2/5/10 - Team 2, Day 7

Update:

-9 team members headed back to Austin

-Dr. Goldberg, Robert, Jehona and Tim stayed behind to take care of patients in the ward with medical problems. Dr. Goldberg saw patients in the clinic. They organized and prepared for the next team.

-They sent the ambulance in to town to pick up some patient transfers and they brought an anesthesiologist to MOH to join the team until our next team arrives.

-The medical team reports that they are all changed from the experience, loved that Texas Orthopedics, HCBC and other groups at home supported them so much and they are so pleased that they were able to do some good for the Haitian people.

Pictures (courtesy of Dr. Goldberg):

Picture #1: Team members Sharon, Jehona, Kelly, Jan with interpreter Volcy & others at MOH

Picture #2: Sharon Depmore, LVN with Texas Orthopedics dances with the locals

Picture #3: Home on the street

Picture #4: Scottsdale ex fix on femur fracture

Picture #5: Explaining femur fracture to patient

2/4/10 - Team 2 Day 6

Update:
-the team saw 150 patients in clinic

-Dr. Goldberg did one case – repaired both bone forearm fracture

-The nurses had the opportunity to tour town. They visited General Hospital, saw the airport and Palace. They were very appreciative of the break.

-Dr. Crawford spent some time speaking with physicians at the USS Mercy

-Later in the day the group visited an orphanage and spent time talking with and loving on the children there.

-Coming back to Mission of Hope, they heard singing and found that a local praise team was singing to the patients. This lasted for about 20 minutes and it was very beautiful.

Pictures:

Picture #1: Orphanage visit

Picture #2: Praise team singing outside ward

Picture #3: Nursing school, 180 dead

Picture #4: A three story building.

Picture #5: Haiti Presidential Palace

Picture #6: Both bone forearm fracture surgery

2/3/10 - Team 2 - Day 5

Update from Dr. Goldberg

-3 surgery patients on the schedule in the morning: a 3 week old ankle fracture (Dr. Crawford & Dr. Mehta pictured above), amputation revision and wound closure. Dr. Crawford also did a high above knee amputation on a pregnant woman.

-They made a brace for the paraplegic patient mentioned yesterday to be able to sit up.

-The patient whose shoulder was disarticulated and amputated, mentioned yesterday, developed a fever and became anemic. The family members of another patient prayed and sang around him for over 20 minutes. Dr. Goldberg and nurses reported this as an unbelievable sight, shortly thereafter, he became more perky, his fever went down and his face lightened up! A miracle! He seems to be doing really well and is feeding himself.

-Dr. Goldberg spent time contacting the other hospitals in the area to let them know Mission of Hope could take 6-8 patients. General Hospital is only 60% occupied and have many more doctors and nurses than needed. There were no surgical cases to move from there.

-While in the city (Port-au-Prince), Dr. Goldberg was able to see the vast amount of destruction, more than he could put into words. A few pictures above are representative of the disaster befallen the city.

-He mentioned again the amazing team that they have at MOH and the dynamics of Team 2, really working together well. They offer MOH stellar organization and patient care!

-Team 2 will return in two waves, the first group coming home Friday and the second late Saturday night.

Pictures:

Picture #1: Dr. Crawford and Dr. Mehta in surgery.

Picture #2: Child with humeral fracture, splint done at the time of the earthquake.

Picture #3: Haiti is still burning

Picture #4: A picture of the devastation in Port-au-Prince

Dr. Smith's blog

Dr. Smith started a blog to share some of his stories from Haiti.

http://haitimohtxo.blogspot.com/

2/2/10 - Team 2 Day 4

Update from Dr. Goldberg:
-16 inpatients and over 100 patients seen in clinic today

-3 surgeries: a femur fracture, a hindfoot amputation & closure and a skin graft, the first we know of in Haiti

-two helicopters came in with one surgical patient, an ankle fracture. We had four patients ready for transfer.

A few stories:

A huge Navy helicopter landed at MOH today, causing a huge cloud of dust upon landing. It was a very surreal moment, through the dust walked a Navy officer. Dr. Goldberg introduced himself and told him they needed help transferring some patients. The pilot said, “I’ll take all your patients”. It was just phenomenal.

Dr. Goldberg recounted, "It’s nice to see the team is working so well together. Everybody has their job. They are eager to work. We have this one doctor, Dr. Mahelia, who is a wound care doctor and she is absolutely a super star. She is so good with these wounds and so good with these patients. It’s fantastic when she is around."

Another interesting story is about a guy who is 52 with a proximal femur (hip) fracture. He was able to be transferred today on the first Blackhawk. Dr. Goldberg said: "I gave him a little salute like he was going to be okay and he was grinning from ear to ear and he was looking up at the US military officer on the helicopter and he couldn’t have been happier, broken leg and all, he was just smiling ear to ear. He was so happy to be finally transferring to some place where he could get some help. That was just a really wonderful special thing that happened."

