Hope, help for Haiti

UF is roughly 1,000 miles away from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12. But in those first few days following the disaster, the distance seemed more like a million miles. With every incoming phone call, people who had friends and loved ones in the earthquake zone braced themselves, praying to see the familiar 501 area code that would signal news from Haiti. In no time, students and faculty with the Health Science Center, Shands HealthCare and the university community sprung into service, doing whatever they could to help.

The Vigil

A young woman who had moved to the United States from Haiti when she was 14 stood before the microphone in the candlelit quiet of the Reitz Union Ampitheater, a crowd of more than 400 people hanging on her every word.

Her mother and two of her sisters lived in the United States. The rest of her family lived in Haiti, she said.

"We just found out that three of them have already passed away," she said. "The others are in Port au Prince and we don't know where they are, we have no news whatsoever. My mom, I'm trying to be strong for her but she is going ... I don't know what."

She wiped away more tears, her voice rising.

"I work so hard to go around campus and smile and act like everything is OK, because I just don't want to fall apart," she said. "I've been going to the counseling center, but it is so hard to talk to somebody who doesn't understand what you are feeling or what you are going through."

Then she broke away from the microphone. Others took her place.

More tears, stories and prayers flowed. It was Friday, Jan. 15. Just three days earlier, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, leaving thousands of people dead and even more injured and homeless. Within 24 hours, the student group Gators United for Haiti was born. It had organized the candle-lighting ceremony.

UF President Bernie Machen said that he had just found out that a team of faculty and staff from the Health Science Center was going to be airlifted the next morning to Haiti.

"The Gators are already in action and beginning to move forward," Machen said. — John Pastor

‘Are you sure?'

When the pilot who flew Mark Atkinson, Ph.D., and his team of health-care professionals saw the devastation on the ground in Haiti, he offered to turn the plane around.

"‘Are you sure you want to stay? I will take you back,' he told us," Atkison recounted. "There was just chaos everywhere."

Atkinson is co-director of UF's Diabetes Center of Excellence and an eminent scholar for diabetes research. He has traveled to Haiti since the 1990s, providing medical, dental and educational assistance and had returned from the country less than one week before the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed a reported 200,000 people and left tens of thousands more injured. The professor in the department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at the College of Medicine quickly organized a group of health-care workers familiar with disaster relief and delivering care in developing countries.

After a few days at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the group was able to make its way to a hospital in Saint Marc, about 35 miles north of the capital city. Organized from Gainesville and spearheaded by Atkinson under the auspices of Mission Possible, the team included Atkinson's wife Carol, daughter Heather, as well as Sherry Meurer, Sylvia Campbell, Sandy Frost, Jeanne Gres, David Hopper, Rod Ingram and Howard Kessler.

"The medical director of a hospital in Saint Marc put out a plea," Atkinson said. "They had no doctors, no supplies and they expected thousands of refugees looking for food, water and medical care."

After nine days of very little sleep and nonstop work, Atkinson and his group were ready to come home to "regroup," he said.

"It is a very daunting task when you walk through the rooms of individuals and try to determine who is going to make it and who isn't," he said from his Health Science Center office. "The sights, sounds and smells of Haiti are pretty disturbing."

Atkinson continues to work long hours in his fight to help the people of Haiti. From Gainesville he organizes the shipment of supplies, and he prepares to return.

"I commend all the people who are going down there to provide medical care, donating clothes and food," he said. "They need so much, but their greatest need is hope. And I hope that's what we're doing. Providing hope." — Karen Dooley

Hearts in Haiti

When news about the earthquake reached Gainesville, it was a shocking blow for eight UF medical students who come from the island country and have family there.

Fortunately, family members of all eight students survived the earthquake and have been contacted, said Donna M. Parker, M.D., assistant dean of the Office of Minority of Affairs at the College of Medicine.

"The first couple of days after the earthquake hit were very worrisome because I knew my Haitian students have family down there," she explains. "It was an enormous relief when we learned all the families were safe."

However, Parker still fears for the future of her students' families.

"I know that they are running out of food, water and shelter," she says. "We are very concerned."

Ricardy Rimpel, a second-year medical student, said it has been difficult to think of anything other than Haiti since he saw the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince in ruins.

"I haven't been able to do any schoolwork because the only thing I can think about is Haiti," says Rimpel, one of this year's leaders for Project Haiti, an international medical outreach program organized by UF medical students.

Rimpel says he was finally able to reach his family three days after the earthquake, and although he is grateful they were not killed or injured, he knows his family members are filled

with despair.

"My family was not hopeful at all," he explains. "??‘There is no Haiti,' they told me."

Ashley Patterson, also a member of the UF medical class of 2012, has distant family members living in Haiti and is working on raising funds for the relief effort, but she would rather be traveling to Haiti to help provide medical assistance.

