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Medical Team Treating Hundreds of Patients in Haiti

One of the IMR doctors treating a patient.

UPDATE January 23, 2010:

Port Au Prince, Haiti - A Starfish Community medical team has set up and is operating a clinic treating hundreds of patients in Port Au Prince. Most of the people coming to the clinic have not received any medical attention since the earthquake, 11 days ago. The team is treating all kinds of lacerations, fractures, and infected wounds. Here is a brief excerpt of their work, in their own words.

"Many of these patients have not been seen before, which is very concerning. They still have lines outside all the hospitals, waiting to be seen. They can’t get to all the people. Let alone that they don’t have the supplies they need to take care of them when they get inside."

"There are many fractures. We saw three children today with fractures that had not been set yet." (a week and a half after the earthquake)

"It is an absolute disaster zone in every way. People are so desperate."

"If people are coming down here, they need to bring bandages, orthopedic supplies, and some kind of cleaning to put on wounds. There are many, many, many, wounds."

A communication and assessment team is accompanying the medical staff, and helped load a delivery truck with the first shipment of food to a "tent city" of 20,000 people made homeless by the earthquake. The situation in this camp is heart-wrenching, as most of the people have not eaten for days. Now the assessment team is frantically working to make sure more aid, especially food and water, are delivered to the area.

"A big concern is the lack of food. There is civil unrest beginning to happen due to the lack of food and water. Some people are trying to sell children, to take the money for food."

The medical team is from International Medical Relief. IMR has fielded inquiries from more than 600 medical professionals desiring to help in Haiti, and now has enough volunteers to rotate teams into the country every week for the next three months. The communications team is from HELP International. HISG has partnered with both of these organizations since 2004 in disaster response as well as community health projects in a number of different countries. HISG is helping these teams by connecting a number of different channels in Haiti and the US to help meet as many needs as possible, particularly food and water. Through our partners in the Starfish Community, HISG able to identify areas of need, like the 20,000 person tent city, and then mobilize resources to meet those needs. If you would like to support HISG in this effort, please click the donate button below. If you would like to learn more about the Starfish Community and how you can get involved, please click here.

If you would to join one of the medical teams:

All medical volunteers must go through International Medical Relief. Contact them at: marylou@imrhq.org to get your name or your group added to our list of potential volunteers. Please provide us with as much information as you can about you or your group. IMR will provide their own application that all volunteers must complete before being considered for a medical team. Volunteers will be required to provide a donation to IMR for their participation to go toward ground transportation and fees associated with the team on the ground. The donation will vary depending on the number of days that a volunteer will be participating. Your participation is not guaranteed until your application is received, reviewed and you are accepted to participate.