The latest correspondence from volunteers in Haiti
Recent correspondence from or about deployed volunteers
Paul Firth, MD, ChB , of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, shares his perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- March 24: "Anesthesiologists have a unique view of humanitarian disasters, as I discovered when I spent 21 days volunteering on the U.S.N.S. Comfort after the January earthquake in Haiti. Based in operating rooms, anesthesiologists see close up the entire grotesque flood of distorted bodies. Under pressure, we tend to cope by focusing on the mechanics of the body and the technicalities of procedures -- to think not of dying or shattered people, but of damaged anatomy and the techniques of repair..." Read more from Dr. Firth.
Annekathryn Goodman, MD, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, shares her perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- March 3: "After the January 12 earthquake, I traveled with a national disaster team from the Department of Health and Human Services to Haiti, where we set up a mobile tent hospital on the sites of a devastated school and a nearby adolescent clinic. My 2-week deployment was marked by sensory overload..." Read more from Dr. Goodman.
Marjorie Curran, MD, of MassGeneral Hospital for Children, shares her perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- March 3: "One of the first children I cared for after my arrival on the USNS Comfort, the U.S. Navy's floating medical treatment facility docked at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was a 10-month-old boy who had been brought to the ship nearly dead from malnutrition. Prior to the earthquake, there had been little food, and he had been fed only a few times per week..." Read more from Dr. Curran.
Neelakantan Sunder, MD, of the Mass General Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, is also volunteering in Haiti through Project HOPE.
- March 1: "Medical staff at HAS [Hôpital Albert Schweitzer] called on us during out first evening of arrival... the ward nurse couldn’t find the doctor on call, so they woke us and asked if we could help... hearing there was a "fresh" team of US doctors on campus... " Read more from Dr. Sunder.
- Feb. 22: "[Dr. Sunder] was involved in a life-changing surgery for Haitian police officer Roosevelt Baptiste. Baptiste was injured during the January 12 earthquake but had no symptoms until this week, when he began to feel some pain in his neck. When a clinic in Port-au-Prince took X-rays, they found a massive dislocation between his C5 and C6 vertebrae..." Read more from Dr. Sunder on the "Project HOPE in the Field" blog.
Excerpted e-mail message from Project HOPE President and CEO John P. Howe III, MD, on ongoing efforts.
- Feb. 26: "... Early reports from the HOPE team describe a city in ruins and an already modest health care infrastructure crippled. But there is hope and our team, which consists of doctors and nurses from the Massachusetts General Hospital, private industry representatives and HOPE staff, is exploring opportunities and partnerships that will help with the restoring of the health of Haiti ..." Read more from Dr. Howe.
Past correspondence from deployed volunteers
Stephen Hickey, a certified CT/MRI technologist at Mass General Imaging, volunteered in Haiti through Project HOPE.
- Feb. 23: "You can’t really grasp what has happened to these poor people until you actually drive down through a city made completely out of nothing but sheets and cardboard boxes...families huddled together with blank expressions on their faces and how they were all staring at our shuttle bus..." Read more from Stephen on the "Project HOPE in the Field" blog.
Nora Sheehan, RN, of MGH Medical Nursing, volunteered in Haiti with Project HOPE.
- Feb. 11: "I often wonder why I am not as affected by all the despair around me as I thought I would be... Maybe it's because we work so hard, 12 hours, and then basically just go straight to bed. There simply is no time to fully comprehend what is happening." Read more from Nora on the "Project HOPE in the Field" blog.
Leila Hepp, RN, SNP, a student in the nurse practitioner program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, volunteered with Partners in Health.
- Feb. 10: "Driving into Port-au-Prince, Haiti... Large cracks snake way through highway divide. Ongoing and aftercare issues, discharge follow-up, wound healing.. 85-year-old woman, I was about to place a foley catheter, administer colace and start an IV... She had a below the knee amputation yesterday and had been complaining of abdominal pain this AM. She was moaning, I asked an interpreter to tell me what she was saying -- "I can't breathe." Read more from Leila.
Susan Briggs, MD, MGH trauma surgeon, director of the MGH International Trauma and Disaster Institute and founder of the International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT), is volunteering in Haiti with IMSuRT.
- Feb. 7: "Looks like there will be 4th deployment (last one). The transition to Haitian hospitals not yet feasible." Read more from Dr. Briggs.
Paul Firth, MBChB, of the Mass General Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, is volunteering in Haiti through Project HOPE.
- Feb. 1: "Some of the cases were wrenching -- impossibly broken and infected arms, legs. But for every irretrievable case, there was an amazing case ..." Read more from Dr. Firth on the "Project HOPE in the Field" blog.
"I just felt a tremor. They come and go. We were in the clinic, and suddenly a rush for the door. The crowd of people, sudden mass panic, one's heart is set pounding... " Read more from Leila.
Rev. Gabriel Michel, of the MGH Chaplaincy, is volunteering in Haiti through Catholic Relief Services.
Jan. 28 "Just to let you and my colleagues know that I am doing okay. I am very impressed by the terrific job CRS and all the other agencies are doing here in Haiti." Read more from Rev. Michel or read a feature article in The Pilot about his work in Haiti.
Nicholas Merry, RN, of MGH Nursing, is deployed with IMSuRT East.
Jan. 28 "We are working at the Gheskio field hospial in Haiti with IMSURT- East, South, West and MO-1 (DMAT)..." Read more from Nicholas.
Roberta Dee, RN, of MGH Case Management, deployed through IMSuRT East.
Jan. 31: "The second wave of IMSuRT East arrived at our field hospital last Sunday..." Read more from Roberta.
Jennifer Kasper, MD, MPH, of MassGeneral Hospital for Children, volunteered through Housing Works.
Jan. 29: "I didn’t know what to expect. Yes, I'd been following the news, but nonetheless was in a state of suspended animation..." Read more from Dr. Kasper.
R. Malcolm Smith, MD, chief of the Mass General Orthopaedic Trauma Service, was working at St. Marc's clinic, one of Partners in Health's facilities in rural Haiti.
Jan. 24: "As you will know we woke to another earthquake this morning, bit frightening -- we were just waking and all ran outside but only felt a short tremor and no damage ... " Read more from Dr. Smith.
Robert Leo Sheridan, MD, of the Mass General Burns Service, volunteered through Partners in Health.
Jan. 21: "Communication in operating room a comical combination of Spanish (Cuban anesthesiologist), Creole, French, English, and hand-waving, but has been effective because everyone seems to have a great attitude..." Read more from Dr. Sheridan.
Jacky Nally, RN of the Department of Emergency Services, volunteered with DMAT MA-1.
Jan. 20: "We have a few patients we are going to send to the USNS Comfort. We do not have enough external fixators to repair their fractures..." Read more from Jacky.
The International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT) East is in Haiti with approximately 10 volunteers from the MGH.
"Welcome to the neighborhood ... Directly next to us is a soccer field that has been transformed into a tent-city for about 2,000 people ..." See more of the latest photos and correspondence from IMSuRT.