"I love my country and my people, and I just want to be down there," she says with a sense of urgency and frustration. "It's driving me crazy. I'm trying to avoid looking at all the news and trying to study for my classes because school is not going to slow down for this."

Both Patterson and Rimpel eagerly wait for the Project Haiti trip planned for spring break, March 6-13. — Priscilla Santos

Crossing into Haiti

Ever since he was a graduate student in the College of Dentistry in the late 1980s, pediatric dentist Tim Garvey, D.M.D., has returned annually to provide health care to the people in and around Las Matas de Farfan.

The town, about 82 miles from Port-au Prince, is located deep in the interior of the continent, just east of the Haiti border in the Dominican Republic. After the earthquake, because of his contacts in the region, Garvey was able to arrange entry to the Dominican Republic for a group of physicians wanting to assist in the relief efforts.

Garvey, along with two oral surgeons and five physicians from Daytona Beach, planned on assisting local physicians in the Dominican Republic who were treating Haitians. Instead they ended up crossing into Haiti and traveling to Port-au-Prince, where they worked in a makeshift hospital set up at the city's airport.

"It was an amazing experience. There were people there from all over the world helping the patients. I was so happy to be able to go; it was such a humbling experience," Garvey said.

Teresa Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H., dean of the College of Dentistry, said, "Our hearts go out to the countless people who are suffering because of this natural disaster. I am proud of Tim's ongoing commitment to service in that region. Because of his longstanding relationships in the area, he was able to quickly make arrangements for the relief trip." —Karen Rhodenizer

Miles to go

In Florida, UF College of Medicine and Shands teams have been on standby since the earthquakes to support state emergency-response efforts. Shands at the University of Florida and Shands Jacksonville are two of the state's "first-receiver" medical centers. Each has a state-designated Level I trauma center and Shands at UF has a regional burn center.

The first patient from Haiti via Tampa was admitted to Shands at UF medical center on Jan. 27. Shands HealthCare officials have also worked with the state and donated medical supplies, hospital equipment, surgical instruments and other materials. Shands also purchased and donated broad-spectrum antibiotics for medical relief efforts.

"In the weeks, months and years to come, there will no doubt be many opportunities to help," said David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. "In these times of extreme hardship and tragedy for our neighbors in Haiti, it is extremely heartening to see the UF Health Science Center and Shands HealthCare come together as they have."

The full magnitude of the Haiti tragedy is still coming into focus.

"The work definitely is not done," said Michael Moser, M.D. "The system is completely overwhelmed. The issue is many of the patients are very severely injured, with open fractures or crushed body parts — things that just don't go away. Even here, in the best health-care environment, treatment can go on for six to 12 months. Down there, if there are not people intervening on a continual basis, the people will not have a good chance. There needs to be a sustained health-care effort."

Moser, an assistant professor at the UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute and UF team physician, led a UF group that included physician assistant Matt Walser, registered nurse Terri Hodgson, and medical doctors Michael Mac Millan, Mark Rice, Tim Morey, Ben Miller and Jay Clugston.

They worked from The Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, near the north coast of Haiti, about 80 miles from Port-au-Prince. The hospital was receiving earthquake victims by car, helicopter and foot, and the team helped with approximately 200 surgical procedures. The hospital swelled from its normal 60 beds to 400 by the time the team left.

"We were the second team there," Moser said. "Each team that arrives brings more equipment. The hospital took over a local school in order to accommodate the influx of patients. But in a mass casualty and trauma situation, the resources simply aren't there to care for patients. The team that follows us will have real instrument sterilizers and anesthesia machines."

Moser said the work is never-ending.

"It is emotionally draining to see that many people with so many severe injuries," Moser said. "These are good people who are just devastated, and they really appreciate an outside influence coming in to take care of people. The eight of us are pretty much unanimous in our decision that we want to go back."

— John Pastor

Faculty, staff and students interested in UF's official policies with regard to participating in Haiti relief efforts should go to www.aa.ufl.edu/haiti/resources.htm.

Message from the Lines

‘Public health' team encounters devastation, hope

Editor's note: Michael Perri, Ph.D., of the College of Public Health and Health Professions, led a team that spent eight days providing emergency medical relief to Haitian people from a small facility near Port-au-Prince. With him were Sally Bethart, M.S.N., A.R.N.P., from the College of Nursing; Slande Celeste, M.P.H., of PHHP; David Meurer, M.D., from the College of Medicine; Cindy Nelly, R.N., from Shands at UF; Edsel Redden, M.S., of IFAS; and community physicians John Gaines, M.D., Robert DeLaTorre, M.D., Robert Melosh, M.D., and David Risch, M.D. Here is an abridged version of Dr. Perri's summary following eight days in Haiti:

After 24 hours of waiting in a hangar at the San Isidro Air Base in the Dominican Republic, the U.S. Southern Command flew us via Blackhawk helicopters to the Double Harvest Compound in Croix des Bouquets, Haiti (about 7 miles east of Port-au-Prince). Double Harvest was selected because it had operating rooms that were under-utilized.

