Newsletter

St. Joseph’s Health System Haiti Relief – Update
February 11, 2010

Dear Colleagues:
 
Since the success of the Haiti Media Telethon we continue to have incredible momentum regarding our efforts to support our colleagues in responding to the terrible tragedy of the Haiti Earthquake. To-date we have raised over $ 1.2 million from donors, the private sector, and from significant contributions from Catholic Parishes and other organizations. Many essential items have been donated by our partners or purchased by us in addition to the figure above, including essential hospital capacity generator and sterilizer unit
 
For the last few weeks we have been assembling teams of professionals from various disciplines to travel to Haiti to assist the Hospital of Peace in the Delmas District of Port au Prince. This has involved countless hours of interviews, screening and orientation as well as constant changes to our schedule due to external challenges beyond our control. Despite these challenges, over 30 volunteers-most from St. Mary’s and St Joseph’s Hamilton have committed to this project and are ready to travel, and are keen to assist our Haitian patients and partners. This morning 5 team members left for Haiti via Dominican Republic; this Saturday the remaining team members will travel in a larger group the same way.
 
Though this exercise has had many twists and turns with on-again / off-again flights, uncertainty on living conditions and foremost in our minds staff safety in the pursuit of our goals, we have not lost sight of our important mission. We are grateful to many, both on the team and behind the scenes, and in the community. This has truly been a remarkable effort to date with too many individuals to thank.
 
We invite you to please remember the  Haitian people and health care workers and members of the SJHS team in your prayers. We will keep you posted as our work moves forward.
Thanks for all your support!
 
Sincerely,
 
Sister Anne Anderson, Chair – Board of Directors
Dr. Kevin Smith, President and CEO
Mr. Brian Guest, Executive Lead – International Outreach and Corporate Renewal


Observations from the Haiti Assessment Team – Four Days in Port-au-Prince
Tuesday January 19, 2010

               

Good afternoon all. Chris Chovaz and I have arrived in Dominican Republic and will hopefully be home tomorrow evening. Alez is staying on until February 2/10. Outlined below is a brief update in more or less chronological order of the last several days:
 
1)       Alez,Chris and I were on the same flight which left Montreal about 0330 on Wednesday. Air Transat ran the flight and they were terrific to us. We had a poignant moment shortly before landing when our stewardess started the “welcome to Port au Prince…” announcement and broke down in tears. A steward took over and he did the same;
2)       The scene at the airport was very chaotic and run with an iron fist by US military. Once you left plane you were expected to move off the property quickly. There was no customs or registration of who had landed;
3)       I’m very pleased to advise that all 50+ boxes of drugs/supplies ( valued at about $50K) from SJHS arrived safely at the hospital a few days after the flight. The logistics and support that went into this from many of you was very much appreciated. I’m sure you have read about the problems of intra Haiti delivery of goods. I think your prayers came into play big time on this;
4)       The capital is very much damaged throughout but most roads while passable are very much congested with traffic. Many large structures are totally destroyed either into rubble or "pancaked" into a flat slab of concrete. I can’t imagine being able to extricate bodies for burial from much of it. Also buildings that would look safer than others to the untrained eye would also be significantly damaged. Most Ministry buildings near the Palace are reduced to rubble which greatly hurt the coordination effort; You can go down most streets and find several buildings still standing, some with cracks and others demolished;
5)       The Haitian people show remarkable resiliency with many on streets trying to sell food and other wares. Almost everyone sleeps outside rich and poor because of fears of a significant aftershock or “shake” as they call it. There are many tent cities in parks and from afar they seem orderly for now at least. There is an effort to move people out of the city to “tent cities”;
6)       Security is tight with an overwhelming presence of soldiers with weapons at the ready. Not great to live in but kudos to those soldiers from many nations (primarily US) who are protecting folks from the criminal element;
7)       Alez did a great job in coordinating the visit and is currently provided anesthesia support to a surgical team from Cuba/Spain doing trauma surgery;
8)       Both the University Hospital and Hospital of peace are operational but in very different ways even though they are the two largest Ministry operated facilities in the city. The University hospital is under the control of the US military from everything from triage as to which patients get in to distribution of food. The Hospital of Peace has no military presence with many national groups providing care in discreet sections of the grounds. The second floor was not inhabitable when we were there and the parking lot and grounds were covered with tents and patients. While there were group meetings I think most groups worked relatively independently;
9)       The real question is what happens when these groups most of which specialize in disaster relief start to leave. Both CEO’s estimate that only 30% of pre-existing hospital staff have returned to work. At this point we do not know the true future of staffing but we were told without question many groups will leave within a few weeks as maintenance of a post disaster situation is not in their mandate;
10)   While in Dr. St  Fleur’s office ( Hospital of Peace CEO) we felt one of the main aftershocks and for a few seconds one could feel the floor moving under your feet noticeably. That aftershock significantly damaged one of the ports even more which is so critical to the recovery process;
11)   Chris and I winded our way home starting at 0400 lining up for precious bus tickets and about 14 hours later arriving at a hotel in Santa Domingo. Lots of heartbreaking scenes along the way with people trying to leave the country and a very poignant scene at the Haitian/DR border which looks like the start of a refugee camp;
12)   Alez remains in Haiti until February 2/10 and hopefully the airport will reopen to commercial traffic-the airport reopening is directly related to the operational status of the ports;
13)   Kevin Smith has been invited to and will attend a critical meeting of leading aid organizations hosted/sponsored by the Canadian Government on Monday January 25/10 in Montreal. The focus will be on coordinating aid which is critical;
14)   Our goals for the next while will continue to be focused on responding to the needs of our partner hospitals in Haiti-both in the long and short term. Potential initiatives will include but not limited to; staffing support when initial trauma teams start to leave; help with supply chain management to ensure the orderly distribution of goods; a new “drug/O2” fund which is used to support the poor –we have had such a fund work well at the University hospital over the last several years.

 
Many thanks for your support and prayers. I am that many of you have worked tirelessly in support of this project over the past week and our Haitian partners are very much aware of the continuing bond to the SJHS IOP.
Take care,
Brian Guest 



Dr. Alezandre Dauphin with an update on quake ravaged Haiti courtesy of THE SPEC

http://www.thespec.com/videogallery/711562