News

UOI Doctors Aid in Haiti Relief

02.04.2010-- The Providence Journal released an article that shares the experiences of the Rhode Island Doctors that went to Haiti in an effort to provide relief from the earthquake that struck in late January.

University Orthopedic doctors that are in or went to Haiti to aid in the disaster relief:

Below are a few paragraphs from this article.

Born, who is director of orthopedic trauma at Rhode Island Hospital, traveled to Haiti with the International Medical Surgical Response Team, a group organized by the Department of Homeland Security to quickly deploy civilian medical professionals in disasters.

When the 60 people in the team set up shop in a school, patients quickly lined up. Most had fractures and crush injuries. Some had wounds that were severely infected. If they were being treated in the United States, they’d be candidates for multiple surgeries. “In the post-quake Haiti,” Born says, “you kind of felt you had one shot.” So many a limb was amputated. Those that could be salvaged were stabilized with external devices.

“The medical legacy of this event is a multigenerational population of amputees,” Born says. “And in Third World countries, they don’t have prostheses, they can’t work. Most work is manual labor.”

Born was amazed and baffled by the Haitians’ stoic response to their multiple calamities. “The Haitians were noncomplaining,” he says. “It was hard to tell whether they were just shocked and depressed, whether it was their faith, whether they’ve been under duress for so long … they don’t have any expectations. Even the kids, the kids were unbelievable — cooperative, didn’t cry.”

Other links relevant to this topic:
Boston.com Article
NPR.org Article