Child medical services in Haiti: Rose links with AAP and Health Frontiers

Rose Charities has teamed up with  the AAP and the International Pediatrics Association  to support their plans  in Haiti. The Minnesota based, international NGO  Health Frontiers is already partner. This organization runs pediatrics and medical programs worldwide.  Prof. Elizabeth Hillman of the Hillman Medical Education Fund (HMEF) was instrumental in providing contacts for this linkage as well as Dr Marlene Goodfriend of the AAP.

  A small team consisting of Dr Bron Anders (AAP) and R.N. Angela Assalone  ( BC's Childrens Hospital)  -Shown in image discussing plans with Josephine de Freitas- will shortly in Haiti to both assist at the Community Hospital in Port-au-Prince.  As the Port-au-prince airport is still closed to commercial flights, the team will, as with the five previous teams sent by AMDA and  Rose Charities make the long road journey from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.  The  plan is to establish a base from which both the Haiti Pediatrics Association pediatricians can work and plan and also for AAP international pediatric teams to operate.  Currently one of the Rose Charities members contacts in Haiti is kindly assisting with some limited space and this is where the initial teams will stay.  The community of Haitian pediatricians have been hit hard by the disaster. Many have lost their lives while others are coping with grief and loss. Pediatric nurses are suffering the same circumstances.  A second team, consisting of Dr Collin Yong and R.N. Doreen Lore (B.C. Childrens Hospital) will be relieving the first team in approximately 2 weeks time.

The current Rose Charities - AMDA Canada pediatrics assistace team consisting of Dr Pargat Singh Bhurji and R.N. Kirby Pickard will return at the end of next week. They find they are treating a wide spectrum of cases including dehydration, phycials injuries, diarrhoea, respiratory tract and a host of other infections.  The work is very stressful and taxing under extremely difficult conditions.   The disaster not only has inflicted terrible primary injuries (fractures, crush, inhalataion etc) but also reduced regular medical services to an extremely low level, meaning that demand for all aspects of medicine and surgery are now huge

Fifth AMDA team heads for Haiti: RN. Ruby Kaur Gill. St Paul's Vancouver joins

R.N. Ruby Gill of  Vancouver General Hospital (VGH)  has departed for AMDA Canada  to join the 5th AMDA Surgical relief team to work at Gonaives, Haiti. This new team is headed by Dr Esteban Foianinni of AMDA Bolivia, an orthopaedic surgeon.  Thus,as with  the previous team the work will  concentrate on orthopedic surgery though all medical / surgical cases will be also assisted where possible.
R.N. Martin Ward (B.C. Children's Hospital) and R.N. Kathleen Ward (Edmonton Alberta), who had been with the previous AMDA Columbia organized team returned very recently and were able to brief the new team as they departed.  A wide range of persons were treated and around 10 surgeries per day performed for all conditions though the majority were fractures. Sometime, not having sufficient orthopedic hardware the team had to improvise by making their own from what they could find. In addition a very kind, and timely donation from Dr Jim Scott & RN Paula Spicer of Georgia, USA who visited the team hugely assisted (and much gratitude is expressed for Dr Scott and Ms Spicer for this) 
All teams bring their own supplies.  On this occasion the AMDA Bolivia team is bringing some 500kg of surgical equipment and supplies which will be trucked in.  They enter Haiti by a long drive from Santo Domingo which is very slow on the Haitian side of the boarder as roads are in a poor state of repair.
R.N. Ruby Kaur Gill is British / Canadian of ethnic Punjabi background.  Although working in a different geographical location to the AMDA Canada / Rose Charities pediatric team headed by Dr Pargat Singh Bhurji she is thus the second medical professional from this particular Canadian community. Rose Charities and AMDA Canada have been hugely touched and  grateful for the incredible support from the Sikh community, not only in donations but also in generous offers to volunteer.  The logistical support of  CECI  www.ceci.ca has also been pivotal in enabling all teams to assist and both AMDA and Rose Charities are very grateful indeed to this remarkable organization.
Dr Bhurji's pediatric team are working flat out. There is a great shortage of pediatric staff as many were tragically killed in the quake and others have lost so much that they are completely occupied trying to survive.  The nursing school also lost several hundred students and trainers.
Other AMDA teams have or are working at St Marc's and Jimani (Domincan Repbublic very near Haitian border) and an AMDA International logistics group headed by Mr Nithian Veeruvagu is maintained in Santo Domingo for supply, communication and overall administration.