This month, we are abandoning the content of the usual LovelySkin Newsletter to tell about my family’s visit to Haiti to help in the medical relief effort. While all of us have heard quite a bit about it, what we saw first-hand made a huge impact and I hope that this report can bring some idea of what it is actually like down there to our readers. Additionally, we are posting pictures and videos of our visit on our Facebook account, www.Facebook.com/LovelySkin, or you can use the tabs on the right to view them. The majority of them were filmed by our 15 year old son, Daniel.
Last week, my wife, Nancy, and son, Daniel, joined me in a medical mission to Haiti to aid in the relief effort. We previously had planned a vacation for the President's Day weekend, and when heard about the aftermath of the earthquake, I wrote to find out if I could be of help and was told they needed a dermatologist and/or pediatrician (I am certified in both). We had two days before we were to leave for our vacation. We all agreed to cancel our plans and made arrangements to go to Haiti. It was difficult to find plane reservations, but Lynx Air in Ft. Lauderdale was good enough to create an extra flight to Cap Haitien, about 83 miles away from Port au Prince.
 We took with us 8 large boxes of medical supplies, ranging from IV fluids to antibiotics and skin creams. We also took simple things such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and toilet paper, which we had been told were in short supply. Additionally, we brought a box of dressings for wounds (Xeroform gauze) which we were told were terribly needed. Our staff here in Omaha helped order and box the supplies via Seacoast Medical, who assisted us to get the IV fluids and other hard-to-get items in the short two days we had before we left. It was a labor of love for our staff. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to succeed in getting things there on time.
We had entirely too much baggage with us when we reached American Airlines in Omaha for the flight to Ft. Lauderdale, but when the baggage agent found out it was going to Haiti she just let it all go through. She even labeled it as a priority to make sure it would go through. She was the first of many people to assist us in beautiful ways to get the supplies to Haiti throughout the several legs of the difficult trip.
 Once we reached Haiti, we went through customs, and luckily had a UN Official from Jordan who stayed with us, because he was concerned that there would be mobs of people who might think the supplies we were carrying were food and take them if we were left alone. We reached the hospital and discovered that many of the supplies we brought had never been on the island or were out of stock, so our supplies came in handy. Most of the supplies ordered by the hospitals take weeks to arrive via ship, and no amount of preparation could have predicted that their small, 60 bed hospital, would be servicing over 465 patients. At present, Sacre Coeur is the largest functional hospital in Haiti, since most of the other hospitals in Port au Prince are either condemned, demolished, or gone. Fortunately for the hospital, it was close to the USS Comfort, a 1000 bed floating hospital, so many of the patients delivered to the Comfort would come back to Haiti via our hospital, Hopital Sacre Coeur.
While I was there, most of my work was involved in caring for infected wounds resulting from amputations and broken limbs. The work was hard, and during our five days there, I was in charge of 28 patients in the tent I managed. While the situation is still impossible to imagine, many organizations are working in Haiti now and we had up to 90 doctors and nurses at our facility (Sacred Heart Hospital, Milot), which is supported by the St. Louis-based organization Crudem (www.Crudem.org).
 My wife, Nancy, took charge of the supply tent while we were there. Since new supplies were arriving each day it was imperative that they be unloaded and categorized, because no one knew what was there or what was coming. Supplies were haphazardly arranged and it was nearly impossible to tell what they were. With the help of several other folks (a lady named Lisa especially), the supply tent looked great when we left.
Daniel, my all too grown up 15 year old, assisted anywhere he was needed, especially with French to English translation. His five years of public school French was exceedingly helpful in assisting the surgeons to explain intricate surgeries to their patients. Additionally, he helped organize the surgical area supplies, take patients on walks with their walkers, and change dressings on wounds. The children in the pediatric unit really enjoyed having a young person around.
 Our days started with breakfast at 7:30 AM, after which we went to the tents/hospital to work with patients until 1:30 PM when lunch was available. After a brief lunch, we went back to the hospital until 7:30 when we had dinner. After dinner, we attended a camp wide meeting that was held for about an hour and then returned to take care of patients until midnight or later.
All of the Haitian doctors and nurses were extraordinary, considering that they had worked without help for 30 days and more since the earthquake to care for their countrymen and assist the doctors and medical professionals who had arrived from the US and elsewhere. Each new team had to be instructed about how the facility worked and what they needed to do, not easily done repeatedly. Additionally, the Crudem staff and the Sisters from the order in Montreal and America working in the hospital were remarkable. I never once heard a person complain. Doctors and nurses were doing every job from changing bedpans to cleaning patients, and they did it with grace and a sense of fulfillment.
 The majority of the patients who remain at the hospital and tents are amputees or patients with broken bones, mainly severe fractures with 'pins' in them. Because Haiti doesn't have access to rods or plates, (and consistently present surgical teams) that would help patients recover more easily, the patients must recuperate in far less than ideal conditions. Disastrously, the lack of appropriate care causes wounds to become infected and the likelihood of future loss of limbs is increased.
We met scores of giving and caring people while we were there whose lives were changed forever by that earthquake. The patients we took care of ranged from accountants to folks at gas stations to grandmothers who were in their homes at the time of the earthquake. Their only unifying factor was that their homes collapsed or debris fell on them, breaking their bones or crushing them. The pediatric ward (see videos and pictures) brimmed with charming kids, many of whom are now both orphans and amputees. One such toddler, Jean-Pierre Lewis, was brought to the hospital by chopper without any name or identification. No one will ever know who his family is. He was named after the pediatrician-nun (Sister Lewis) who took care of him the first day and tried to find his family in vain. Not surprisingly, he received huge amounts of love from the other parents in the unit and the workers, but they cannot make up for the loss of his identity and family.
 Other youngsters arrived in various states of injury, some of whom had problems before the earthquake that had become worse without medicine or care. Two children with swelling on the brain from previous meningitis nearly died before a neurosurgeon, Dr. Suresh Magge, arrived from Children's Hospital of D.C. Both of them had been given very little time to live before he came. Another child, one that my son was able to assist through translating communication before his surgery had a severely broken arm at the elbow that was treated by Dr. John Lovejoy, of D.C. Children’s Hospital. Dr. Mike Kiernan and Dr. John Santoro were incredible in organizing all the volunteers and Sister Marilee was an amazing individual who helped to do so much for everyone.
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| Patient who hung the American flag over their bed. |
Our time at the hospital was only 5 days, but it seemed like much longer as we made friends among the patients and staff, the memories of whom last a lifetime. When we left, we left behind the clothing not on our backs with our patients and their families, including our sneakers, since the amputees were tripping over the rocks on the ground in light, unsupported flip-flops. Patients and their relatives had only minimal clothing as most of their homes were destroyed in the earthquake, so all of the volunteers did as we did, returning home in flip flops and leaving their sneakers.
This is a mission of life that anyone should also consider if they are in a position to do so. The next coming months and years will determine whether this small, but very determined country will heal. We will be going back as a family in early April and I will continue to post any updates on our LovelySkin Facebook page.
You can see pictures from my visit to this area on our Facebook page for LovelySkin.com. Any donations that may be made to www.Crudem.org are going to an organization that I assure you is helping in a huge way.
If anyone reading this is going to Haiti to help, please feel free to contact me offline at Skindoc@LovelySkin.com for more information. There will be a huge need for physical therapists especially over the next several years because of all the people who suffered devastating limb injuries and amputations.
As always, thank you for support of me, my family and LovelySkin.com.
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