Landina, a 3-month-old baby girl from Haiti, has arrived in London today for urgent medical treatment at Great Ormond Street Childrens’ Hospital. A patient in MSF’s Trinité hospital in Haiti before the earthquake, she sustained further injuries when the hospital building collapsed during the quake.
Despite receiving the best care MSF has been able to offer in Haiti, doctors and other medical staff on the ground assessed that her wounds required specialised treatment. After all possibilities of transferring her to a local hospital for this treatment had been exhausted, a British charity called Facing the World, offered to organise Landina's treatment in the UK.
Landina is just one of several hundred patients receiving care from MSF in 20 locations in Haiti. One month after the devastating quake, MSF has concerns around the impending rainy season and inadequate provision of shelter. Our focus in the coming weeks will be to extend primary health care facilities - many of our patients at present are suffering from health complaints unrelated to the quake such as respiratory problems and diarrhoea which are being exacerbated by poor living conditions.