Patients continue to pour into MSF's clinics and hospitals in Port-au-Prince - we have treated over 2000 patients so far. Medical teams have been working round the clock and are exhausted, but slowly new supplies and staff are arriving to ease the enormous caseload of people in urgent need of medical care. Surgical needs are particularly acute. Logistical, communications and transport problems remain.
Medical Update:
All of the MSF's existing three medical facilities in the capital have been partially damaged: a health centre in Martissant slum, the Trinity trauma centre (60 beds), the Solidarité maternity hospital (a 75 bed emergency obstetric facility). Most patients have been treated in tented clinics that we have had to put up near to our existing medical facilities that were themselves damaged.
Medical care under tents continues in front of what was La Trinité trauma hospital and rehabilitation center Pacot. 15th Jan 2009 Photo by Julie Remy/MSF
In Pacot hospital the teams are overwhelmed by patients at the gate. 150 patients are hospitalised in tents – there are not enough beds and the patients are being treated on the ground. Our medical teams are dealing only with trauma cases – mostly head injuries and multiple fractures. 125 patients were treated on Friday alone. The surgical teams have started doing amputations and there are currently seven paralysed patients in the health centre. A new surgical team have arrived to take over from the existing team, who are exhausted.
Trinite hospital collapsed in the earthquake and we still do not know how many patients are stuck under the rubble. On the night after the earthquake the team managed to remove six people from under the rubble but one of our Haitian surgeons died shortly after being freed. There are 40 people hospitalized and our teams are treating patients on the street. Surgery, including amputations, is being performed in a makeshift theatre using the equipment we have managed to salvage from the hospital.
The team was able to gather supplies and have set up a tented clinic using the grounds of the pharmacy. 15th Jan 2009 Photo by Julie Remy/MSF
Over 300 patients have been transferred from Martissant health centre to Choscal hospital where surgery is starting.
Materials and equipment have been salvaged from the damaged Solidarité maternity hospital and patients are being treated in the grounds of the building. Two large obstetric referral hospitals that MSF used to refer to have collapsed.
Over the next few days our operational priorities will be stabilizing the wounded, and referring complicated cases to specialised care. We will restart obstetric care and ensure that our existing HIV patients continue to receive their medication. We will start reinforcing the teams which have been working around the clock for 72 hours and begin assessing mental healthcare needs.
General Situation:
People have started fleeing the city. Public parks and open space are crowded with those who have stayed, but have either lost their houses or are afraid to go back to buildings. Thousands have gathered in one of the main squares, the Champs de Mars, in front of the collapsed presidential palace. At night, people are mostly sleeping in the streets, fearing aftershocks. Shortage of food is a problem and people are queuing to get fuel at petrol stations. The town is totally dark at night.
Haitians left homeless in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake rest at a park in Port-au-Prince. January 2010. Photo by REUTERS/Joel Trimble
Traffic has improved in the city, although cars and trucks still have difficulty getting around rubble in the streets. The city centre is totally devastated. The needs are huge on the ground, but at the present time, there is not much evidence of the Haitian authorities or other NGOs/international organisations being really active yet. The Haitian government has taken responsibility for the collection of dead bodies and ‘sanitation’ operations started yesterday, meaning there are fewer bodies in the streets. Telecommunications remains been a serious problem: both cell & satellite phones.
Movement of teams and supplies:
Several tons of equipment have arrived in Haiti and more cargo planes will arrive over the weekend. Cargo includes watsan material, surgical equipment, plastic sheeting, ringer lactate, tents, vehicles, a generator, logistics kits and the inflatable hospital. We have also been able to land some of our cargo at the Port-au-Prince airport. Some other cargo could only land in Santo Domingo, and had to be trucked overland. To assist, we have set up a supply and transit base in Dominican Republic.
It is very difficult to move around the city because of the damaged infrastructure, but we have been able to move teams toward the most affected areas. MSF teams are getting reports of very serious damage and casualties from the smaller towns near the capital. We will be trying to get out into those areas to establish what MSF might contribute. Mobile clinics are being planned.
Support our work
Thank you for considering supporting our emergency medical work - donations from the public make it possible for MSF to react immediately to disasters.
It is possible to give specifically to MSF’s work in Haiti. We are now asking donors to consider contributing instead to our general fund. Such contributions – be they regular or occasional - allow MSF to react immediately to life-threatening disasters, including the most recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. It is the commitment of our supporters that paid for the three hospitals we were running in Port-au-Prince prior to the eathquake, and their money that enabled us to have vital medical supplies, including our inflatable hospital, already when they were needed.
In short they allow us the flexibility to respond immediately to health needs as they arise and to make sure we are able to get to the people who need us most, when they need us most, wherever in the world they may be. By making a regular donation to MSF, you can make this possible, now and in the future. That commitment is as important to our work as the help given by our volunteer doctors, nurses and logisticians.
If you would like to make a regular monthly donation to MSF, please click here. If you would like to give a one-off donation to MSF click here. Donations specifically for our work in Haiti can be made here.