5:15pm Wednesday January 27, 2010

Phone call from Jay Bridgeman (some of our texts do not get through except as an error message):

One tremor daily. Feels like a freight train going by.

Eleven OR cases today. Mostly debridement of infected open fractures. One revision of a below-the-knee amputation to above-the-knee. They are hoping to prevent more amputations by doing debridements, but more amputations are inevitable. They have one OR with two tables-- which basically is two ORs. There are also some small mobile procedure rooms in the back of some Dominican trucks, but only small procedures are done there.

Yesterday they had a vaccine campaign directed by the two ED docs who are from Boston and running the show. Hopefully most of the 800 tetatus vaccines brought by our team were used.

Old teams are leaving the area and new teams are arriving constantly. LSU team is about two days behind our team-- doing the same thing, driving around to look for a good site to work. A general surgeon wanted our team to come take over his site-- but our team felt that they were best serving by staying where they are now.

The refugee camp in the Love A Child walls has about 300 patients-- each with one family member allowed to stay. Food and water are supplied. All have injuries and have mostly come as referrals from other sites. There is a refugee camp for non-injured but displaced people about 2 miles away-- run by United Nations.

Lots of work to be done. Jove, our general surgery chief resident who is from Haiti, went into Port-au-Prince to see his dad. He encountered a lot of ortho patients just hanging out in the open. They were "fixed" initially and told to go back to seek medical follow-up. But, because they know many of those who return for care get amputations, they simply don't go back.

The team is in good spirits.