Doctors: Haiti Medical Situation Shameful
Doctors: Haiti Medical Situation Shameful
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Doctors gathered sophisticated team and equipment for Haiti on private planeThey found nobody in
charge, chaos, hospitals had nothing, not even elementary equipmentPlane sent with equipment;
supplies hijacked; resupply plane not allowed inThey say the "lack of support for our operation by
the United States is shocking" Editor's note: Dr. Dean G. Lorich is the associate director of the
Orthopaedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery and New York Presbyterian
Hospital and teaches orthopedic surgery at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr.
Soumitra Eachempati is a medical researcher with a clinical surgical practice and teaches at Weill
Cornell Medical College. Dr. David L. Helfet is professor of orthopedic surgery at Weill Cornell
Medical College and director of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery
and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
New York City (CNN) -- Four years ago, the devastating Hurricane Katrina affected millions in the
United States. The initial medical response was ill-equipped, understaffed, poorly coordinated and
delayed. Criticism was fierce.
The response to Haiti has been the same. The point no one seems to remember is this: Medical
response to these situations cannot be delayed. Immediate access to emergency equipment is also
crucial.
A hospital benefactor helped us get to the airport. First, Jamaican soldiers with M-16s escorted us
out of the building as the crowd outside saw us abandoning the hospital. We made it to the airport
on the back of a pickup, got onto the tarmac, hailed a commercial plane that had carried cargo to
Haiti and was returning to Montreal, Canada, and had a private jet pick us up from there.
We were unprepared for what we saw in Haiti -- the vast amount of human devastation, the complete
lack of medical infrastructure, the lack of support from the Haitian medical community, the lack of
organization on the ground.
No one was in charge. We had the first hospital in the Port-au-Prince area with functioning operating
rooms, yet no one came to the hospital to assess how we did it or offer help.
The fact that the military could not or would not protect the critical resupply medical equipment on
Sunday, or allow the Tuesday flight to come in, is devastating and merits intense investigation.
There was no security at the hospital. We needed a much higher level of security with strong and
clear support of the military from the very beginning.
The lack of support for our operation by the United States is shocking and embarrassing and shows
how woefully unprepared we are for the realities of disasters. We came to understand that our
isolated operation may work in a mission, but not in a disaster.
We first thought we would support those at the helm but soon realized we were almost the only early
responders with the critical expertise and equipment to treat an orthopedic disaster such as this.
Still, nobody with a clear plan is in charge, and care is chaotic at best. Doctors are coming into the
country with no plan of what they are going to do, and nobody directing them how to do it.
Surgeons who expect to show up and operate will be mistaken. Without a complement of support
staff and supplies, they are of limited to no value.
We left feeling as if we abandoned these patients, the country and its people, and we feel terrible.
Our role back in New York is to expose the inadequacies of the system in the hopes of effecting
change immediately. Patients who are alive and still have their arms and legs remain in jeopardy
unless an urgent response is implemented.
The quickest and most efficient way to really help now and support the medical staff on the ground
is to assess needs, provide equipment and personnel in necessary quantities, and bring them safely
and expeditiously into the country and to the hospital units caring for patients.
Upon our departure, we witnessed pallets of Cheerios and dry goods sitting on the tarmac helping
nobody. Yet our flight of critical medical equipment and personnel had been canceled, and the
equipment that did get through was hijacked.
We implore an official organization to step up and take charge of the massive ongoing medical effort
that will be necessary to care for the people of Haiti and their children. And to do it now.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Drs. Dean Lorich, Soumitra
Eachempati and David L. Helfet.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/25/doctors.haiti.hardships/