By Jennifer Browning

After seeking shelter at the government hospital in Hinche Choucoune, 45, returned to find her home and everything inside completely destroyed. Three hurricanes consecutively pummeled Haiti’s Central Plateau leaving many residents homeless.

Choucoune works as cook at Project Medishare’s clinic in Marmont. She shared her home with her three children, her mother, and her niece. With no home to return to after the storm, the family is currently divided among three different households of family and friends. The staff at the Marmont clinic has pulled together their own money and raised 2000 gourdes ($51 US dollars) to help Choucoune and her family obtain basic necessities like clothing.

With the help of Project Medishare supporters who have already begun generously donating money towards Project Medishare’s Hurricane Relief Fund, Choucoune and her family will receive help in rebuilding her house. She and her family urgently need beds, matresses, linens, pots and pans, toiletries, and food.

Project Medishare is grateful for the friends of Haiti who have already donated toward relieving the suffering in the wake of this tragedy, but more funds are needed to continue the hurricane relief efforts.

Please click here to make your online donation to help Choucoune and others like her rebuild their lives in the Central Plateau.

By Jennifer Browning

Project Medishare’s staff in Haiti has reported that more than 1000 families around Haiti’s Central Plateau are suffering from the damage of three recent hurricanes that ravaged the tiny country in the Caribbean.

The government hospital in Hinche was turned into a shelter for these families who lost their home. Since the opening of area schools has been postponed, three school buildings have been converted into shelters for those not needing medical attention. Those who sought shelter at the hospital in Hinche have been moved to one of these three schools. Each school is housing between 500-600 people.

Help these families in need by contributing to Project Medishare’s online Hurricane Relief fund. Donate online by clicking here now.

By Jennifer Browning

Hurricanes Faye, Gustav and Hanna have ravaged many of the areas Project Medishare serves in Haiti’s Central Plateau. Project Medishare and its staff have been personally affected by these storms and after spending the past days providing for their own families they have been able to sen the update regarding the community Project Medishare serves.

In Hinche, 45 minutes from Thomonde, damage and despair looms. The Ministry of Health reported the government hospital and local schools have been turned into a shelters for thousands of families who have been flooded out of their homes. Among these families includes two Project Medishare employees in Marmont who live in Hinche. They have lost their homes and possessions.

Ministry of Health representative Dr. Raul Raphael is requesting funds to purchase supplies for those seeking shelter in Hinche. The shelter is in need of tarps, sheets, blankets, food, cooking pots as well as cooking utensils are needed. There is also a great need for towels, bottled water, buckets, personal hygiene kids, medicine, medical supplies and beds.

Other areas Project Medishare serves have also been affected from the fierce wind and rain. Many roads are difficult to travel and many rivers which cross the roads are impassable. Schools were prevented from opening last week due to the damages created from the storm. All of the schools in Project Medishare’s school health program have suffered roof damage. Minor flooding has also damaged the schools as well as in the latrines causing concern for contamination .

Project Medishare’s office in Thomonde suffered from flooding and also lost a generator during the storm.

Project Medishare is asking, during this time of tremendous suffering, to join them as they provide additional services and support in the wake of this unforeseen, and certainly unbudgeted, disaster.
The Green Family Foundation has contributed a start-up relief gift to aid the people of Haiti’s Central Plateau. Please join Project Medishare, the Green Family Foundation and the Global Institute at the University of Miami in helping the many Haitian families battered by the recent hurricanes.

Please consider making a gift to Project Medishare’s work in Haiti’s Central Plateau today so that a quick response may be made during this time of crisis allowing Project Medishare to continue supporting the communities of Marmont, Thomonde, and Hinche. Click here to make your online donation of $25, $50, $100 or more.

One of Project Medishare’s founders, Dr. Arthur Fournier responded to the ABC Nightline special about sex trade in Haiti on The Huffington Post. Dr. Fournier speaks about the issues of this modern form of slavery. Project Medishare and The Global Institute at the University of Miami recognized the importance of addressing these root causes a decade ago and has been working to improve conditions in Haiti’s Central Plateau

Click here to see Dr. Arthur Fournier’s article on The Huffington Post regarding Dan Harris’ report on the sex trade in Haiti.

Scrubbing into observe a prostate surgery, medical student Anya Li joins the surgeons with sunglasses. On the last day of surgery, the team ran out of the surgical masks with face shields so students wore sunglasses to keep their eyes protected. The surgical team completed 15 surgeries. Photo by Jennifer Browning.

Nicholas George, 46, traveled to Hinche in hopes for a surgery that would remove his elephatiasis. George who has lived with his condition for 17 years was referred by Zanmi Lasante hospital in Cange. Photo by Jennifer Browning.

By Jennifer Browning

As he walked into the hospital there was something unusual people noticed about 46-year-old Nicholas George. Even clothed in long shorts, below the waste undeniably revealed a more than significant mass.

