainor Jr. / The Miami Herald via APLovely Janne, 25, brushes her teeth with her right hand in a University of Miami field hospital on the United Nation's base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Before the Jan. 12 earthquake stuck Haiti, Janne was left-handed. She lost her left arm in the earthquake.

Excerpts:

Dr. Yvens Laborde of New Orleans, a native of Haiti who works at Ochsner Medical Center, reported Thursday that thousands of earthquake victims will have to have limbs amputated.

"This is a difficult place to be an amputee," Laborde said. "There?s no physical therapy in Haiti to teach amputees how to do the simple things in their lives.?

Laborde said Thursday that most of the volunteer aid arriving ?doesn?t have a focus.

"We?re in need of generalists, ER and family practice doctors to treat essentially everything that comes our way," he said.

?I?m currently helping at three orphanages and one hospital," he said. Much-needed medical supplies from Ochsner arrived Wednesday, and he said he is keeping a log of everything he uses, from diapers to antibiotics.

Laborde said he is working with a team of about eight Haitian medical professionals. "I have to remember that these wonderful people, who are providing medical support, are victims also," he said. "They don?t have homes, and many of their family members are gone.

Read more at:
http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2010/01/new_orleans_doctor_in_haiti_ex.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Updated: 5:04 PM Jan 28, 2010

Colorado Doctor Shares Haiti Experience
"Complete devastation. It's absolutely indescribable."

Posted:
11:15 AM Jan 28, 2010
Reporter:
Eric Lupher

Excerpts:

All 15 members are in the flattened capital of Port-au-Prince. Thursday, with only a cell phone to communicate, Dr. Rahill told 11 News what he was seeing.

? Buildings are flattened,? said Rahill. ?You can smell the decaying bodies as you?re driving through town. You can tell which buildings have bodies still in them just by the smell as you?re driving through.?

Rahill says most of the injured need orthopedic treatment. On Monday, medical supplies were loaded on Bob Penkhus's plane, but with the combined weight of some of the team members, there weren't nearly enough supplies. "We're still extremely short on orthopedic implants,plates, screws and rods."

After dropping off two loads of team members, Penkhus took one more round trip from Florida to Haiti to drop off more much needed medical equipment. Rahill says, they still need more.

After a grueling day of surgeries, 20 to 25 a day, Rahill and the medical team sleep outside amidst the millions of Haitians who have been forced to do the same. By Friday, Rahill and the crew will do it all over again.

"If I could just help one person not to be crippled for the rest of their life, then I'm doing something."

Read more at:
http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/82947567.html

Pathfinder · Jan 29, 2010

Re: Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

Published: January 28, 2010 12:19 am

Triage care in Haiti: Holy Family doctor treats earthquake victims Caritas Christi Health Services teams treating quake injuries

By Yadira Betances

Excerpts:

"Most earthquake survivors developed severe complications, ranging from open and closed long bone fractures, deep open wounds, which were left untreated for seven to 10 days, compression neuropathies from massive swelling, spinal cord injuries and burns, Pearlmutter said.

He said wounds were grossly contaminated and severely infected.

"I like to help others who are not as fortunate and it doesn't take much to give to them," Crespo said. "If we had not come here, a lot of these people would have died. We provided life-saving care to over 200 people."

"I'm an emergency room physician and this is the kind of thing I do," Crespo said.

Crespo worked alongside two other emergency room doctors, two internists, nine orthopedic surgeons, six general surgeons, three anesthesiologists, two certified nursing assistants and 11 nurses. The medical team from Massachusetts worked with 247 medical and nonmedical Haitian staff.

Out of all the victims Crespo treated, the one he remembers the most was on the evening they arrived.

"It was a 4-year-old girl who had tetanus because her wounds got infected. She ended up dying," Crespo said somberly.

"It's heartbreaking to see, but all of us are focusing on getting the job done," Crespo said. "We all realize the suffering and how sad the situation is. Our mission is to care for the patient and comfort them as best as we can."

Crespo said the experience is not going to impact him until after he leaves Haiti on Friday.

"We're still in the middle of it all."

Read more at:
http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_028001959.html

Haiti needs Doctors, Medical Supplies

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