"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (1/26/10)
POSTED ON Jan 26, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
Two US military black hawk helicopters land at Barahona’s airport in the Dominican Republic on Monday, having transported from Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani 11 children (and their families) in need of medical treatment and care.
COTN medical team member Dr. Jon Hodgson, a neurologist from Arizona, waits as the point person who will speak with DR. Vicki Sakata who flew with the children from Jimani.
COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata explains to Dr. Jon Hodgson about the needs of the 11 children whom she flew with to Barahona from Jimani on Monday.
COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata talks to COTN medical team members Dr. Jon Hodgson, Dr. Christopher Carr and COTN-DR country liaison Maria Davidsmeier about the logistics of transporting the children from the helicopters to the COTN bus.
COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata talks to COTN medical team member Dr. Jon Hodgson about the needs of the 11 children on the helicopters.
COTN-USA staff member Brandon Bleek points COTN medical team members Justin Dupuy and Steve Schiff, both EMTs from Arizona, toward COTN bus.
COTN medical team members carry two Haitian children from the US helicopters at Barahona’s airport to COTN’s bus on Monday.
COTN medical team member Dr. Christopher Carr, a general surgeon from Washington, helps carry two boys on a stretcher from the helicopters to COTN’s bus where they will be transported to COTN’s clinic in Barahona.
COTN medical team member Mark Steinborn, a CRNA, and COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata give one child water before she is taken to the COTN bus on a stretcher.
Dr. John Gillis, a Maxillofacial surgeon from Arizona, and Mark Steinborn, a CRNA, carry a young girl from the helicopters on Monday.
Two brothers wait to be carried to the COTN bus from the runway at Barahona’s airport on Monday.
Two brothers wait to be carried to the COTN bus from the runway at Barahona’s airport on Monday.
Parents and their children wait to be taken to the COTN bus on Monday in order to be driven to COTN’s clinic in Barahona, where they will receive care and treatment by those here on COTN medical teams.
Dr. John Gillis helps carry a young boy to the COTN bus on Monday. He will be driven to COTN’s clinic in Barahona where he will receive care and treatment.
Dr. Jon Hodgson directs people where to go as one boy gets carried to the COTN bus in order to be taken to COTN’s medical clinic in Barahona.
Families of children who were injured during Haiti’s earthquake ride in COTN’s bus on Monday to the medical clinic in Barahona where their children will receive treatment and care.
COTN medical team member Dr. Christopher Carr helps lift a Haitian boy out of COTN's school bus to carry him to the medical clinic in Barhona on Monday.
Dr. John Hodgson carries a boy into COTN's medical clinic with the boy's parents on Monday.
COTN-DR interpreter Willy hands a boy to Mark Steinborn who carried him inside COTN's medical clinic in Barahona.
COTN medicam team member Mark Steinborn carries a Haitian boy and walks with his father into COTN's medical clinic in Barahona.
COTN-USA staff member Brandon Bleek carries a child from the COTN bus into the medical clinic on Monday.
COTN medical team member Melanie Smith, a pediatric ICU nurse from Arizona, ties an ID bracelet on a child at COTN's medical clinic in Barahona.
COTN medical team member Bonnie Doyle, an RN from Arizona, checks the blood pressure for one boy in COTN's meical clinic on Monday.
COTN medical team member Bonnie Doyle, an RN from Arizona, checks the blood pressure for one boy in COTN's meical clinic on Monday.
Medical team member Liana Dupuy, an RN from Arizona, along with Justin Dupuy and Steve Schiff, EMTs also from Arizona assess a boy in COTN's medical clinic.
COTN medical team leader Vicki Sakata preps COTN medical clinic head nurse Yaneth on Monday about the Haitian children and what needs to be done for them.
TUESDAY – January 26, 2010 (6:45pm)
* * TOP THREE MOST URGENT NEEDS * *
(List will be updated accordingly or as needs are met. Please check back often.)
- "To reach into Haiti we desperately need TWO NEW 4x4 VANS ($19K each) and a TRUCK ($35K)," pleads COTN founder, Chris Clark, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To donate to this urgently needed fund CLICK HERE.
- We are also in urgent need of a FLIGHT SERVICE willing to fly much-needed supplies into Barahona in the Dominican Republic. Supplies and equipment include an X-ray machine, tarps, and other medical and emergency supplies. Please contact Dave Schertzer at daveschertzer@cotni.org.
