1/21/10 - Krista's Update

Per phone conversation with Krista Dopf - 1/21/10

Dr. Dopf’s OR started as an empty classroom. They are using desks at the OR table and have some shelves for supplies. He walked the people working with him through all the instruments, so they knew what things were. There is no anesthesiologist. Patient’s are sedated with whatever meds they have. No intubation. No pulse ox, EKG or any other monitoring device. There is no cautery, so every bleeder is clamped and tied. He is using a hacksaw for amputations, cleaning off instruments with bleach between cases. No suction. The weather is in the 90’s and humid. They try and keep the flies off the surgical site.

Post-op, they have some pain meds, but as their supply is so limited, they give the patients Tylenol unless they ask for something stronger.

They keep accepting patients until 4 to 5 pm, as they have to stop working at dusk. He said every night, out in the tent city, a man preaches to everyone in Creole, and then everyone sings. He has no idea what they’re saying, but finds it moving.

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January 21, 2010 - Into the Groove

1/21/10
Falling into the groove. Working out some bugs with running and staffing the new operating room I set up. BKA and AEA and some smaller stuff today.

Probably 10 aftershocks since yesterday morning’s quake. Sleeping in a 2 man tent w/ a barbed wire fence between me and the displaced homeless. Roosters & hammering of shanty makers wakes me every morning. I wish I could have gotten here sooner than I did. Please say hi to everyone.

Very hard to communicate so please forgive me if you don't hear from me daily.

Craig


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January 20, 2010 - Haiti

Additional notes are added from phone conversations shared from his wife, Krista Dopf.


1/20/10
Trip here on 2 military choppers was pretty cool. Onlookers moved in after the choppers left, and tried to steal supplies. Wild scene as we landed at the nursing school. I’m keeping a diary with graphic details. Also, thanks to Grace, there will be several happy kids here because of the gifts she hid in the tent.

The quake this morning felt like laying in a cot & having 2 people on either end shaking it back & forth. We’re sleeping outside away from any buildings so we can’t get hurt. I spent most of the day driving around the city looking for a hack saw, a rasp & a machete so I could do amputations. I did have time to remove an index finger in a 6 year old & do an AKA (above the knee amputation) on a 29 year old with only sedation on a desk in a classroom. (Through a translator he asked if she understood everything. Her reply was that she just didn’t want to die).

We’re washing things off & reusing them. Hoping someone will bring suction, electrocautery, decent instruments, more casting material, more ketamine, external fixators, fluoro, etc.

Surprisingly, people are amazingly calm. A German surgeon did a bilateral above the elbow amputation on a 2 year old using the camping gigli saw (A Gigli saw is a flexible wire saw used by surgeons for bone cutting) I lent him.

It is incredibly hot & humid. I drank a gallon of Gatorade today & didn’t pee once.

Everyone lives on top of each other because their homes were destroyed. Leogane is by far worse than Port au Prince. Port au Prince looks normal compared to this town. Most houses are destroyed or are unsafe to live in. Most of the homes are flattened or unsafe to live in. Thousands of dead bodies still in the rubble w/ no effort to retrieve them. The stench of the corpses permeates everything. It is far worse than I had anticipated.

Craig


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