FROM HEADQUARTERS
Helping Haiti
See more pictures of perioperative professionals helping Haiti.
For the past seven years I have had the good fortune to be a part of a Medical Mission that works at Hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot, Haiti. The hospital is run by the Center for the Rural Development of Milot. ( Crudem)
Milot is approximately 70 miles north of Port a Prince. By car it takes over seven hours due to the poor road conditions. After the earthquake, Hospital Sacre Coeur was one of the few remaining functioning hospitals in Haiti. Under normal circumstances, there is one team from the United States that is assigned to the hospital each week. Our team is made up of eight or nine doctors and nurses. Patients arrive for clinic by word of mouth We average about 35 cases a week and do all types of general surgery.
After the quake there were 70 medical volunteers on campus. Buildings were set up across from the hospital, and patients were lying on mats on the floor. The ER was outside in a courtyard, that was covered by tarps. The nurses drew squares on the ground which were numbered to keep track of the patients. Helicopters from the USA and France began to arrive more frequently as news traveled about the hospital in Milot. The hospital ship, US Comfort, that was stationed in Port a Prince was sending Crudem the overflow of patients.
Due to the destruction caused by the earthquake most of the injuries that we treated were amputations or debridements. The patients were all ages, but I think that we all felt that the babies were the most heart wrenching. Crush injuries, amputations and other illnesses that can be treated with a simple operation or by a vaccination here in the states, become deadly in Haiti. There were a few children that died of Tetanus when we were there, something unheard of in the states today.. One of the last cases we did still haunts me. A 32 year old woman had suffered a back injury and was paralyzed. She had been lying on her back for several days before being rescued. Her eight year old son was sitting outside on a bench waiting, while his Mother had surgery. We were able to debride her wounds, but I wonder what is going to happen to this woman, alone, paralyzed and with an eight year old son to take care of.
There were positive experiences in all of this. Thanks to the generosity and help of so many people, supplies were being delivered on a daily basis. One company, Phillips, provided over 2 million dollars worth of state of the art monitors in the three O.R. rooms and PACU. Employees from the company came to install the equipment, and train the Haitian nurses. It was nothing short of a miracle watching the transformation of buildings into hospital wards. There were also many wonderful people that donated their planes to transport supplies and medical personnel back and forth, several times a day.
Out of this tragedy, there is hope. Crudem is determined to continue providing care to the Haitian people and at this very moment is deciding ways to expand their mission. I pray they get all the help they need. My fear is that people will forget, as the earthquake becomes old news. We must keep the story alive.
The medical teams that were there were from all over the country, some familiar with the hospital, some new. Orthopedic surgeons, General surgeons, Anesthesiologists, ER nurses, ICU nurses, OR tech's, Pediatricians, Nurse Practioners, a Psychiatrist, as well as others who were able to help with thousands of tasks at hand about seventy volunteers were there during my week. Everyone told a "central command" person where they felt most comfortable and assignments were given from there. I was in charge of central supply/ circulator for the OR's , ER, & hospital wards, a daunting task. I quickly found two willing helpers, men from the town that I was familiar with, that were able to speak some English. they helped sort and carry supplies to wherever they needed to go. In the OR, the patients received top quality care.