- To treat burn and trauma victims in need of immediate treatment, medical personnel has an urgent request out for a DERMATOME SKIN GRAFTING SYSTEM and SKIN MESHER. Please contact Dave Schertzer at daveschertzer@cotni.org for more information.
TUESDAY – January 26, 2010 (9:48am)
The goal of bringing children who were injured in Haiti’s earthquake to COTN’s medical clinic in Barahona, Dominican Republic is to be able to provide them with quality, long-term medical care. Things become complicated once children and adults have undergone surgeries or have been treated for serious injuries, and then must leave to make room for more people with immediate injuries. What happens if there is an infection, or when dressings need to be changed, or when the cast has to delicately be taken off? Though Children of the Nations cannot take on this issue for all of Haiti, COTN can take it on for 11 children and their families.
“It’s impossible to provide the type of post-op care that they’ll be able to get here [in Barahona] without a clean environment,” says Cathy Bentwood, an RN from New Hampshire who was part of a COTN medical team in Jimani. “Back up there [in Jimani], after surgery, unfortunately they’re exposed to the dirt and dust and there’s nothing that can be done about that. There’s no running water, there are not many toilets. The children who will be here [at COTN’s Barahona clinic], will be getting the kind of concentrated post-op care that will provide them with optimum stability.”
All eleven children who arrived today at the clinic needed their dressings changed—especially after recovering on mattresses in the dirt outside of Good Samaritan Hospital. (Following last week’s aftershock, fearful patients would not return to inside the hospital in Jimani.). COTN’s medical teams currently in Barahona, and others who are set to arrive in the coming weeks, will treat and care for the children. At the clinic, the children will be in a more sterile environment, which will hopefully allow their injuries to heal better and faster with less infection.
It was a flurry of people today as the children arrived at COTN’s medical clinic. COTN–DR head nurse Yaneth had her team of nurses present along with a COTN medical team from Arizona. Once the children were off the bus—their family members beside them—they were able to settle down in a clinic bed where the nurses and doctors assessed their injuries and began to develop treatment plans.
“In consulting with the regional health director, Rafael Sanchez, who has been a friend of COTN for 15 years, we decided to bring these eleven children to our clinic and nurse them back to health, as well as work with them long-term, making sure that their families have been restored,” says COTN founder Chris Clark. “Each child comes with an amazing story of terror, but there’s great hope in their eyes. I just really think that we need to be part of that restorative process—trauma is trauma, whether it’s from war or from an earthquake.”
TUESDAY – January 26, 2010 (7:20am)
One thing about disaster relief situations is that things are always changing. Plans, schedules, opportunities—you never really know until it actually happens if it is, in fact, actually going to happen. Children of the Nations had that moment yesterday (Monday) when—as had been talked about and planned for a few days—11 children from Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani arrived at our medical clinic in Barahona via US Black Hawk helicopters.
Medical teams and volunteers have spent the past few days preparing the COTN clinic and the COTN–DR staff for the possibility of functioning as a hospital for a few weeks or months. Yesterday, COTN founder Chris Clark made the two-hour trip to Jimani this morning to ensure that this possibility was given full consideration by those in charge there. Around 10 a.m. staff at COTN’s Barahona ministry site got the call that the children were indeed coming and to be ready for them within the hour.
COTN staff and visiting medical teams grabbed the supplies that they had been sorting at COTN’s ministry center and headed to COTN’s medical clinic, a short drive away. They wanted to be fully prepared for these children who needed special attention—and provide better medical care than they were receiving in Jimani. (Following last week’s aftershock, fearful patients would not return to inside the hospital in Jimani and were recovering on mattresses in the dirt—not an ideal place for wounds that need to heal and avoid infection.) While most of the team remained at the clinic to prepare for the eleven patients, several went to Barahona’s airport to meet the helicopters, transfer the children on stretchers to the COTN bus, and transport them and their families to the medical clinic.
As the two military helicopters approached, the great privilege to care for these children and families who have suffered so much became a reality to all involved. As the children were transferred by stretchers to an awaiting bus, their families gathered around them and assured them that everything would be okay, though many were unsure themselves. Some with amputations and others with full casts, COTN medical team leader Dr. Vicki Sakata recommended which children should come to COTN’s clinic here in Barahona—depending on their injuries, their recovery needs, and the facilities available at the COTN clinic. After working with the young patients for more than five days at Good Samaritan Hospital in Jimani, she had a good idea of who should come.
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
Click here to read previous posts (1/25/10 and earlier).