Staff Head for Haiti
May 12, 2010 | Categories: Community Outreach, Emergency Medicine, Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center, OB/GYN
As the desperate need for help in Haiti goes on, St. Barnabas employees are continuing their commitment to help. Nine of our employees boarded flights to the island and spent days or weeks in service to alleviate the suffering. There are more still planning to make the trip. And among those who went and came back, many say they want to return.
Working in tent hospitals, orphanages, on a floating military hospital anchored off the coast, or in makeshift clinics in rural areas, these volunteers did what had to be done: treating crushed arms and legs, taking vital signs by flashlight in the middle of the night, delivering babies amidst chaotic circumstances, anesthetizing 8-25 patients a day, and performing surgery around the clock.
“No pain meds. No food. No water. It was 80 degrees and there was no fan,” recounts trauma surgeon Dr. Ronald Verrier. For Dr. Verrier the trip to Haiti was a trip home, where he found his parents’ house collapsed in a heap. His parents escaped injury, but his father tragically suffered a fatal heart attack from the shock of the ordeal.
Dr. Billy Ford, Chief of Anesthesiology, met up with his two physician brothers, all three born in Haiti. Each has a thriving career in medicine in the US but none wasted a second in returning to Haiti with his medical skills.
Two of our midwives, Sally Urang and Marlyn Laforest, sped to Haiti where they delivered babies, helped new mothers and treated children in the pediatric tent.
Dr. Michael Passafaro, emergency medicine, worked with a team that saw an average of 784 patients a day. Drs. Modinat Balogun and Claudwardyne Thevenin, and Joan Watson, RN, also volunteered from the St. Barnabas Emergency Medicine Department.
Marie Orilus, a clinical social worker from Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center, brought much-needed interpreting and counseling skills to Haiti. “My mother taught me to care for people when there is a need,” she said.
