| Local Surgeon Helping in Haiti | |
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On January 12, 2010 Haiti experienced one of the worst earthquakes that our generation has seen. There were over 250,000 lives lost and a multitude more lives altered forever. A few days following the quake and after some reflection on my own life circumstances, I decided that I had to go there and help. I had very little to lose but a lot to gain from the personal enrichment standpoint. Two months ago, I went to Haiti for my first stint there as part of a medical disaster relief team assembled by Operation Smile. Operation Smile is an organization that has been helping both children and adults throughout the world over the last several decades. Their primary focus has been to provide facial reconstructive surgeries for cleft lip and palate in over 150 missions per year in over 30 countries. Following the earthquake they decided to form a disaster relief task force to address the massive Orthopaedic surgery need. Operation Smile acted as the surgical arm of the relief effort at the Love a Child (previously an orphanage/school) field hospital in Fond Parisien, Haiti, about an hour or so outside of Port au Prince. I went along as the Chief Orthopaedic surgeon with team #4. Love a Child field hospital was truly a modern day marvel. The 100-plus-acre facility with its buildings were donated for use as a field hospital by Sherry and Bob, who have been providing care for orphans in Haiti at their home for the last 30 years. The good folks from Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) set up an amazing field hospital on site complete with a medical director, incident command center, security, a pharmacy, around 100 patient tents and a small self-governed community. The camp had wireless internet that both the medical staff and patients utilized. The Brazilians brought electricity to the compound so that we had a well-lit small-city feel even at night. Teams from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Israel, Italy and the US provided medical and surgical care as well as physical therapy and social services. Prior to my arrival at camp, I was quite happy with myself. I felt that I had done a noble thing to take away time from my practice and my personal life to give and take care of my Haitian brethren. Once there, I was incredibly humbled by the others who had joined me. There were nurses who had just come from a year in Rwanda and were planning to go to Columbia for 2 months after Haiti. There were doctors who had lived at the camp for 6 weeks and were planning to be there another couple of months. It took me less than a day in Haiti on my first trip to realize that I would be compelled to return for a second stint to “finish the job.” Two months ago, we kept busy for two weeks treating patients who had had their orthopaedic injuries stabilized initially emergently. The doctors had treated them with whatever they had had available. Some patients had had amputations that perhaps they could have done without under different circumstances. Some patients had external fixation of fractures while others had been left untreated. We fixed some broken bones with surgeries and some without. Of course, one of my high points was a soccer match that I organized between our Haitian hosts and the international medical staff. Haitians won 2-1. In early April, I returned for my second tour of Haiti to try to complete the orthopaedic treatment of injuries at the 3 month time point. This time around we had a team of 3 surgeons including Dr. Chris Sullivan (pediatric ortho) from the University of Chicago, Dr. Tess Balcomb (Hand surgeon) and me. We performed a combined 35 surgeries in one week on my second tour. I will include links below for Love a Child, Operation Smile, some surgeries and other photos of my trip to Haiti. I felt that the medical mission was a success but that overall the Haitians still have a long way to go to recovery. Over $10 Billion dollars in aid has been donated for the relief effort in Haiti. None has reached the Haitians on the streets. Haitians continue to be hungry and desperate. Many have lost their homes with no good options for the near future. Unemployment is around 80%, up from around 60% before the quake. There is no gas. Gas stations frequently have a line of 10-15 parked and abandoned cars at each pump. People leave their cars parked at the gas station in line on Wednesday for when gas is sold again on Monday. At Love a Child, sometimes we could not transfer a patient to another hospital because our car was on empty. Gas/diesel was siphoned out of the generators so that the cars could go and buy gas so that the generators would not run out. On one occasion, the generator running the electricity for the operating room ran out in the middle of a surgery. Thankfully we were wearing camping head lights and the drill we were using was a black and Decker cordless. The medical missions are winding down all around Haiti and the international community is beginning its slow retreat out of Haiti. The Haitians see this and their desperation and anxiety only increases. At least the foreigners were there, the Haitians received direct aid from us. Also, our eyes were on the people and their local government. With us leaving, the direct aid is going away, but also the people feel as though the international eye is beginning to look away. So, in spite of the fact that the medical mission was a success, I feel unfulfilled in leaving Haiti this time. We can still help by giving time and energy to Haiti. If we can’t give our time, then we can still support those who can go over there with money. Make sure that you know where your money goes and how it helps. Operation Smile is a great point-organization for such relief.
LINKS http://www.loveachild.com/blogs.php?id=journal&entry=the-story-of-rose-calixte
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31005208&l=1de037ee77&id=1543028777
http://www.operationsmile.org/
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