Two medical teams, formed as part of an alliance between Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Partners In Health, are now treating survivors in hospitals in the disaster-stricken country. Students have also stepped up their efforts by planning events to support such medical efforts financially and to educate the Dartmouth community about Haiti.
A medical team composed of one physician and eight nurses from DHMC left for Haiti on Jan. 19 as part of Dartmouth's emergency effort. Jim Geiling, director of the intensive care unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and professor at Dartmouth Medical School, is leading the team and said he has been impressed by the group's efforts so far.
"People really have a sense of purpose," Geiling said in a conference call from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. "The whole community can be incredibly proud. Everybody is jumping in."
Rajan Gupta, the trauma program director at DHMC, led the first Dartmouth medical team to depart for Haiti, which left on Jan. 16. Gupta is now based at a hospital in Hinche, Haiti, roughly 40 miles outside Port-Au-Prince. Gupta described his patients in Haiti as "stoic" and said that they rarely complain of pain.
"You get the sense that they understand that resources are limited," Gupta said. "We are doing our best to relieve their suffering."
The patients that are suffering the most are orphans, Gupta said.
"Most patients get their bedside care from their families," he said. "The nurses are stretched so thin ... these poor orphans have no one at their bedside."
Patients are still coming into the hospital with fractures and open wounds that have not been treated since the earthquake, according to Geiling. Gupta said that patients are also starting to experience renal failure as a result of original crush injuries.
Out of several hundred patients in two hospitals, Gupta said he had seen 10 to 15 cases of kidney failure in the last few days. Many of the patients suffering from kidney failure require dialysis, and Gupta's team hopes to establish a dialysis center in the region, he said.
Gupta said he was most surprised by the lack of infrastructure in Haiti and how rudimentary the care was even before the earthquake.
"We had an hour and a half-long teaching session with all the nurses and the surgeons and the providers [native to Haiti]," Gupta said. "What we are really trying to do is improve their knowledge base and provide a sustainable model these local providers can continue to maintain after we leave here."
Despite focusing on injuries caused by the earthquake, Geiling said the medical team witnessed a "serendipitous" event last week helping deliver a baby in the hospital. As of Sunday, Dartmouth had raised over $126,000 online for the Haiti relief efforts led by PIH, a nonprofit global-health organization co-founded by College President Jim Yong Kim.
Dartmouth has donated the largest amount of relief to PIH among all universities nationwide, according to Alexandra Schindler '10, one of the student leaders of Students at Dartmouth for Haiti Relief. An additional $13,400 has been raised separately from the online sum that will also be donated to PIH.
"We appreciate all of the support that everyone's doing for us back there," Geiling said of the student effort.
SDHR, a group led by Student Body President Frances Vernon '10, Maura Cass '10 and Schindler, has planned a series of fundraisers, awareness fairs and Upper Valley outreach events.
Haiti Up-Lifted, a fundraising dinner and community awareness event that took place Saturday night, raised $3,700, surpassing the initial goal of $2,000, co-organizer Eric Sanabria '10 said.
Over 200 students attended the event, which featured music, presentations by students and faculty, and a silent auction of Haitian art, according to Sanabria.
Haiti Up-Lifted was "extremely successful" because it united different groups on campus around a single cause, Sanabria said.
The event showcased Dartmouth students' personal investment in Haiti, co-organizer Deja Kemp '10 said.
Gaelle Tribie '10, one of the speakers at the event, talked about her December visit to Haiti, the country where her parents were born.
The DMS Committee for Haiti Relief is also engaged in fundraising, Stephanie Rolin DMS '13 said. The group is partnering with Change the World Kids and Three Tomatoes Trattoria, a local chain with a restaurant in Lebanon, to raise money to be distributed to PIH and Pure Water for the World.
"We are really focusing on acute immediate relief, which is money PIH needs, but in the long term we would like to focus on rebuilding," Rolin said.
