The reality of life in Haiti

These are photos from the LA Times. They are pretty graphic, but so is the situation. They brought tears to me eyes.

http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-haiti-hires-html,0,5775052.htmlstory

Large amounts of donations going to Leogane

Dr. Buresh has secrued a large van to help take all the donations to Miami and then get them directly to Haitians in Leogane. The storage space was starting to get really full, so everyone is pretty excited that all those awesome donations will be going down to Leogane.

Read the full story:

http://gazetteonline.com/local-news/2010/02/07/supplies-from-iowa-headed-for-hospital-in-haiti

If you would like to volunteer...

The Community health Initiative now has a webpage on the World wide Village website. There is also a link there for volunteers to sign up. They are looking for trained medical professionals to go on medical missions. I believe that this now how they are coordinating volunteer efforts. There is also information on trip costs, supplies, and time commitments.

http://www.worldwidevillage.org/leogane-community-health-initiative/community-health-initiative-volunteers-needed

Eco Lips supporting WWV

Here is website where you can go to learn more about Eco Lips, a lip balm distribution compnay based out of Cedar Rapids. They are donating money to World Wide Village for each lip balm that is bought.

http://www.ecolips.com/CauseBalm/

Team #3 en route to Leogane

The third team is en route to Leogane. They flew into DR and then were going to take a 6 hr bus ride to Port au Prince then get picked up to go to Leogane. I believe the second team will be coming home either tomorrow or the next day.

The new hospital is being set up currently in Leogane, it comes from Blu-med:http://www.blu-med.com/

Thanks for your continued support, we have received a lot of donations. Your support is crucial to Haiti, while I know how frustrating it can be to not be down there helping out directly, everyone must remember the role that the people back home play in relief. It is still an important job. I have to constantly remind myself of this. It is difficult to not be there helping directly, being here makes me feel spoiled. I can donate but I don't actually have to deal with the devastation firsthand. However, it is not helpful for me to go down now, as I have no medical background and will only be adding to the burden for food and water. Please continue to remember that Haitians need our help. While the media hype has significantly decreased, the suffering in Haiti has not. This is only the beginning, Haiti will be rebuilding for many years to come.

Update

Update from Dr. Buresh:

Haiti update 1/29 - Hospital has arrived! Plan to leave PAP at 10:30 tomorrow morning to Atlanta and home from there. Worried about how hospital set up will go, but got to get home. So grateful for the opportunity we have here in Leogane to make a difference - want to keep it going from home in the US and on the ground in Haiti.

Team has returned

The majority of team that was down in Haiti for earthquake relief as returned to the U.S. The new team was in place on Monday in Leogane, so the first team has returned after a long week and half. I am not sure yet if Dr. Buresh has made it home yet, the last I heard was that he was staying an extra day.

I will keep everyone updated on what new supplies are needed for the team that will be going down on Feb. 8th

Update 1/25/10

Update from Dr. Buresh, Leogane 1/25:

Saw ~ 200 patients today with 3 ORs running non-stop and 2 babies delivered - happy with efficiency, not with the mosquitoes that love my ankles. Finally had first shower. Eating one meal a day in "campfire room" - boiling water in dehydrated food bags by light of a glo-stick (too hot for real fire). Most of team heading back on Wednesday, Chris on Thurs to see mobile hospital delivered.

Update from Dr. White 1/26/2010

We have a 3rd OR up and running now. A lot fewer amputations now, mostly wound debridements under sedation. Each OR is doing around 10 cases a day, so we're staying busy. Managed to sort out an OR schedule as well, so that's good. Trying to manage all the surgeons has been a bit challenging, however.

Our camp has become a bit of a tertiary care center for the area, which is both bad and good. It feels nice to get the respect, but a lot of sicker patients are heading this way. Rounds are frequently interrupted by choppers going overhead and we have to wait until the noise dies down.

Lots of reporters are figuring out that we're here now, which is both good and bad.

Sleeping is troublesome. There is a preacher who wanders through town all night and periodically stops and starts various rousing hymns at all hours of the night. Then there are the barking dogs, the gate to the compound opening and closing, various individuals snoring, etc., etc. Despite all this, people are remarkably cheerful.

Had a small riot out here yesterday. People are hungry, so it's not surprising. Safety wasn't really an issue. It was more of a protest than anything. I understand that the Canadian troops are planning a food distribution near here today, so hopefully that business will settle down. The populace doesn't really trust the Haitians in power, and various claims are being made about food and supply shipments being horded by the wealthy and priveleged. Maybe this is true. Today there are a lot more guys hanging around with machine guns.