During the first day of clinic, Emory surgeons observed this severe case of elephantiasis, a condition George has carried with him for 17 years.

George said in the beginning he had an itching sensation in the groin area. Eventually his testicles began to grow. The growth continued a little each year until it reached its current weight. Thirty-five pounds.

With the weight, George said was not able to work.

“My 17-year-old son has been helping me, since it is difficult for me to do work,” he said.

According to general surgeon Dr. Jana MacLeod the operation is a difficult one due to the careful pre-operative planning and the time it takes to remove such a mass. George’s operation took most of the day lasting six and a half hours and required two surgeons, two medical students to assist, a scrub nurse, a circulation nurse and an anesthetist.

With the mass being removed, George’s quality of life will improve according to Dr. Viraj Master.

“He will be able to lead a more normal life by being able to work and walk easily and without pain,” Dr. Master said. “Almost as important, the stigma [of the obvious mass] will be removed.”

George said he wasn’t worried about the risk of surgery because he puts his faith in God.

“I feel blessed to be able to have this opportunity,” he said, “to be able to live, work…..to  provide for my family again.”

Working late night in Hinche, Dr. Jana MacLeod along with Dr. Viraj Master work to remove a patient’s prostate, while medical students Josh Ziperstein and Rachel Webman observe. It took a combination of local support from the Hinche hospital staff, monetary and equipment donations to make the surgical trip a success. Photo by Jennifer Browning.

By Jennifer Browning

Hinche, HAITI–As we tell the stories about the medical trips and the positive work the medical volunteers perform, sometimes we tend to leave out how the success of these trips are possible. For these medical trips, partnering universities like Emory University raise money and obtain donated equipment through medical companies as well as through fundraising activities and private donors.

The Emory medical students currently participating in this surgical trip raised $20,000 to begin to make this trip possible, while both Dr. Veraj Master and Dr. Jana MacLeod helped secure donated equipment.

Dr. Master contacted Covidien about the company donating an electrosurgical generator [cautery machine] for the surgical trip.

“You don’t need it,” Dr. Master said, “but it does allow you to do surgery safer, quicker, and with less bloodloss.”

Covidien donated $10,000 dollars worth of equipment, which included two cautery machines.

Gore Products, who specializes in mesh products, donated an estimated $15,000 which included equipment used for all types of hernia surgeries as well as suture equipment.

Emergency room Dr. Rick Spurlock said West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange, GA also contributed a great deal to the surgical trip by donating 30 disposable cordless cautery pencils, twelve 24 french bladder irrigation catheters, and 12 bladder irrigations sets.  The urological surgeries would not have been possible without the bladder irrigation catheters and bladder irrigation sets.

But surgical trips can’t be a success on donated funds and equipment alone. Locally, the medical staff in Hinche has also been key to the success of the surgical trip. When irrigation fluid became low, Dr. Prince Son Son Pierre, Hinche’s head surgeon, made arrangements with the hospital in Cange to get more. Dr. Son Son Pierre also brought four nurses from Port-au-Prince to help with post-operative care.

“The actions of the hospital here in Hinche,” Dr. Jana MacLeod said, “showed us that [the staff] were locally invested in us being here.”

Mathe Alie Bayard reaches for the sterile gauze as she assists the team with redressing a patient after surgery. Bayar recently finished nursing school in Port-au-Prince where she will officially graduate on Sunday. Photo by Jennifer Browning.

By Jennifer Browning

Before Mathe Alie Bayard donning her cap and gown at her nurse’s school, the Port-au-Prince nurse is already working for better health care in Haiti.

Bayard who was studied nursing at a private university in Port-au-Prince said she was excited for a different experience than what she might find in the Haiti’s capital.

“I was so excited when they asked me to come from Port-au-Prince to participate with the American doctors,” she said. “Each time I go out of the city, I always find cases that I wouldn’t normally find.”

She said that working with the Emory team gave her a chance to see how the American doctors treat their patients.

“It has been interesting to see how they practice medicine after the operations,” Bayard said. “I am seeing the way they accentuate their care for the patients, but also how they are quick and efficient.

Bayard will official graduate with her nursing class this Sunday, July 6.

Emergency room Dr. Rick Spurlock and Emory medical student Anya Li prepare a patient for surgery. Photo by Jennifer Browning.

By Jennifer Browning

Hinche, HAITI–Although we are in Haiti’s central plateau far from most of the comforts we are familiar with in the U.S. We still have a little internet once in a while to upload and post photos for your viewing.

Check out images taken at the hospital in Hinche on Project Medishare’s photo gallery which is hosted by Flickr. Click here to go straight to the Emory surgical trip or click here to view photo sets from other medical trips.

Valcourt Napoleon, 42, waits patiently the end of his bed in a ward in the Henche Hospital. Emory doctors found Napoleon suffered from an enlarged prostate as well as a hernia. Photo by Jennifer Browning.