OVERSEAS MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TEAM
What's Happening:
The earthquake of January 12th, 2010 brought Haiti into the households of everyone around the world who has television or internet service. The Overseas Medical Assistance Team (OMAT), having made frequent visits to Haiti over the past ten years, was among one of the first to respond and provide medical assistance to the victims. A six-member team, five physicians and one nurse, went through Santiago in the Dominican Republic, drove to Cap Haitien and then to Port au Prince. The very evening they arrived in Diquini at Hopital Adventiste, they began to perform much needed surgeries in a makeshift operating room under a tent. They did not stop to rest until 6 am the following morning. The injured were too numerous to count and nothing could have prepared the team for so many traumas. The surgeons trained at trauma centers during their residency were equipped to handle the injuries, but the smell of decaying bodies, the lack of adequate support staff and customary medications made things challenging.
Returning to the United States after a week of work, the OMAT was determined to return with prosthetics for as many of the victims left with amputations as they could. In the interim, the OMAT arranged to have victims airlifted to Hopital Sacre Coeur in Milot, Haiti. The OMAT has been volunteering twice a year at that hospital by providing medical care in various specialties of medicine. As a result of this arrangement from February 7th to the present, the OMAT has arranged weekly missions to Milot to assist with the care of these victims. The OMAT has sent 6 teams, each of about 6 to 8 physicians and nurses of varied specialties to provide much needed care. In addition, the OMAT, with the help of many who donated clothing, shoes and medical supplies, has shipped 7 barrels, 1 crate with walkers and wheelchairs and 5 cargo boxes to Hopital Adventiste for use in helping the victims recover from this devastating loss.
On April 1st the OMAT began the process of providing prosthetics for some of the victims at Hopital Adventiste. Dr. Stephen Carryl, president of OMAT and leader of the original team who provided care at Hopital Adventiste after the earthquake, was accompanied by Thomas Valenti, Director of Ortho Remedy. Ortho Remedy is a prosthetics company in New Jersey which agreed to partner with OMAT to train local personnel to manufacture the prosthetics in Haiti so that more victims can have prosthetics at a cheaper cost.
Cast impressions of five victims were taken to start the process. Three of the victims were injured while attending classes at the university on the afternoon of the quake - a professor (who lost a leg and several fingers), a young lady and young man who are both in their twenties and are below knee amputees. The other two were a man who was already an amputee but lost his prosthesis when his home collapsed, and a young medical student who lost his right arm while attending classes at the medical school.
The casts will be returned to the Ortho Remedy factory and will be manufactured in less than three weeks. While the physical wounds appear to be healing it will be a long time before the emotional and personal wounds are healed. Our work has just begun.
The OMAT is grateful to the many volunteers who dedicated their time and service to provide care to the victims of the earthquake in the weeks that followed. Those who could not go were generous with their financial support, medical supplies, and clothing. The OMAT offers sincere gratitude for your support on behalf of the Haitian people. Your continued support will ensure that OMAT continues its work to help those who need it most.
UPDATE: They are completed!
The prosthetic team, along with Dr. Stephen Carryl will return to Hopital Adventiste in Diquini on May 2nd to fit the five victims who were casted on April 1, 2010, with their new prosthetic device.
