GOOD NEWS!! The surgery team, headed up by Dr. Anthony Brown and Dr. Anders Ulland of MN arrived at HBS late Wednesday bringing supplies, medicines and hope to the victims of the Earthquake. Working with the HBS medical staff, the team members immediately set up for surgery and performed an emergency C-Section that night. Since then the team at HBS has been able to accomplish wound debridement, a below knee amputation, open reduction and internal fixations of fractures, non operative treatment of fractures (cast/splint) some with use of anesthesia and emergency C-sections. Surgery is ongoing as more patients receive word that we have trauma/orthopedic/general surgeons working and are showing up to receive help.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers, donations and support to make this possible. We are continuing to receive surgery and medical supplies here in Florida to airlift to Haiti. Our goal is to keep HBS surgery operational for as long as needed with the best care possible. Your continued donations will make this happen as we have to rotate medical personnel and airlift more medicines and supplies.

We want to share some of the stories that the patients recounted to us:

Odette Capin is the cousin of one of our long term employees. She recounts her tragic story with amazing courage and a quiet dignity. She was in her kitchen in Port au Prince preparing dinner for the family when the earthquake struck. Most everyone made it outside but as she was running her foot fell into a crack that had opened, twisting and breaking her ankle. Behind her she heard her 12 year old daughter screaming as the house collapsed killing her. Her other three children made it out relatively unhurt. They spent days in Port au Prince with no food or water going from one hospital to another but no one could help. Finally family members in Limbe found a private vehicle to rescue them and drive the arduous 7 hour journey to HBS Limbe. She sums it up: “We lost everything in Port au Prince, but only God knows what the future holds.”

Mme Dupera is so weak that she can only talk in a whisper. She was on the ground floor of a three story building in Port au Prince when the earthquake caused the whole building to collapse with her and her son Makendley trapped inside. Walls had fallen pinning them down inside. She kept screaming to rescuers who were able to dig in and free them. Her husband and other children somehow managed to escape also. Her surgery at HBS went well and the recovery diagnosis for her son is good. When asked if she would ever return to Port au Prince she summoned up strength for a strong and emphatic “NO”.

Villius Musset is a government employee who sitting in his office on the third floor in Port au Prince at the time of the earthquake. As walls were crumbling around him, with the help of two rescuers, he managed to escape with only a broken arm. Though his house survived, he learned that his cousin with whom he was quite close had perished. He made his own way to HBS as he could not find help elsewhere.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO HELP support our efforts at HBS Limbe. Every donation, however small helps. We need operating capital in Haiti. We need supplies on the ground. So far we have been operating with cash only as the banks are barely functional. We need funds to help defray fuel costs to airlift supplies to Haiti. We hope to be able to send in larger aircraft with badly needed medical and surgery supplies at the end of the week from Ft. Lauderdale. Once treated, victims need to be reintegrated into these communities outside Port au Prince.

THANK YOU.

Another Earthquake aftershock rocked HBS and Haiti this morning about 6:00 AM registering about 6.1 on the Richter scale. Shawn Hodges reports that the buildings really shook though there was no apparent damage. The epicenter was about 35 miles WSW of Port au Prince and about 70 miles north of Limbe. We are being warned that this is long from being over. This is another reminder to people in Haiti that Port au Prince is not safe and that they need to get out of the capital and return to the rural areas. Already we are seeing a mass exodus from Port au Prince and expect this event to accelerate the movement. The road is full of trucks, buses and private cars bringing people out

Thanks to Dr. Jeff Twidwell and many friends of HBS who have made this possible, our advance team of Surgeons and Anesthetists will make their way into Limbe this afternoon from Minnesota. We thank Jeffrey and Lucy Lee of Providentiales, Turks and Caicos, who generously made their plane available for the HBS relief effort which we are staging from there. We were able to secure permission from Civil Aviation to make these Private Humanitarian Flights to Cap Haitian. We made our first successful flight Monday with personnel and supplies to repair the large sterilizer. Thanks also to the Hospital in Providentiales who is helping out with badly needed vaccines and meds.

We badly need medical and surgical supplies for surgery and also meds like antibiotics for the clinic. Also we are making out lists of medical volunteers, their specialties and availability. If you are a doctor, surgeon (general/trauma/ortho), nurse (RN/CRNA) or anesthesiologist and are willing to go volunteer your services at HBS for at least two weeks, please notify us via email at hbsfl@bellsouth.net sending your CV and dates of availability. We are especially looking for RN’s who can commit to at least a month. Please donate towards this massive effort to help out Haiti. Very few supplies are available in Haiti as Port au Prince was the center of all commerce. All materials and supplies have to be air lifted in which costs money as fuel is expensive. Prices in Haiti are on also on the rise and there is no credit. We have to have cash to purchase there.

HBS has been providing medical care in Limbe, working with the Haitians for over 50 years. Our hearts and prayers go out to all Haitians, especially those who lost love ones, sustained injuries and lost all.

HBS Limbe