Haiti Rehabilitation Centre

Brilliant progress continues with the expansion of facilities and services at the Rehabilitation Centre where we are one of the only centers in Haiti proving rehabilitation and essential health care to those people suffering from spinal cord injuries, and other significant disabilities following severe medical events like a stroke.

In May we also undertook an audacious Solar Power project which will transform our energy bills and will allow the hospital to develop into a more self-sustainable way.  This new development will allow us to have cheaper and more reliable electricity which will be a huge boost to us, saving monthly revenue costs, supporting a more environmentally friendly approach to our work, and ensuring a more constant supply of power.  The Hospital is now running on Solar power for 80% of the time. Solar power has also been installed at the children's home and the volunteer village. 

At the beginning of May HHA teamed up with Ambassadors in Sport and arranged several days of sporting activities for individuals with disabilities in North Haiti, including a historic amputee football match, the first of it's kind in Cap-Haitien with the Haitian National Amputee football team.  Find out more here...http://haitihospitalappeal.org/news/2011/05/historic-amputee-football-match/  This coincided with the dream we have to send 6 Haitian representatives to the Paralympics next year for London 2012…the planning has already begun!

Yet, despite so much positive news, there is also great need in Haiti.

Dr Toussaint, Our Medical Director who works tirelessly, shared the story of how he’d found one of our newest Spinal Chord patients at a different  hospital in Haiti. She’d been told by the staff at that hospital that they couldn’t provide the care she needed, and that she should travel to the Dominican Republic.  Being paralyzed (from the neck down) this was as almost impossible task.  However she somehow found her way across the border, only to find that she was unable to receive any health care in the Dominican due to the high costs, and returned to the original Haitian hospital. Again, unable to find the care she needed, she slumped upon a wooden bench within a waiting area, and that’s where she remained for some time, as if accepting a fate that was well beyond her control. The above happened over a month, in which time due to her paralysis she developed huge infected pressure wounds, leaving her future resting in a very fragile balance. HHA heard about her and she was transferred to our Rehabilitation hospital immediately. 

Despite people fearing that she would probably not survive, she's making a wonderful recovery, is even sitting up, with her wound healing, and has been out of the ward for the first few times in the last week!

Her story is just one of many, highlighting what a difference you're making.  If you'd like to find out more, please take two minutes to watch our latest video and see some of the great work you've helped achieve!  

Links:

• A new film worth watching!