WHAT ARE WE AND WHAT DO WE WANT TO BE?
As we approach our board meeting this weekend one of our board members asked that question in an email. Over the past 41 days it has become an appropriate question to ask. I believe I know the answer and would like to share it with you.
Because of one man’s vision 24 years ago we grew a hospital that could provide quality care and teaching to Haitians. It was a slow meticulous process that started with a few surgical volunteers and we thought ended with a Hatian staff of 20 physicians, 60 nurses and a total of 250 people to provide care to the people in northern haiti. This full time staff was supplemented by 170 volunteers throughout the year that provided care working side by side with the Haitian physicians as well as teaching them.
Then the earthquake stuck on January 12th. Our well established infrastructure, will trained staff and long standing network of volunteers allowed us to expand from a 64 bed hospital to a 400+ bed hospital in 2 weeks. Our support from Malta, Americares, Project Hope and many other medical corporations and individuals gave us the needed supplies to equip this expanded hospital. In a short period of time we became well known in the press and recognized by the many aid agencies, hospitals and military as the main referral hospital in Haiti. We now are sent patients from the USS comfort, and the hospitals in Port au Prince that require specialty care that only we can provide. It’s a proud moment for all of us and then a humbling moment. God in his divine wisdom again used one man to begin a process that would save hundreds in a catastrophe none of us could ever imagine.
We are gradually decreasing our patient population by discharging patients back to Port au Prince and to local short term housing. We were struggling with how to return patients to Port au Prince when we received an urgent call from a German aid agency in Haiti. They had an infant with hydrocephalus that would die without treatment. They inquired if we could help. Well, we had a pediatric neurosurgeon at our hospital at the time who could help. They brought the child to us by helicopter and our neurosurgeon place a shunt to save the baby’s life. The Germans were so appreciative that they offered us the use of their helicopters for 50 hours.
We also were asked to help care for children with severe injuries in Port au Prince who could not be cared for by any of the hospitals in Haiti. We sent a team of surgeons down to examine the patients and they reported that we had the equipment and surgeons to offer these children definitive treatment. Now we have a win win situation. We have a helicopter that can bring patients ready for discharge back to Port au Prince and can on the return trip bring children that require surgery back to Hôpital Sacré Coeur.
So what is the answer to the question above. I think the answer is that we are now destined to be the referral center for Haiti. We will continue to fulfill our mission of providing care to the people of Haiti and teaching the Haitian medical personnel how to provide the care when we are not there. However we now need to double our size to 150 inpatients, increase our ORs permanently to 4, build a new delivery room and OB section, make our triage/ER a permanent part of our hospital and build an outpatient clinic area with rehabilitation facilities to help our many amputees. We also need to build housing for our increasing medical staff and consider a nursing school and medical school in the future.
These are lofty plans but doable. No one thought we would ever be where we are now especially the one man who started it, Ted Dubuque,but God had other plans. I believe that we are again being guided by God in this direction. We can continue our mission and also be the example for the rest of Haiti. We can only do this with your help. God bless all of you.
- Peter Kelly
Malteser International Europe
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