We divided our group into two subteams: a "medical/surgical" group (Drs. Meurer, Risch, DeLaTorre, Melosh and Nelly; and a "public health" group (Gaines, Sally Bethart, ARNP, Celeste, Redden and myself).

Our "medical/surgical" folks began immediately working with the Partners-in-Health medical team that had recently arrived at Double Harvest. The group began triaging patients and operating on those who needed surgery. For several days, the team worked with very few breaks treating lots of trauma cases, including many that required amputations. As the news spread about the availability of medical care at Double Harvest, the numbers of patients brought to the "Hospital" swelled. The types of cases changed over time as the number of people with traumatic injuries decreased, and people needing other kinds of medical care increased.

Our "public health" team left Double Harvest on Wednesday morning to try to make our way to Christianville (which is located near Gressier about 15 miles west of P-A-P). We drove through P-A-P and witnessed the massive devastation, including the destruction around the Palace. In many places, the smell of death was unmistakable. We drove through P-A-P to Carrefour, the epicenter of the quake. We stopped there to search for Slande Celeste's mother (who had not been heard from since the quake). Her home was destroyed, but she was alive and well. It was a joyous moment!

We continued onto Christianville in search of Obinson Joseph, the principal of one the local schools. Another great moment! He was alive, having survived the total collapse of the school, which housed his second-floor apartment. He was grateful to see us and immediately took us into the community to assist people injured in the quake. Slande served as interpreter as Sally and John began treating the injured.

By nightfall, we made it into Christianville and found that the medical clinic, eye clinic, high school and virtually all buildings in the compound had collapsed or had been damaged beyond repair. For that night and several others, we slept beneath the stars. Each night we experienced aftershocks. Following each shock, we invariably heard the crying and wailing of people in the community.

Each day our team set up an outdoor clinic in the courtyard of Obinson's collapsed school. As the word spread that help was available, the stream of people with injuries and medical problems grew. Our team treated more than 50 individuals each day. In some cases, we needed to transport people to other facilities that could provide more extensive care. For example, we took a man with a gangrenous foot back to Double Harvest for a partial amputation.

Our other activities included meeting with community leaders to discuss immediate and long-term needs and to begin planning for the rebuilding of the schools. We also began the first of a series of trips to the Dominican Republic to purchase food supplies. On our first run, we secured two tons of rice and successfully managed to keep it well covered (i.e., out of plain sight) as we worked our way on our five-hour journey from the Dominican Republic through P-A-P to Christianville.

As the week progressed, we observed an increasing presence on the streets of Haitian police and troops from the United Nations, the United States, and other countries. We did not witness any untoward incidents — other than arguments at gridlocked intersections. We saw large crowds standing in long lines waiting for food and water in P-A-P, but the people appeared to be waiting very patiently in the hot sun. Throughout the town and countryside, tent cities seemed to be springing up, and most people seemed to be hard at work in clean-up efforts.

By Sunday, members of our team began to return to the States. We learned that Hendrick Motor Sports in conjunction with a group called Missionary Flights International was providing free flights from P-A-P to Fort Pierce, Florida. Most of our group took advantage of the opportunity on Monday and Tuesday. Edsel Redden and Bob Melosh decided to stay behind. Edsel plans to return on Saturday after making a few more food runs to the D.R. Dr. Melosh, who is retired, plans to stay as long as he can be of help at Double Harvest.

As a group, we are very grateful for the opportunity to be a small part of the relief effort. We are thankful to all who provided us with assistance and support. The resilience of the people of Haiti impressed us immensely. We are all determined to make this effort the start of a continued collaboration to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Gainesville alumni pull together for Haiti

When a team of Gainesville surgeons returned from Haiti on Jan. 27, they were treated to a red-carpet homecoming at the airport. Plastic surgeons Jason Rosenberg and Greg Gaines, and orthopedic surgeons Amanda Maxey and Stephen Waters — all graduates from the UF College of Medicine — and surgical technician Bob McDilda left the United States Jan. 20 to assist in the earthquake relief efforts.

The group saw 15 to 20 surgical cases a day while on the ground at a small hospital in Jimani, just across the border from Haiti in the Dominican Republic, sleeping on a warehouse roof.

No one who made the trip will forget the people of Haiti, said Rosenberg, president of the UF medical alumni board of directors.

"It was a tremendous blessing for us to be able to help people just by doing what we do," he said. — Karen Dooley