The team taught a man to bowel and bladder train his wife who is a T12 paraplegic because of her injuries sustained in the earthquake . The man showed so much love for his wife, he will have to do this for the rest of her life.

As Dr. Goldberg left the message for this update, he described: "I’m dictating down by the wards because we’re watching the patients and I wish you could hear them in their rooms. They are singing hymns as they are bedding down for the evening as it’s getting late and all the patients and family members are just sitting, the rooms are dark and they are just singing hymns together. It’s quite impressive. There are only lights in the hallway and we are just listening. They are just trying to calm their loved ones. The love that they have for each other is incredible."

The nurses had dinner in town. The doctors were left to close up the operating room and manage patients, a funny sight to see without the help of the nurses.

Sharon Depmore, LVN shared a story with her husband about the shoulder amputation from yesterday. He was very depressed about the surgery but by the end of the day was already sitting up, maneuvering and eating with one hand.

Pictures:

Picture #1: Skin graft procedure. This was done manually with a weck blade and a skin mesher, an "old school" method.

Picture #2: Dr. Mehta seeing patients in clinic.

Picture #3: Helicopter "negotiations"

Picture #4: Group picture of Team 2

Poems written by a Team 2 nurse

These poems were written by one of the nurses on Team 2.

HAITI
Your coastline is lovely. Many ships on your shore.
The sun is now abruptly telling of its lore.
Violence in the mercy is all within your bounds
and yet your heart is vibrant from within it deeply pounds.
Tragedy befalls you and suffering your best friend.
The deepest reach of injustice seemingly with you till the end.
In all this sheer madness, Haiti, you know one thing,
my thoughts and my deepest prayers to the Father I do bring.

YOU REMAIN
I am humbled,
Many walls have crumbled
Yet You remain.
These are people who are shattered,
Hopes now battered,
Yet You remain.
In this hour of weakness,
Please do not refrain,
Bring forth Your power of healing because
You will remain.

2/1/10 - Team 2 - Day 3

Update from Dr. Goldberg
-Dr. Crawford and Dr. Hatridge (anesthesia) spent the day in surgery (2 femur fractures where he used retrograde nails and an ex fix on an open tib-fib fracture) while he started the morning helping Dr. Mehta (ER) and Dr. Smith (IM) seeing over 200 patients who had arrived to be seen at the MOH clinic. These patients come in at 7:30 because they want to be first in line because they know that only a certain number can get through the gate, and they waited all day long, no food or water, upwards until 5:30 until we got the last prescriptions out, no complaints to doctors or staff.

-Dr. Goldberg met with the chief medical officer and chief supply officer at the University of Miami tent to talk about trading patients, supplies, etc. It is a huge facility with multiple tents and 200-250 patients per tent. They do have an operating room there but nothing is sterile so they can only do external fixators and washing out debridements. They have only have a portable xray machine without an ability to print. Dr. Goldberg was able to take an xray of one of his patients from MOH and took a picture of the monitor so that he could reference it later.

-He then went over to the head of US Air Force operations to meet with the Medivac unit. Upon being stopped multiple times by military personnel, he argued and continued until he found the man in charge of getting the helicopters to the people that needed to be moved. He was promised that 3 helicopters would be at MOH this morning to move 9 patients to Hospital Sacre Coeur in North Haiti.

-The team lost a patient with an acute abdomen injury brought in by helicopter. He was obviously bleeding into his abdomen. and there was nothing they could do.

-The five physicians and Dr. Cheryl, who is the chief medical officer at MOH, took a car into town and went and had dinner with one of the local orthopedic surgeons. They met with a gentleman named Sandy Marger who is from Austin but he was raised in Haiti. He is coming back to try and help rebuild the country with some friends and had just concluded a meeting with the President of Haiti before meeting our team. The orthopedic surgeon shared with us that he worked for 72 hours straight after the earthquake. His family had no idea if he was dead or alive.

-The six nurses and 2 surgical technicians are organized and doing shift work. Each one of them is assigned nicely. We are served good food. We sleep in tents. Some of us sleep on cots in a little house. The work is hard. It is cool here at night. This is an absolutely amazing place.

Pictures:

Picture #1: MOH translator cutting a cast off of a patient. They need the cast saw that couldn't fit on the last plane!

Picture #2: Dr. Crawford and Dr. Goldberg operating with headlights.

Picture #3: Dr. Goldberg meeting with the Chief at the University of Miami tent.

Picture #4: Sharon Depmore, LVN with Texas Orthopedics in front of a Medivac helicopter.