Equipping Medical Staff in Haiti

MADRE has been working with Partners in Health to support Zanmi Lasante as they continue providing emergency care for the earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince and for those who have managed to flee the city.

Through the support and cooperation of many aid agencies, within the first days after the earthquake, the general hospital in Port-au-Prince (HUEH) was equipped to receive survivors. Since then, medical staff has been working around the clock to treat the many severe injuries people sustained during the disaster.

Zanmi Lasante medical staff has also been receiving patients in their clinics and at field hospitals around Haiti to deal with the flow of patients fleeing Port-au-Prince. Medical staff has reported that the need for orthopedic surgeons is dropping, but that there is an increased need for post-operational care.

Ophelia Dahl, Executive Director of Partners in Health, reported from her trip to Haiti this week that the hospitals and clinics are still receiving people with untreated injuries, a full two weeks after the disaster.

Women's Health Delegation Responds to the Most Pressing Health Needs in Haiti

MADRE partnered with Circle of Health International (COHI) to send several teams of women's health workers into Haiti over the last two weeks. Seven volunteers are now on the ground in Haiti, working out of Fond Parisien, a Haitian town on the border with the Dominican Republic. Every day, more earthquake survivors arrive in packed buses as they flee the devastation of Port-au-Prince. In addition to serving the general population of survivors, the volunteers are caring for pregnant women and victims of sexual abuse.

One team member has begun the Rapid Health Assessment, an assessment to identify the most pressing women's health needs. To this end, a group of Haitian women have been hired to conduct interviews and they are currently being trained in interviewing skills.

Providing Medical Care to the Most Vulnerable

MADRE is working with SOFA, a national Haitian women's organization, to provide medical services to earthquake survivors. SOFA and MADRE partnered in 1996 to build Klinik Fanm, the first Haitian clinic dedicated exclusively to women's health and human rights. Though the clinic building was damaged in the earthquake, the doctors and women's health practitioners have managed to set up a temporary clinic for survivors, and they are treating a steady stream of patients every day.

Over a week after the massive earthquake struck Haiti, the need for life-saving medical services remains overwhelming. Casualty estimates have risen. The death toll may be as high as 200,000 and the number of injured and homeless is in the millions.

MADRE is continuing our emergency efforts to get medicines and medical supplies to Haiti through the Dominican Republic. A shipment of supplies arrived Wednesday, January 20, and more supplies are expected in the coming days. Right now, the biggest concern is for replenishing stocks of antibiotics in order to fight off infection.

Operating Rooms Up and Running

Our partners on the ground are working day and night to meet the desperate need for medical treatment. They have set up field hospitals both inside and outside of Port-au-Prince and are performing surgeries to treat widespread bone injuries and infections. MADRE is working in support of Zanmi Lasante, a Haitian healthcare organization founded by Partners in Health.

At the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, there are now 12 functioning operating rooms, with surgeries being performed day and night in each. Outside of the city, in the Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, there are eight more operating rooms for the busloads of people fleeing the city each day.

Though the 6.1 aftershock quake that struck Haiti yesterday morning caused the evacuation of the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, no structural damage resulted, and the hospital was able to quickly restore order and continue operations.

MADRE is also supporting a delegation of midwives and maternal health practitioners. Four members of the first team of midwives and maternal health providers have arrived in the border town of Jimani, and three more are scheduled to arrive this weekend.

We just got off the phone with Leilani Johnson of Circle of Health International (COHI), the organization MADRE is partnering with in this initiative. Leilani told us that the minute the team arrived, they began providing crucial medical services to people seriously injured and displaced from Port-au-Prince.