FEBRUARY 12, 2010 From Haiti: Wrenching Tales Of Horror and Success By Christina Frangou
“We thought the plan was a good one. We were incredibly naïve,” wrote New York City orthopedic trauma surgeon Dean G. Lorich, MD, after returning from Haiti.
In an e-mail posted on the American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) Web site, Dr. Lorich offered an illuminating description of the earthquake-stricken country.
He and 12 colleagues—trauma specialists representing surgery, anesthesiology and nursing—flew into the Dominican Republic four days after the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. With difficulty, they made their way to Port-au-Prince’s Community Hospital of Haiti, the only hospital in the area with running water and electricity. The hospital had little else—no anesthesia machines, only one cautery device, one tiny autoclave and no sterile saline, no functioning fluoroscope and no local staff.
For four days, Dr. Lorich and colleagues operated, performing about 100 operations while the situation around the hospital deteriorated. Their second load of supplies was hijacked en route to the hospital. The promised police security never appeared. Outside, angry Haitians lined up demanding medical attention. The hospital went into lockdown and closed its gates.
The group decided the “situation had become untenable”—supplies were low, the team was exhausted and their safety in question. Escorted by the Jamaican military, they made their way to the airport and flew out.
“Currently there is no one obviously running the show, and the ability to provide care is chaotic at best. Physicians are coming into the country with no plan for what they are going to do,” Dr. Lorich said in his e-mail.
Dr. Lorich was one of many doctors from the United States who traveled to Haiti in a quest to provide some medical relief within days of the earthquake. It’s unknown how many American physicians have gone to the island since the earthquake. With uncoordinated relief efforts, representatives of U.S. organizations could not provide an estimate of the total number of health care providers who have volunteered up to this point.
http://www.generalsurgerynews.com/In-the-News/Article/02-10/From-Haiti-Wrenching-Tales-Of-Horror-and-Success/14621/ses=ogst