Four from Backus helping in Haiti
PrintAnthony G. Alessi, MD, and Tom P. Bell, MD, are among four people from Backus who joined a group from North Carolina traveling to Haiti to aid in relief efforts following the Jan. 12 earthquake that paralyzed the Caribbean nation.
The group - which includes Dr. Alessi, a neurologist and Medical Director of the Backus Stroke Center; Dr. Bell, a Backus trauma and vascular surgeon; his wife Patricia Bell, RN, a Backus OR nurse; and Cynthia Davis, RN, a Backus critical care nurse - flew to Florida on Thursday, Jan. 28 to rendezvous with 11 other health professionals from Greenville, N.C., and fly to the Dominican Republic. The group then traveled to St. Damien's Hospital in the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince. No one is exactly sure what they'll find once they get there.
"We think the hospital has some electricity," Dr. Bell said, "and water is intermittent at best. We're taking some surgical supplies. We're going to do the best we can with what we have."
St. Damien's was formerly a pediatric hospital, and is now functioning as a medical center for all patient needs in the aftermath of the quake. Dr. Bell's role will largely revolve around surgery at St. Damien's while Dr. Alessi will concentrate on assessing needs in the field to determine who can be helped where they are and who needs to be moved.
For Dr. Alessi, it will be his fourth trip to Haiti in the last 17 months, so his historical perspective could prove valuable.
"There was such little infrastructure before everything happened," Dr. Alessi said. "It wouldn't surprise me if I was doing something completely different once we get there."
Putting the trip together has been a truly collaborative effort from local resources such as contacts by Dr. Jerry Lowney and the Haitian Health Foundation in Norwich to national companies like Hendrick Motorsports - the NASCAR racing organization which carries drivers Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson - which donated its company jet to transport the medical team. Backus Hospital is not directly involved with the trip, but is one of a number of local entities, including American Ambulance, that donated items.
"We're very thankful to the hospital and individuals within the hospital who have been very giving of their time, effort and supplies," Dr. Bell said. "While we can't take it all because of space on this trip, we're hoping to establish contact there to get the rest of the supplies to them."
The traveling party's tentative return date is scheduled for Feb. 6.
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UPDATE: With amenities scarce and communications sketchy at best, Ms. Bell sent this e-mail message to Stroke Center Program Coordinator Cindy Arpin, RN, on Wednesday, Feb. 3 about their encounters thus far:
We are staying in a gated and guarded hospital compound. We are fed two meals a day and provided with bottled water. Some of us are in tents and some are on cots in the volunteer house.
We start our day with Mass in the chapel at 7 a.m. Then, after nurse meetings and doctor meetings, we go into the hospital. The hospital has two indoor ORs and two tent ORs. The med evac helicopters start at daybreak. There is a 24-hour ER and then wards divided into pediatrics and adults.
Dr. Alessi is coordinating the trips back and forth to the USS Comfort. Cindy Davis spent the first two days in a remote village setting up a clinic. The UN had to get involved to stave off a riot when the Bishop’s helicopter landed. They thought it was a food delivery. She is presently working in the tent accepting the Comfort patients.
Tom is operating and also running a procedure room where he is doing dressing changes and debridements. There is one other trauma surgeon here who is leaving tomorrow, so Tom’s work will double because of that and quadruple due to the Comfort patients.
I am in a post-op ward, but I also recover patients waking up from anesthesia who then go home. If a patient is ready for discharge and they have no house, they are allowed to stay in tents on the hospital grounds. The problem is that they are running out of tent space.
I have an interpreter who lost his family and his house. He watched his house fall while he was next door at a friend’s. He has one more class to take before he can go to the university. He wants to be a doctor. He is now living on the streets.
Everyone has a tragic story. I have taken a lot of pictures, but even the TV coverage can’t begin to express the actual experience. More when we get home.
Patty, Sent via her BlackBerry