Medics 'overwhelmed,' but water flowing.
Within 24 hours of arriving in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the GlobalMedic relief team installed water purifiers at two settlements providing more than 50,000 litres a day.
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Amid earthquake-devastated ruin, more than 20,000 displaced Haitians camped outside Universite Adventiste d’Haiti had reason to celebrate last weekend.
Clean water.
It was pumping from the school’s Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Within 24 hours of arriving in Port-au-Prince, the six-member GlobalMedic relief team had installed six water purifiers at two settlements providing more than 50,000 litres a day.
“The lineup is literally as long as the eye can see,” Matt Capobianco, GlobalMedic’s manager of emergency services said from the registered charity’s Etobicoke office.
“Everybody has been safe. There has been no rioting in our lineups.”
Security is a growing concern in the nation’s capital with increasing reports of violence fueled by Haitians’ hunger and desperation.
GlobalMedic also set up distribution networks to provide water purification tablets to people in remote areas.
Haitians in designated locations outside Port-au-Prince are receiving clean water via 10 GlobalMedic briefcase-sized water purification units transported by motorcycles.
Earlier this week, the GlobalMedic team received a truckload of additional water purification units and tablets sent on a second flight from Toronto.
Nearby the university, thousands of patients are living in a tent city outside the Hopitale Adventiste d’Haiti.
The 71-bed hospital is seeing more than 500 patients show up daily, GlobalMedic reported.
“There are not enough medics or doctors to keep up and medical supplies are running out,” GlobalMedic stated on its website.
Capobianco said the team is “overwhelmed” at the hospital.
Donations to www.globalmedic.ca will go directly to the purchase of desperately needed medical supplies for Port-au-Prince, he said.
Last week, the Canadian government announced it will match individual charitable donations up to $50 million to help Haitians recover from the worst earthquake in 200 years.
This week, the Kingsway Kiwanis Club donated $3,000 to GlobalMedic to assist their Haiti relief efforts. The money will buy one briefcase-sized water purification unit.
A grateful Capobianco said he hopes more organizations donate to GlobalMedic.
As many as three million Haitians are affected, the UN reported.
The International Red Cross estimated as many as 50,000 people were killed in the magnitude-7 earthquake on Jan. 12.
Dr. Mike Howatt, a surgeon with the GlobalMedic team, has been working at the hospital since Friday aided by two of the team’s four medics. Howatt has helped with more than 10 major-limb amputations, all without anaesthetic.
“There is no anaesthetic,” Capobianco said. “Sometimes, the surgery is done by flashlight. It’s pretty raw.”
While many Haitians suffered critical injuries, amputations are at the forefront of patient triage.
Spread of disease is a growing concern, but Capobianco said currently the focus remains on getting survivors desperately needed medical care.
“Amputations are coming to the forefront (of care),” Capobianco said. “People with broken legs or arms or who have cuts, once that gets infected and goes gangrenous, if you don’t cut it off, they’ll die.”
Over the weekend, the team helped organize the hospital with a triage centre to prioritize patients.
On Wednesday, GlobalMedic’s two 22-foot by 42-foot inflatable field hospitals were expected to arrive in Port-au-Prince where the team will erect them to bolster the city’s earthquake-devastated hospital infrastructure.
The field hospitals treat an average 1,000 patients a day suffering minor trauma injuries, broken limbs and cuts. Capobianco said the team expects to push that resource to treat as many as 2,000 Haitians a day.
GlobalMedic’s highest patient count on record for one of its field hospitals is 2,942 patients treated in one day in the aftermath of a cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 2007.
All flights, for the GlobalMedic team and the cargo, were paid by Skyservice and Sunquest and Signature vacations.
“Literally, they’re trying to save as many lives as they can and treat as many as they can,” Capobianco said of his teammates on the ground in Port-au-Prince who are getting as little as three hours sleep a night.