HELPING DIRECT RELIEF INTERNATIONAL HELP THE PEOPLE IN HAITI


Thursday, July 7, 2011

Great Article about a Partner in Haiti

Hello Out There,

Since my wife and I had our baby boy Finley just three weeks ago I'm taking a couple months off from traveling to Haiti. However, I'm still working hard from home and wanted to share a great article I came across today.

It's about one of Direct Relief's largest recipients of aid since the quake. They are basically the only full-scale trauma and surgical hospital, have one of the only neo-natal ICUs, and now have one of the only CT scanners in the country. They also have a full-scale prosthetics/orthotics fabrication center on-site and are in the process of building a teaching hospital on-site. They provide free care to everyone who walks in and now are able to perform surgeries for hundreds of hydrocephalus children (which are by far the hardest thing for me to see) thanks to the CT scanner and rotating teams of neurosurgeons.

The article states that this model needs to be replicated throughout Haiti--and it's true. What they don't mention is that a great organization called Project Medishare is spending around $200,000 per month to keep it running and unfortunately that will likely not be able to continue forever. Running a hospital in Haiti (or anywhere) for a population of people who cannot pay is about the most expensive undertaking there is.

Nonetheless, this place is doing amazing work--not only in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but even now 19 months on.