The people of Haiti will need considerable resources to rebuild their country, their homes and their lives. Organizations that have established roots in Haiti include: The Haiti Project, World Wide Village, and Family Health Ministries. Your ongoing financial support is desperately needed for recovery and rebuilding.
The Haiti Project was responsible for the arrangements and cost of Dr. Craig Dopf’s flights. Jan Byrd, MD, is a retired family practice physician, Columbus, WI and the project coordinator of The Haiti Project. She shared these emails with Krista Dopf, wife of UW Health/Meriter orthopedic surgeon, Craig Dopf. Dr. Dopf arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, January 20.
The following is excerpted from correspondence between World Wide Village staff and Dr. Jan Byrd regarding physician coverage in Leogane, Haiti.Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 8:35 AM
Subject: RE: Transportation of Medical Team Hi Jan - You're right that the need is great and that the suffering is horrific. However, Randy is also correct that there are 150 Japanese here as well as 5 American teams. We're able now to run 3 ORs all day long, with 3 recovery rooms and move about 200 patients a day through clinic. We have so many providers that there is not room for all of them. We are also out of room for housing between the providers and the tents housing our "inpatients". I've been sending 1/5th of our team out 2-3 times per day as a mobile team to see patients in their houses and bring folks that are otherwise unable to get here.
I can understand your frustration and am very sorry that we can’t accommodate anyone else at this point. Most of the teams have about a 2-3 week time horizon for leaving so it would be easier to accommodate your team at that point.
MSF (Doctors without Borders) is working at Hospital Ste.Croix, the Spanish Red Cross and the Canadian disaster relief team is right across the street near a soccer field. The US Marines are occupying a field near the bypass and near our "landing strip". There are also teams at New Hope Mission and the Sanitorium. I am not sure if there are other good staging grounds in Leogane for a team.
There is a big field in front of the now-destroyed Catholic church, but it has become home to about 1,000 families that would need to be displaced, there is no security, no electricity, and no clean water there.
I have heard that there are still a lot of unmet needs in Grand Goave and Petit Goave further along the peninsula. I have also heard that the mountain communities are in a lot of trouble. We're hoping to be able to organize mid-sized mule expeditions into these communities in the coming weeks.
Chris Buresh, M.D., F.A.A.P., F.A.A.E.M.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Sent: Sun 1/24/2010 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: Transportation of Medical TeamI've been watching the CNN coverage and monitoring UN and US military reports too and have been paying particular attention to the information coming from Leogane, attempting to sort out what our people on the ground are telling me via phone and email versus the other info feeds. Even late last night, while on the phone with Chris Buresh, after relaying to him the report I'd just received from the military sources, he again assured me that the community is unable to accommodate all of the medical providers who've flooded in to the community.
A contingent of 150 Japanese medical personnel showed up three days ago and at least seven other organizations have teams in the area.
On another note, the donated 50 bed portable hospitable facility is set to be erected mid week and will certainly increase the capacity, requiring additional providers.
Randy Mortensen
President - World Wide Village Inc.
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