Updates from Dr. Buresh

Dr. Buresh Update: 1/23/2010

It was an OK day today. Got some food into trouin by truck along w/ enough chlorine to treat 100000 gal of water. I also got per fanfan to get me gps coordinates for 4 of 6 refugee camps that we want to drop supplies into. That will start tomorrow. We got a little girl to the Canadian camp to get her femur ex-fixed. She didn't make a peep while we were bouncing down the road in the car. She was pretty tough. The Canadians weee awesome and it made me swell w/ couvad patriotic pride. They were so efficient and friendly. She's going to get top-notch care. Apparently their helos blew down all of the lean-tos that folks had built at the adjacent orphanage. The first thing that they did was rebuild them, and I hear that they're better than ever. I saw some of the neighbors bringing the Cannucks water, although now that I thonk about it, maybe that's not such a friendly gesture. I was so impressed. I was belting out 'O Canada' all the way home.
Met w/ the architect today and picked out spot for hospital and talked about future of hsc. Also held meeting w/ Japanese and dean of nursing school to establish who had what space. Japanese commander. Came to meet me later w/ entire command force and photographers in tow. Lots of bowing and 'thank you'. Very funny. Saw more bad wounds today, lots of surgeries. Lots of parents wholost kids in the quake. One family: mom with non-operative pelvic fx, 6 yo with distal femur fx, 2 yo with midshaft femur fx. None of them complained when I carried them around, even though I couldn't immobilize their fxs well. The 6 yo even sang to me. Amazing. Pat and josh pulled a kid w/ asthma and pna back from the brink today. Nice to win one. Pih came to pick up 3 of our complex ortho cases today and I spant e hrs with the us marines trying to get another flown to the uss comfort without much luck. Maybe tomorrow. Really great guys, though. 6000 homeless folks right outside our walls tonight. Unbelievable. At least that many mosquitos trying to get me right now, too.
Hoping to get anesthetic to Livesays tomorrow night and more food here from fond parisien soon. Have 4 trucks ready to go, but won't roll till benefactor can be here for photo op. Distributed one chlorinator today and will try to get more out tomorrow. Seeing lots more diarrhea as folks can't boil water anymore. Fear looming food crisis as nobody can work and savings running out. Praying for trucks soon.

Dr. Buresh Update: 1/24/2010

Intrnet down tonight and sat phone out of juice. Only worked half day today, but kept busy from 8-11. Lots of sick folks today mixed w/ fair number of reular gastritis and HAs. One kid died. Mother had just lost 3 other boys in earthquake. Very sad. Have another DKA that the Cubans dropped off tonight, but (hallelujah) have insulin that I think will work. Went mobile w/ a small team today which is fun. Think we've zeroed on on isolated population w/ no care since EQ. Team got a bit stressed today, but had good debriefing tonight so hoping things are more smooth tomorrow. Got surprise batch of food and surprise visit by marine friends. Hoo-ah. getting more anesthetic tonight.
Glad to see other team en route. reading replies to my facebook posts makes me wonder what you're posting. Am I whining too much?

Generous donations from Iowa City

A few days ago, after I found out that their was a need for shoes, I decided that I had way to many shoes of my own. While I was going through my closet, I remembered that a good friend of mine said that if I ever needed any clothes for Haiti she could talk to the supervisors at the consignments shops around town. So I called my friend and without hesitation she said she could be ready in 10 minutes. We went to about consignment stores, and without much hesitation the managers would tell us to fill up a cart of all the shoes we needed and bring them up front. WE ended up getting about 150 pairs of shoes donated to us.

I was so grateful, as we just walked in there without any verification, I didn't have a business card or anything. All they asked for was my name and number and the organization name, it was great to be able to fill my trunk with shoes knowing that they would be going to Haiti the next day. Some of these shoes are currently in route. So to anyone who is reading who helped me out (specifically my friend...you know who you are), thank you so much.

In addition, I had the opportunity to see all the supplies that have been donated to the upcoming trips to Haiti. My friend, who I went to Haiti with in June, has graciously volunteered her house to store all the supplies. She has an entire room filled with medications, medical supplies, equipment, bags...and a lot of it was donated. There were likely thousands of dollars of equipment and medications. I can't even give a proper estimate. To everyone that has donated, thank you.

Continue to pray for the teams down in Haiti, it has been very exhausting for them. There will be another team going to Haiti on February 8th. I am anticipating that they will need additional supplies for that trip. So I will continue to post updates on these needs. If you would like to help out, feel free to contact me directly, I am more then happy to pick up donations from anyone in the Iowa City area.