A group of 16 nurses and physicians from Park Ridge Hospital in Asheville, N.C., plan to take a chartered jet next week for a 10-day surgical marathon in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Once they arrive, the team plans to operate around-the-clock at the Hôpital Adventiste d'Haiti, which suffered little damage in the magnitude 7 earthquake on Jan. 12. "It sounds like it will be a lot of orthopedic trauma," says Carolyn Davis, RN, BNS, a charge nurse in the outpatient surgery department at Park Ridge, part of the Adventist Health System. Ms. Davis expects to be working on repairing broken bones and amputations.
Ms. Davis received emergency trauma training as a Navy nurse, but never got a chance to use it. Until 4 months ago, Ms. Davis was stationed at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where she worked in the outpatient surgery department. Many of the patients at Bethesda were military casualties from the Iraq War who were flown in via Germany.
Before they leave, the Park Ridge nurses, anesthesia providers and surgeons need to update their immunizations, take malaria medicine and gather medical supplies and sleeping mats for the displaced population. Davis says she isn't sure what to expect and doesn't yet know where she'll sleep in Port-au-Prince. To keep up with what's going on at the Haitian hospital, she and her colleagues have been reading a blog kept by a California surgical team already at the hospital. Photos on the blog show patients and their families waiting in makeshift tents outside the hospital.
"We're going to take our translation books and do the best we can," says Ms. Davis. "We're anxious for the adventure and a chance to help."
To donate to Hôpital Adventiste d'Haiti, visit www.lluhaitiproject.org.
Kent Steinriede
