Haiti Relief March 1, 2010. From Anitra Thorhaug, Laureate (1987)
Greater Caribbean Energy and Environment Foundation
Team #4 Composed of Dr. Tom Powers, Chief of Operations on ground, Dr. Eric Meyers, Dr. Alex Santos, and Dr. R. Jackson with several Haitian medical staff treated many in Port-au-Prince orphanages, as well as Gressier, Haiti were very little medical attention had been given to the point they arrived to administer medical aid. This team was supplanted by team #5 composed of Dr. Barry Nathan (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Dr. Alex Santos (Miami, Fl) and Dr. Ryan Jackson (Caspar Wyoming), who did a series of medical Actions at the Gressier clinic as well as orphanages in the mountains.
There are some, nearly universal, conditions which are linked to the earthquake: insomnia, anxiety, stomach ache, loss of appetite, eye irritations and respiratory irritation- besides the psychological issues of loss, death, mourning and trauma. The eye and lung irritations may be due to the dust, concrete residue and other contaminants that have been thrown into the air from the collapsing buildings. Their chief group of patients (well over 65%) were children although about 10% were the elderly. These two groups had differing problems. The children had burns, some cuts, abrasions and other minor injuries from crush wounds, and many had lung and sinus problems which were part of the aftermath of the collapse which left particles hanging in the air for some time. There were among the adult women a series of problems associated with pregnancy pre-natal and post-natal care. (Haiti has the highest infant mortality—117/1000 births and maternal mortality 6.7 / 1000 births—in the Western Hemisphere, about the level of some of the poorest African nations). Pregnant mothers came for prenatal care but there is little equipment presently in Gressier to deal with this. Each doctor saw 50-100 per day, which is hundreds per day and many thousand since the 12th of January.
Most all conditions were associated with poverty and lack of sanitation, such as tinea capitis, intestinal worms, and scabies. Unfortunately, these conditions return if the source is not cleared up. Psychic stress of loosing many loved ones and neighbors were a large problem.
Since Feb 10th, the doctors: Tom Powers, Eric Myers, Alex Santos, Barry Nathan and Ryan Jackson and others have collectively seen approximately 3400 patients. Of the patients Jackson saw, around 200 were in various orphanages. Around 2/3 of the patients seen have been under 18. The younger patients have quite a lot of skin fungus- ringworm and others. Diarrhea is extremely common- possibly due to GI parasites, but without stool samples and follow-up treatment the diagnosis is from the clinical presentation alone. There is possible antibiotic resistance due to the common practice of buying medications from men carrying large cones of medications in most of the populated areas but many of the problems are the pre-existing problems from the conditions that have existed here long before the earthquake.
In the older patients most of the people have dental cavities that should be treated or
have the teeth removed. Many of the people need eye examinations, either for glasses or various degrees of eye injuries, pterygia or other eye problems- a team of dentists and ophthalmologists could well serve the populations in Gressier. The teens and young adults had urinary tract infections and the girls had yeast infections. The adults over 40 frequently have hypertension (some had Blood Pressure as high as 210/140) and diabetes (some had glucose of 400 or more).
These problems had sometimes been diagnosed but they no longer had access to the doctors or the medications since the hospitals are 30 miles away. Many people are anemic and there is a great need for vitamin supplements, iron supplements and prenatal vitamins.
Contributions to help us obtain physicians’ airfare to give treatment the injured and suffering and for the relief and clean up necessary for large scale flooding not to occur can be sent via our web site on www.gceef.org and utilize our donate button. We also need money for medicines, simple supplies including old glasses. The contributions really go a long way to help all this effort. Our efforts get matching labor and materials and medicines of 3.5 times what your dollar supports. We need funds for generators, latrines, cots for patients, towels and linens to put on cots, and food and transport for doctors. Also for local labor to clean up the water sheds, and begin removing debris. Rehabilitation is commencing with farmers obtaining seeds and farm implements destroyed in the earthquake so food production can commence. Please help.
Contact - Anitra Thorhaug <athorhaug@msn.com> web site www.gceef.org.