Volunteer Team #2 Departs & Haiti Conditions Update
Today, 11 additional volunteers from our hospital departed for Haiti. Team 1 is returning this Sunday with the exception of Dr. Jim Stein and Michael Jordan, RN (who provided our last report) who will remain at the hospital for an additional two days to help transition care to Team #2.
Introduction to Team #2
We look forward to more information once Team #1 returns this Sunday. In the meantime, eleven volunteers are headed to Haiti currently from our hospital, pictured below:
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| Team #2: (Top Row – L to R) Leo Gutierrez, LVN (BMT), Tom Cottrell, RN (ED), Joanna Green, MD (Anesthesiology), Jennifer Blaney, RN (BMT), Tracy Grikscheit, MD (Pediatric Surgery), Marie Waterhouse, MD (ED). (Bottom Row – L to R) Dannielle Seluta, RN (BMT), Yvette Irizarry, RN (6W), Amanda Johnson, RN (PICU), Ashley Morris, RN (PICU) |
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| Nubia Newsome |
We are grateful to an anonymous donor who contributed funds for Team 2′s transportation to Haiti.
Congratulations to Nubia Newsome (pictured right) who raised her own funds for the trip and will meet Team 2 in Miami to join the rest of the contingent of our hospital staff members.
Hospital Conditions
In the meantime, we have an update on conditions for Project Medishare volunteers in Port-au-Prince. The hospital consists of three large circus-style tents and several smaller outlying tents, including:
- One large tent for adult medical and surgical admissions, minor procedures and pharmacy
- One large tent for pediatric care including a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a pediatric ICU (PICU), a post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), laboratory, and one to three operating rooms depending on functioning equipment
- One large tent housing about 100+ cots for volunteer medical personnel
The outlying areas consist of smaller tents for an outpatient wound clinic, a play area for children of inpatients, and two tents for logistical support and check-ins. Care capacity at the hospital is about 250 patients at any given time.
While the majority of the care needed is not necessarily earthquake-related, the Project MediShare tent is the only pediatric intensive care unit on the island, making it the only pediatric referral hospital.
Things are very fluid on-site with chief medical officers being identified, literally, as they step off the plane in Haiti, volunteers arriving unannounced, and on-site staffing being in constant flux.
Sterility is a major issue and is being primarily accomplished by soaking medical instruments in bleach, followed by alcohol. Blood products are simply unavailable. And volunteers’ food rations were stolen from the site recently.
Michael Jordan’s reference in our previous post, of how our staff volunteers keep smiling through it all, is much more significant to us with this update.
