Last night I met with some individuals with whom I had previously travelled to Haiti. We began putting together a plan to send a medical team down in February to assist in the Haiti disaster relief efforts. Actually, a team was already slated to go; however, we now are trying to come up with a game plan that takes into consideration the logistical nightmares introduced by the earthquake. How do we get a flight in? How can we arrange for security to get out of the airport? Is there fuel to get us around? Can we find a medical facility to operate out of.? Lots, lots, lots to figure out but we will make it happen; we are determined to.
To give you a sense of what awaits us, read the following update I received from an Indiana doctor who landed in Haiti on Saturday. Be warned, like so many of my updates, the details are graphic...
To give you a sense of what awaits us, read the following update I received from an Indiana doctor who landed in Haiti on Saturday. Be warned, like so many of my updates, the details are graphic...
Not a whole lot of time to write elegantly. We finally arrived at the US embassy in Haiti via helo from the Dominican Republic yesterday about 1 P. Port-au-Prince does looked bombed in many areas, and the smell is overpowering at times. Doug and I (a dentist and my medical mission buddy) arrived at our work at 4P and went to work until after midnight. I slept in the clinic so I could check on the most critical patients through the night, then we started again about 6 a. The compound normally has 40-50 people in it - now it is about 3000, all sleeping in the open - everyone is afraid to go to there homes because of continued violent aftershocks. Injuries are in the hundreds just here and are catastrophic. I've lost count of how many femurs I've reduced and splinted with cardboard. I've seen numerous traumatic amputations ranging from 6 month olds to old men. Today I reduced a proximal humerus (I think - no xrays), a radius/ulna fracture on the other other arm, an ankle fracture, and two fingers - and that was just IN ONE WOMAN. The crush injuries are devastating - most of the severe ones are in renal failure already because of the dehydration while they were trapped. I was ready to amputate a gangrenous foot from an open tib fib fracture yesterday on an 16 year old but the mother preferred to wait. Multiple paraplegics (a death sentence in Haiti). My only (other than Doug and a few Haitians) usual good help here (a Haitian nurse we've trained over the past several years) is incapacitated with painful but not particularly severe injuries. I still have some propofol but I've run out of IV antibiotics and any pain killers. I'm in desperate need of narcotics, IV saline and casting material (did you know you can make splints out of palm tree bark and duct tape?). We have no cell service now, and the satellite phone I rented is spotty at best. I have limited satellite email service so I can't send pics now - they'd be rated R for graphic violence anyway.
Can't think of a single place in the world I'd rather be right now.
Can't think of a single place in the world I'd rather be right now.
Powered by Compendium Blogware
Comments for Medical Update from Haiti