By Vivian Stromberg | Executive Director
Over a week after the massive earthquake struck Haiti, the need for life-saving medical services remains overwhelming. Casualty estimates have risen. The death toll may be as high as 200,000 and the number of injured and homeless is in the millions.
MADRE is continuing our emergency efforts to get medicines and medical supplies to Haiti through the Dominican Republic. A shipment of supplies arrived Wednesday, January 20, and more supplies are expected in the coming days. Right now, the biggest concern is for replenishing stocks of antibiotics in order to fight off infection. Operating Rooms Up and Running Our partners on the ground are working day and night to meet the desperate need for medical treatment. They have set up field hospitals both inside and outside of Port-au-Prince and are performing surgeries to treat widespread bone injuries and infections. MADRE is working in support of Zanmi Lasante, a Haitian healthcare organization founded by Partners in Health. At the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, there are now 12 functioning operating rooms, with surgeries being performed day and night in each. Outside of the city, in the Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, there are eight more operating rooms for the busloads of people fleeing the city each day. Though the 6.1 aftershock quake that struck Haiti yesterday morning caused the evacuation of the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, no structural damage resulted, and the hospital was able to quickly restore order and continue operations.
MADRE is also supporting a delegation of midwives and maternal health practitioners. Four members of the first team of midwives and maternal health providers have arrived in the border town of Jimani, and three more are scheduled to arrive this weekend.
We just got off the phone with Leilani Johnson of Circle of Health International (COHI), the organization MADRE is partnering with in this initiative. Leilani told us that the minute the team arrived, they began providing crucial medical services to people seriously injured and displaced from Port-au-Prince.
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