As I mentioned before, the mission of IMA in the DR and Haiti is two-fold this year. Yearly, they run missions to the Haitian population on the border of Haiti and the DR providing primary care, GYN care and some small specialty care. This year the earthquake resulted in a morphing of the mission to include the emergency care of earthquake victims.

It is my understanding that the facility we used for our "hospital" was designed and built to be used as an outpatient facility. This building was converted "on the fly" to a hospital. The other new building on the grounds destined to be an orphanage was used for patient rooms early on in the relief effort.

Main Building "Hospital"
The tent in front is food storage

The main building acted as center for operating rooms, central pharmacy, intensive care unit and storage.

A well stocked pharmacy

A typical operating room. We had 4 of these, two for orthopedic surgery and two for plastic/general surgery.

Equipment was utilized however we could. This walker was converted to an OR table long before I got there.

OR tables made from wood. Some of the operating room beds were made from wood so that X-rays could penetrate for the orthopedic procedures

We were blessed with X-ray, courtesy of RAM (Remote Area Medical) an organization that specializes in setting up medical outposts in remote areas and at short notice. This X ray machine was digital and fairly portable. We also had fluoroscopy in one of the operating rooms. The only limitation were the frequent power outages.



Supplies were plentiful in many respects while deficient in others. The shear volume of incoming supplies resulted in disorganization and few people available to organize them. Most volunteers were involved in caring for the victims and had no time, nor the experience, to sift through boxes of donations. Only after I arrived did the pace slow down enough that we could devote some time and effort to organizing the equipment/supplies. In addition they broke ground for a warehouse to put some of these supplies before the rainy season begins, which is right about now. It was clear to me that support for such an effort like this is probably better in the form of cash so they can purchase what they need, when they need it.

Supplies would arrive by the truckload on occasion, many other supplies were brought by volunteers as they arrived. I brought dressing supplies, equipment for skin grafting, and surgical instruments.

Sorting supplies as they arrive.

Supplies piled high on the front porch.

One of our supply rooms

Anesthesia supply room

Two volunteer taking a short break from stocking duty.

Due to the sheer volume of supplies and equipment and the limited indoor space to house them the group arranged to have a warehouse built. They are trying to build this rather soon as the rainy season is coming and anything without shelter is likely to get ruined.

The beginnings of the warehouse and therapy tent.

Ideally, supplies at this IMA facility would be distributed to the smaller and less well equipped facilities within Haiti itself. Unfortunately, the politics in that regiion often limited the cooperation between the two nations. More about that later.

Next I will discuss the inpatient facilities and some of the types of injuries we treated.

BRK