3/3/10 - Team 6, Day 4

Update from Team 6:

The most exciting thing about today is the fact that Dr. Brad did the first ever, as we know of, hip hemiarthroplasty in Haiti. Actually, he did two! Way to go surgery team! And rumor also has it that there is a 19 y/o from the Dominican Rebublic who is wanting to come to the mission for his hip to be fixed as well, but there is no word on that yet. We are hoping to go international here at the mission by the end of the week!

It was a long day today as we were in surgery until almost 7 pm. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen the recovery nurse yet so my guess is she isn’t back yet from the clinic. I think tomorrow might be another long day as well because we already have 2 femur fractures and 1 tibia fracture to fix as well as several wound debridement’s on our schedule and there is always a possibility of add-ons. We are going to sleep good tonight!

There was also some excitement on the ward with a pt that was dropped off yesterday for fever, nausea, and vomiting. His condition worsened today and it was determined that he probably had a ruptured appendix. Dr. Greg said he would have preferred not to take out his appendix in our OR, but he was standing there ready with scalpel in hand. Luckily we were able to transfer him to a place that the paramedics said looked pretty clean. I believe that he was taken to the OR for an appendectomy, but I’m not for sure on this.


Kim says nothing much happening in triage right now except that there are a lot of people coming through. Coincidentally, everyone in triage has the same complaints of fever, cough, n/v, and abdominal pain which they say have been present since the earthquake. Maybe it’s nerves. These people really have been through a lot.

Dr. Jon, the ER physician from Chapel, had a patient come in on Monday with a heart attack in progress. We treated him as much as we could and then sent him on to the University of Miami hospital. We have since then learned from his son that he passed away today. May God bless him and his family at this time.

From Dr. Greg: “I have had the distinguished honor of assisting one of the most brilliant orthopedic surgeons in the world doing the toughest arthroplasty that I have ever seen under extremely adverse conditions. In fact, one could say he was operating under the jaws of death.”

Text updates from Dr Parker via Chris Merrell:

Pts seen today:
2 hip replacements
hip spica on a 10 month old
2 endo prosthesis
debreided stump wounds
"lots of action"

Haitian orthos are up and running again

Still many malaigned fractures from earth quake

2 femurs and tibia tomorrow.
Lots of wound care surgery.
2 surgeries lined up for next week.

Still need RN's. Dr Parker feels ward will be full the next week.

Update from Haiti and our prosthetics team:"Chase just texted me that the meeting he had with the government, WHO/ICRC and Helping Hands went incredible!! The Government has not only give us a big green light, but they have asked Chase and MOH to help make the Prosthetics Standards for the NATION!!! WOW." So exciting!! Our prothestics clinic is scheduled to open April 3rd.