Dr. John Grant performs surgery in Fond des Blancs.
Digital x-ray capabilities at St. Boniface Hospital have already proven to be a crucial tool here on the ground here in Fond des Blancs. On Thursday, our clinical team noticed an infection with one of our paraplegic patients injured in the earthquake. Luckily, Doug and John, our fearless technicians, were able to take an x-ray and present it to our medical staff. Dr. Blaise, our internist, was able to see that the hardware installed on the USNS Comfort had come undone and was creating a dangerous infection.
When we e-mailed the Comfort staff, they apologized, as their team was pulling out and not able to do follow-up surgery on their patient. On Friday, we went to the Univ. of Miami/Medishare medical facility near the Port-Au-Prince airport and went looking for a neurosurgeon. Armed with a Blackberry containing the digital image, we were able to e-mail the x-ray to Dr. John Grant, the chief of neurosurgery at the Univ. of Kansas. Dr. Grant immediately agreed to come out with us on the bumpy 3 ½ hour ride to Fond des Blancs the next morning and operate.
Dr. Grant operated successfully on Saturday morning with our Haitian staff and was able to clean up the infection that threatened to worsen without the proper intervention. A big thank you to Dr. Grant for having the courage to follow us into the unknown and a big thank you to the donors that have brought this important technology to Fond des Blancs.
By Marie Nancy Seraphin, MPH - Monitoring & Evaluation Officer
Throughout a two week evaluation, we were able to access the program's efficacy in the field. We also got a unique perspective on St. Boniface's other programs and services in the 16 communities we visited.
We are distributing food in 42 different communities in Fond des Blancs and Villa, and have reached 7000 young children and 4000 pregnant and lactating women - 11,000 people.
This week, people have transferred from their beds to their chairs, learned liberating self-care techniques creating a renewed sense of independence, and some have even taken their first few steps.
