by Melissa Jeltsen on May 13, 2010
Jill Merna, Nancy Joseph, Carla Odiago worked nights taking care of over 80 adult patients.
From April 10 to 18, Children’s Hospital Boston sent a group of 26 clinicians to a field hospital in Haiti. Here, those who staffed the adult ward reflect on their experience.
Nancy Joseph, RN, BSN, MSN, FNP-C; staff nurse in CHPCC
This was my internal cry after arriving our first day. I thought I was going to lose my composure when those two women came in on the back of a truck requiring emergency C-sections.
Ayiti Cherie….
Bel mon, Bel moun, Bel lang
! a je! Full story »
by Melissa Jeltsen on May 12, 2010
The ER team: from left, Sarah Wingerter, MD, Stephen Monteiro, MS EMT-P, Sarita Chung, MD, Alexis Schmid, RN, Michelle Marini, RN.
From April 10 to 18, Children’s Hospital Boston sent a group of 26 clinicians to a field hospital in Haiti. Here, those who staffed the Emergency Department reflect on their experience.
Sarah Wingerter, MD, Division of Emergency Medicine
In retrospect it seems hard to believe we only spent 8 days in Haiti. Each day was so intense and so replete with new experiences and powerful emotions. I remain awestruck and humbled by the fortitude of the Haitians I met, both patients and Medishare staff members. To know that they continue to work on putting their lives back together despite the unimaginable challenges they face has given me a new perspective on what used to seem like inconveniences in my own comfortable life. I learned a great deal about patience, humility, and selflessness from patients and parents who waited hours in the sweltering heat—many after walking miles to reach the medical facility—for the opportunity to receive care for medical problems they had endured for months or even years. Full story »
by Melissa Jeltsen on March 18, 2010
A group of clinicians worked together to stabilize the "patient."
Clinicians working in high-resource settings, like Children’s Hospital Boston, rely on the availability of certain equipment to do their jobs, like ventilators, specially sized needles and tubes and a fully stocked pharmacy. But when they’re forced to perform without their gear—like in Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the January earthquake—many find it bewildering and even paralyzing. “We fall into these patterns of providing care,” says David Mooney, MD, MPH, director of the Trauma Program, who was one of the first medical responders to respond after the disaster. “One of the things I noticed in Haiti was that many doctors really fixated on what they didn’t have.”
That mental block can waste time and be counterproductive, so Children’s is developing a training program to prepare the doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists and other volunteers who are going to Haiti to continue relief efforts in the coming months for the conditions they’re likely to find. Mooney, along with Shannon Manzi, PharmD, and Debra Weiner, MD, PhD, worked with Children’s Simulator Program to create the special training, in which clinicians reenact challenging situations on robotic mannequins. Peter Weinstock, MD, PhD, director of the Simulator program, hopes that by practicing in an environment with limited supplies, clinicians will be encouraged to think outside of the box to find the resources they need, and will be better prepared for a disaster zone.
(Listen to a WBUR story about Children’s new simulation program and read The Boston Globe’s White Coat Notes report of it.) Full story »
by Matt Cyr on January 29, 2010
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is still in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Today he gives one more update before he and the others members of the team head back to the United States:
Today (Thursday) was our last day in the OR. The Haitian surgical team will be taking over their OR tomorrow with the few left over volunteers. Tomorrow, the Haitians will be administering their own anesthesia and providing nursing care. This is great that they are ready to become independent again. We all hope they will be able to do so.
We started our day just like we ended our first night, resuscitating a newborn baby. Dr. McClain, Dr. Waisel and the OR team were able to resuscitate the infant and transfer him to the DMAT. In the OR, our team managed two rooms and the Haitians took over the other two. Dr. Meara and Dr. Rogers finished their last surgeries today. I was able to finish my cases today with spinal anesthesia and sedation. Overall, we estimated about 70 surgeries total, not including the sedation in the PACU and in the tents. Full story »
by Matt Cyr on January 27, 2010
Children's trauma surgeon David Mooney, MD, is featured in today's Boston Globe article on infections in Haiti. Photo courtesy Boston Globe.
