(Community Matters) Update from Susan Sayers of Partners in Health (@PiH_org):
The PIH team has now established 24 functional operating rooms (ORs) throughout Haiti, providing round-the-clock surgery and medical care to earthquake survivors. Twelve of these ORs are at the central University Hospital in Port-au-Prince (HUEH), which was nearly uninhabitable at this time last week.
We have also had great success assembling surgical teams, transporting them to Haiti, and putting them immediately to work. At last count, more than 150 surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and other specialists had arrived, allowing our ORs to run at full capacity 24 hours a day. But our team in Haiti continues to report a great need for additional medicines (antibiotics, anesthesia and narcotics), medical equipment (anesthesia machines and x-rays), medical supplies (IVs, tubing, irrigating saline), and water.
We are also beginning a phase of active case-finding for injured people, neighborhood by neighborhood, in the capital. A team of PIH’s Haitian doctors is systematically seeking out and bringing medical care to communities of people in Port-au-Prince that have not received any relief services in the 10 days since the earthquake. Led by Dr. Fernet Leandre, head of PIH’s HIV and TB Programs in Haiti, the team is conducting mobile clinics to triage and treat patients, arranging transportation to functioning hospitals for those in need of critical care. Another PIH doctor, Dr. Gregory Jerome, organized a mobile clinic for a group of people who had established an encampment in a park near his home, some of whom needed urgent medical care.
Despite these successes, recurring aftershocks continue to disrupt our ability to provide desperately needed care and inflict further terror on already traumatized patients. The hospital where PIH works in St. Marc was temporarily evacuated this morning after a 4.4 aftershock, which caused cracks in the walls and floors. A team of structural engineers rushed to assess the situation. Though the hospital is again up and running, precious time was lost, and patients remain frightened.
Dr. Malcolm Smith, a surgeon stationed at the hospital in St. Marc, wrote this afternoon: “We will soon need coordinated surgical supply, but planning for restocking very difficult as country has no distribution network. Partners In Health have been very good at helping, and have 2 reps at airport [to meet planes of supplies and personnel]… But surgical risks same here at St Marc as in capital, with numbers of cases outstripping resources. Worried that we will get COMPLETELY stopped by something we have not thought about.”
While uncertainty and fear abound in Haiti, we continue to be astounded by the overwhelming support coming to Haiti from around the world. In addition to the many individual, corporate, and foundation donations we have received, Partners In Health will be one of seven beneficiaries of the most widely distributed telethon in history, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, hosted by MTV. The telethon runs tonight from 8:00pm to 10:00pm (7:00 pm CST) and will air on all the major networks. Also, all of the proceeds from the two concerts that James Taylor will be performing this weekend in Great Barrington, MA will be given to PIH. Ophelia Dahl, PIH co-founder and executive director, who arrived in Haiti today said, “PIH has the expertise and commitment to stand with Haiti for many years to come. Events like MTVs Hope for Haiti telethon tonight bring this tragedy into peoples’ living rooms and present an immediate opportunity to help, and for that we are grateful.”
Community Matters 