Credentials

    Another reason to travel with large organizations is adequate credentialing. Disasters will attract all sorts of people some of them the wrong kind.  You want to make sure that the doctor you are traveling with really is doctor.  This type of work can best be done by large organizations that are accustomed  to doing it.

New LLU blog for volunteers and donors

Jim Matiko has started a blog for volunteers with more recent reports from returning surgeons.

Fort Wayne Team

    Among the most helpful people we worked with was the team from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Orthopaedic surgeons Ted Chaykowski and Matt Hicks came down with a PA Randy and an OR nurse Peggy. Randy spoke fluent Creole, having lived in Haiti, and was a great social and spiritual comfort to our patients. Peggy had been an OR supervisor and ran our sterilization and CS. This enabled Ted and Matt as well as the rest of the team to perform a large number of surgeries. It would be a great pleasure to serve with them again.  We hope it isn't necessary.

 

Ted, far left, and Matt, far right, finish a dressing change on an amputation. Peggy is irrigating while Randy supports the leg.

Scott Nelson's photos

Scott has posted his photos from the earthquake.  http://www.pbase.com/scottnelson/haiti_earthquake

New Blog from Parkridge Team

Go to the Parkridge in Haiti listed above left for an amazing set of new pictures and stories.

Extra food - variety

Volunteers packed in extra food in case we ran out.  Our team tended to pack power bars of the granola variety while the CURE group over at the community hospital brought Pop Tarts.  If we had been smart we would have traded some granola bars for some Pop Tarts and both teams would have been better off.

Fluids and Electrolytes

Haiti is much warmer than the United States and Europe this time of year.  In spite of our efforts several members of our team got behind probably in their electrolyte intake. You may want to bring some replacement electrolytes.

Old Haiti Hands

     We benefited greatly from having knowledgeable people to guide us.  They help us adapt to and avoid pitfalls in our treatment of the Haitian people.

 

Scott Nelson, M.D.

   I admit it. I posed Scott for this picture, but I didn't have to work very hard in posing him. Scott had been in Haiti since two days after the quake (a week before we got there) and operating with very little rest.  He has been visiting Haiti once a quarter for the last five years from the CURE hospital in Santo Domingo. His team from CURE was one of the first to enter after the quake. With his experience and his presence on the ground he was able to direct both the CURE group and the Loma Linda University group in planning for the trip.  See the CURE blog above left.

 

Kaye Wilkins, M.D.

     Simply the most productive member of our team, Kaye was tireless in his efforts to improve our efficiency.  Kaye has previously visited Haiti and taught pediatric orthopaedics.  In our OR he plowed into what I had thought was just a room full of abandoned equipment.  In the course of organizing the room he found many useful tools including a dermatome with brand new blades. In the picture above he has just reorganized our cast room.  He also payed a visit to our warehouse.

 

Kaye Wilkins, M.D. and Charles Sandefur president of ADRA

   Charles Sandefur, the president of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, was in Haiti to help with ADRA's efforts to relieve suffering.

 

Arrival of Haitian-American nurses; departure of LLU team

    As you might imagine the arrival of American nurses who had grown up in Haiti was an enourmous help.  I am only sorry that we got to work with them for such a short period of time.