We have just arrived on the internal medicine ward at St Therese Hospital in Hinche, a regional district hospital in Haiti’s Central Plateau. Despite its position as a district level hospital, the ward has few resources for diagnosis or treatment, and the resources it does have may be available only intermittently. And yet into this environment come patients with severe illness, often at late stages of presentation. (more…)
There is always humming from somewhere. It is usually low and musical as patients try to distract themselves from phantom limb pain that is not at all phantom.
It is 13 days after the earthquake. I am coordinating a 12-member team at St. Marc’s hospital, a government facility on the west coast of Haiti. For the 2 years prior to the quake, Partners in Health has supported the site with materials and salary. An orthopedic surgeon, a plastic surgeon, an anesthesiologist, an emergency room physician and five nurses are with me from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. (more…)