Administration at Forest Park Medical Center asked me to go to Haiti on Thursday January 14 and immediately I said “yes”, I asked when, and they said “tomorrow!!. That instant describes the sentiment of our entire trip…the sense of urgency and the desire to help. Obstacles kept presenting themselves that could have cancelled our trip, but the perseverance of the administration paid off and on Saturday January 16 (4 days after the earthquake) we were off in a chartered jet to Haiti; being one of the first medical groups to be able to respond and allowed to go into Haiti. We arrived at about 2pm on Saturday at Sacred Heart Hospital in Port Au Prince and immediately got to work. The hospital was evacuated due to the structural damage; so all patients were outside in the courtyard lying on the ground on mattresses, boxes, doors, or whatever they could find. We set up our supplies, triage and recovery on the outside of the hospital as well. There were 3 ER bays located at the front of the hospital on the first floor that we were able to be used as OR’s. So with 3 OR’s and a recovery area, we were ready to start surgeries. Over the next 48 hours, we performed about 40 amputations, plus general surgeries and minor procedures; all of which were performed under less than normal circumstances.There were many challenges faced in Haiti. One was the amount of people needing help and not enough people to help. There was a constant pull from all directions to come and help this family member, or that family member; and trying to keep track of who you said you would help next was difficult. Another challenge was the lack of resources that are typically so readily available in the states. There were people that we couldn’t do anything for at this hospital due to lack of resources; and not knowing what would happen to them or if help would come for them was very distressing. It was very hard to tell someone that you didn’t know what was going to happen to them or when they would get the help that they needed. Another challenge was the lack of vital resources, such as oxygen. On day number two, the hospital ran out of oxygen. Deciding who would benefit more from oxygen and survive vs. those that might not was incredibly difficult. The decision was hard and one you that don’t want to have to make.
After 48 hours of constant work and not much sleep, we were all drained physically and emotionally. We found it very hard to leave knowing that there was “unfinished business” and not knowing what would happen to those that we could not help. That feeling was made a little easier when a second team of medical personnel arrived the day before we were scheduled to leave. Even today, the faces of many pop into my head and I wonder where they are, what happened to them, and whether or not they received the help that they needed.
The experience was one I could have never imagined. I knew the situation in Haiti was bad, but you can never prepare yourself for the magnitude of the disaster and how many people are affected. The news is only able to show a small portion of the reality that the Haitians are living with every day. They don’t have the luxury of leaving after two days and getting on their chartered jet and flying back to their American reality. We are truly blessed. I will never forget this experience. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go to Haiti and assist in this time of need.
From: Louise Strickland, RN, BN, CNOR
As Louise Strickland, RN, BN, CNOR, (sitting right) and members of a surgical team entered L’Hôpital de la Communauté Haïtienne, in a suburb of Port Au Prince, Haiti, they found patients laying on boxes, planks of wood and even the bare floor. On their way to set up an OR for emergency surgeries they observed patients with compound fractures, many with wounds infected.
“Most of these people were not only severely injured, but had also lost their homes and family members in their homes. Seeing the number of people injured … it was overwhelming … we were in a state of shock,” Strickland explained. She was in Haiti as part of a group of nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists and other perioperative professionals from Hospital for Special Surgery, an orthopedic specialty hospital, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and other facilities in New York City. With support from an implant manufacturing company, which offered supplies and the use of their plane, Strickland and other members of the team came prepared to provide surgeries to as many patients as possible injured by the Jan. 12 earthquake in Port Au Prince, Haiti.
They knew they had to hit the ground running in order to help as many patients as possible. Within 30 minutes of arriving their OR was up and ready, and a triaged line of the most critically injured patients were awaiting surgery. Working around the clock, with a few hours of sleep at a time on floors, Strickland and the rest of the team did more than 100 surgeries in four days. Primarily the patients required orthopedic surgeries and some amputations, but the team brought as many external fixation devices as they could pack onto their plane and this helped many patients keep their limbs. Their last surgery was a c-section delivery of a baby boy.
Now that she is home, Strickland and her colleagues are looking for ways to keep helping. She says there is a serious need for perioperative professionals to help injured Haitians because many of the injuries require surgery. Antibiotics will also be an important resource in the days and weeks ahead as patients recover from injuries. She encourages colleagues to seek resources to help, either by donating to the charities working to help Haiti or by volunteering to be part of a coordinated team to provide direct patient care.
“The key is for the people of Haiti to know they are not alone,” she added.
To learn how you can help visit Haiti earthquake relief resources. And share your stories of providing help in Haiti by sending an e-mail to aornnews@aorn.org with the subject line, “Help Haiti.”
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