Editor’s note: All three members of the other Children’s team on the ground in Haiti, Pediatrician-in-Chief, Gary Fleisher, trauma surgeon David Mooney (left) and pharmacist Shannon Manzi, are featured in a Boston Globe article today about how infections are becoming the big problem for the people of Haiti.
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Here’s his most recent email:
Today was another hectic day in our makeshift OR. And to make it worse, we did not have any electricity the entire morning. But we continued on safely using our portable monitors, homemade suction and no bovies. You would be amazed how much work we got done without light or electricity. Things are starting to get better each day. As old teams leave and new ones arrive, we continue to get our work done. We all feel like we hit the wall today. The fatigue is starting to get to us even though we are hydrating and trying to eat as much as we can. Full story »
by Melissa Jeltsen on January 26, 2010
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Here’s his most recent email:
As we almost reach our first week here in Haiti, I wanted to share that Port au Prince is slowly making some improvement. Each day seems like the people here are trying their best to move on and go on with living. Despite the devastation and tragedy, we have seen the Haitian people looking for work, selling food on the street, cleaning what’s left of their homes, dressing up for Sunday’s best, attending services and children smiling and playing.
This patient was so thankful her legs were not amputated that she prayed for Nelson Aquino.
The city is full of dust, has poor air quality, remains in shambles and is piled with trash. The people are eating, sleeping and living in these conditions. Crowds gather daily to look for work, see the envoy of volunteers and fill roads with traffic. It amazes me that it took a major disaster for us to finally get over here and help this very poor country. I hope we continue to realize that we need to support Haiti and countries like Haiti. I am amazed how the less fortunate are so happy despite having nothing.
One of the patients I anesthetized today woke up screaming in joy that we did not amputate her legs. She proceeded to place her hand on my head and said a prayer for me. The interpreter said it was some really heavy stuff she was saying. For me, I feel so blessed to be able give all I can as RN, CRNA and human being. Full story »
by Matt Cyr on January 24, 2010
Today we all made huge progress with our new OR. Our Children’s team
One of the operating rooms the Children's team is using
now has teamed up with the Brigham and Women’s and NYU teams to do surgery. Early this morning, our first group headed out to set up the OR and seek out our potential patients.
At the general hospital, we opened a preop area, 4 OR tables and a PACU. Our team leaders worked hard today with the IMC (International Medical Corporation) to make this happen.
While searching for extra beds, and the right Red Cross tent, Jay Hartford, a 7 South nurse, and I stumbled upon some chaos. A 2 day old baby had been seizing on and off since birth. A team of paramedics were screaming for intubation, but only had large endotrachial tubes (ETT). So being a pediatric CRNA, I naturally swarmed over and told the team that. Immediately they moved everyone aside and said, “Let him intubate.” As the paramedic removed the ambu bag off the neonate, I used a large blade and intubated this 3 kg baby. As they listened for breath sounds and confirmed placement, everyone was clapping. The U.S. military arrived and helped us transport this neonate in a hummer. With no monitors, no meds and an unstable IV, the military guys shut the doors and it was pitch black and 100 degrees. Full story »
by Melissa Jeltsen on January 22, 2010
Tents erected for post-operation care
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, arrived in Haiti yesterday with a group of Children’s clinicians. We just received this email update and photo from his first day and night on the ground:
This evening, we headed back to the university hospital. We had three operating rooms going. Earlier today, two other groups joined our team to make the hospital run night cases for the first time since the quake. We had surgeons, doctors and nurses from MI and CA helping us. Most of the morning was spent organizing the night ORs . We had several aftershocks too and people were scrambling.
Driving through the city is surreal. Camps of people, lines of people, military everywhere, homeless people. I saw the palace ruined. It was eerie at night too with no electricity and seeing buildings ruined and the smell of corpses. Full story »
