For students looking forward to spring break, taking a private jet to a tropical island in the Caribbean might sound like a dream come true. But for Jim Geiling, chief of medical services and director of the intensive care unit at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., the trip was anything but a vacation.
On Jan. 19, Geiling led the second Dartmouth medical team to respond to the Jan. 12 Haitian earthquake, the region's worst earthquake in more than 200 years. The earthquake killed over 200,000 Haitians, according to The New York Times.
"It was an incredibly rewarding and intense opportunity for us all," he said. "While I think we reached out and touched lives and saved lives in the acute setting, I think that from a big picture perspective, we just touched the surface. The need is so overwhelming and it will be of such long duration."
This is not Geiling's first experience with disaster relief. Geiling, who teaches advanced life-support courses at Dartmouth Medical School, coordinated the entire emergency medical response to the Pentagon attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He previously served almost 25 years in the medical corps of the U.S. Army. Geiling's leadership experience ranges from overseeing the health care of 13,000 military personal during the Bosnian War in 1995 to advising the Dartmouth Ski Patrol.
Geiling's team left for Haiti on a private plane loaned to Dartmouth by an alumnus. The team's ability to land in Haiti was limited by the country's lack of airstrips there is only one on the Haitian side of the island so the team flew to the Dominican Republic and drove to Haiti the next day, Geiling said in a talk at Beta Alpha Omega fraternity on Feb. 9.
"So this was a nice way to start off, we went in to the Dominican Republic, you know, had a few beers to get ready to go down [to Haiti]. And we thought well, this is okay, this disaster isn't so bad," Geiling quipped.
Once the team Geiling and eight DHMC nurses started to make its way from the Dominican Republic to the work location in Port-au-Prince, the destruction and despair became increasingly evident, Geiling said.
"As you started to get into [Port-au-Prince], the destruction was really becoming overwhelming," Geiling said.
Unlike the first Dartmouth medical response team, which worked with Partners in Health in Hinche, Haiti, Geiling's team worked with 23 non-governmental organizations from around the world, he said.
Patients in the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince had little privacy and were often cared for and bathed by family members due to the lack of staff, Geiling said, and upon the team's arrival, many Haitians who sustained injuries during the earthquake were still waiting for treatment. Amputations and tetanus were common, according to Geiling.
The eight nurses Geiling worked with played a major role in successfully treating the massive influx of patients, he said.
"These were real heroes, these nurses," Geiling said. "There are some real miracles that took place in the middle of the stench and limited resources."
Although Geiling performed some hands-on medical care, his role was largely administrative, he said.
The team's routine was interrupted when an overnight tremor shook the area a few days after the initial quake. Because the Dartmouth team was the only medical team with an oxygen tank, they effectively became the ICU, Geiling said.
Throughout the team's stay, medical tools were in short supply. In one case, a blood pressure cuff was stolen from the Dartmouth team, so medical exams had to be conducted without equipment, Geiling said.
Nevertheless, the Dartmouth ICU established a reputation among the area's medical community, and surgeons from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and Children's Hospital Boston sent all of their patients to the Dartmouth tent for post-operational care, Geiling said.
"Believe it or not, the quality of care was exceptional," Geiling said.
The earthquake in Haiti was an example of what Geiling called a "predictable surprise," citing Dartmouth's existing relationship with Haiti as a reason for the Dartmouth community's readiness to respond to the disaster.
"We went from a relationship that [College President Jim Yong Kim] has with Partners in Health to boots on the ground after a major event in five days," Geiling said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Not a lot of places can do that, especially not a lot of academic places."
John Butterly, executive medical director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, oversaw the selection of the Dartmouth medical response teams. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Butterly said he chose Geiling based on his extensive experience in disaster medical care and because he is "an outstanding physician."
"Geiling was fully trained in his time in the army in setting up field hospitals in combat and disaster areas so he is absolutely an expert," Butterly said.
Butterly said that Geiling's previous experiences in "dangerous situations" gave Butterly confidence that the team's eight nurses would be well-protected and safe.
Geiling, who is now back in the Upper Valley, said that returning to the "resource-rich, overwhelming American environment" from the devastating earthquake wreckage has required a readjustment period.
"It takes a little while to get your head back to here, where we are," he said.
But Geiling said he has also been "humbled" by the Upper Valley community's reaction.
"I think the community has been overwhelmingly interested and receptive, and they want to know what it's like, and they also want to know how they can still help and that's been really refreshing," he said.
While leading Haiti relief efforts, Geiling could draw on his experience heading the 200-person clinic at the Pentagon following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Geiling led the medical emergency response when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the west side of the building,
When the plane hit, Geiling was working at the critical care ward of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., but he quickly relocated to the Pentagon to lead the on-site medical response, he said.
"I really didn't do direct patient care during that event it was all leadership and moving pieces around the chess board," he said.
Geiling said working on the disaster relief efforts was sometimes nerve-wracking because of the possibility of another attack, but he said the importance of the situation superseded any doubts he might have had.
"From my perspective, you do a risk analysis and you sort of figure out, yeah, I suppose compared to driving to work every morning it's riskier," Geiling said. "But I don't think these are foolhardy or foolish endeavors."
Geiling's involvement with the military began after he graduated from Bucknell University in 1978 and was accepted into the third class of medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Geiling's one operational tour of duty was from 1995 to 1997 as the lead medical advisor for the First Infantry Division in Eastern Europe, which included time in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the conflict there, he said.
Geiling developed an interest in ski patrolling when he spent nine years in Augsberg and Landstuhl, Germany and served as a ski patroller while working at the military ICU in Landstuhl.
In 2003, Geiling retired from the military as a colonel after 24 years and eight months of service, he said. Geiling said he chose to leave the armed services and move to Hanover so his family would not have to change residences so frequently.
The skiing near Dartmouth was also an incentive to move to the region, because it reminded him of his time in Germany, Geiling said.
Geiling has taught advanced cardiac life support and advanced trauma life support continuously since 1984, he said.
Geiling's involvement as the Dartmouth Ski Patrol's medical advisor is a testament to his community involvement, according to Dimitri Gerakaris '69, who has worked with Geiling on the Ski Patrol.
"He wants to be a part of every community he's working in," Gerakaris said.
