Team #1 of the the World Wide Village Community Health Initiative (Chris Buresh, Josh White, Cathy Dorvil, Nathan Michaels, Brett Faine, Shane Clifton, Matthew Monjes, Daniel Wing, Brett Mayne and Harold Latta) arrived in Haiti on January 19 and returned home this past weekend.

Following are excerpts from Dr. Josh White’s recap of the trip:

“We flew into Port au Prince on a corporate jet donated by Printpack, Inc. out of Atlanta, GA.  (Sweet ride!)  The airport is effectively a military base at the moment.  From the airport we traveled by land to Leogane with Save the Children.

Leogane is unrecognizable. Tent cities are popping up everywhere. I guess that 80% of the structures are now unlivable.

We were managing most of the medical relief in the area.  We set up two functioning ORs, a trauma/general clinic and a mobile clinic.  Trucks went out into the city looking for people with wounds severe enough that they can’t get to us.   

Cooperation and collaboration among relief groups is working well.  World Wide Village has been donated a mobile 50-bed hospital with an air conditioned OR and a generator.  It is now in the process of being set up and will be staffed by World Wide Village and others.  Save the Children has arranged for a mobile warehouse, security and some funding.  Children’s Nutrition Programme is working on clean water and some infrastructure rebuilding.  A Japenese disaster response team worked alongside us and allowed us to use their x-ray capabilities.

The wounds are atrocious.  Lots of ortho, huge infected wounds.  Lots of new amputees which is really sad.  By the time I left, we had seen around 1400 patients in the clinic, performed 75 surgeries and counted 25 aftershocks.  Infectious disease problems are starting to become an issie.  What was poor sanitation, poor nutrition and overcrowding is now worse.

I hadn’t bathed in 4 days, lived on Cliff bars and slept in a tent with a lot of other folks who hadn’t bathed either.  Hard to imagine being happier.  We’ve done some good things and I’m pleased.”

Team #2 is now in Haiti carrying on the relief efforts.  Please continue to pray for the medical providers who are giving sacrificially of their time, talents and resources to help the least of their brothers and sisters.