Message from "Gris"; Dr David Griswell of Washington DC: I didn’t want to come to Haiti for this disaster. It was very inconvenient because I was scheduled for many night shifts in my Emergency department at The Virginia Hospital Center -Arlington. I am an emergency physician who has been to Hurricanes Georges and Mitch and numerous medical trips to The Dominican Republic and Honduras. However I was touched by the images coming out of Haiti and decided I would try to go. My colleagues from Emergency Medicine Associates pooled together and covered all my 10 shifts and I came down hoping to dovetail with de Dominican Red cross or some other group and cross over into Haiti. I met the leader of a group called Team Rubicon and joined them. As I’ve already stated, I have responded to other disasters. For both Mitch and Georges, I was in country the day after their respective airports opened back up and in both those disaster the suffering was great. They seem to me now so minor in comparison with this human tragedy. Never have I seen such widespread suffering. On our first day out, we went to a Jesuit refugee center and saw heartbreaking cases of young people who will lose hands and legs from crush injuries and unattended week old wounds. What makes them especially painful to stomach is that almost all of them were complications from unavailability of treatment in a timely manner. So when a 30 year old right handed man loses his right hand, or the 8 year boy I saw today loses his leg, it is almost unbearably emotional for me. Today, I took over the Emergency Department at the largest hospital in Haiti for a few hours because there were no emergency physicians staffing it.. There were other physicians of other specialties doing a valiant effort of trying to do it without supplies, electricity or any ancillary services. I constantly felt like crying and when I left for the day I actually did cry. Every case was worse than the previous one. It is so frustrating to have to treat so many with so little while knowing that at the airport there are a ton of supplies that aren’t being released. This is a great team and I feel that there was Divine intervention in bringing us all together. I think all of us will leave Haiti better people than when we arrived. I also more than ever feel that individuals do make a difference. What we do for our fellow brothers and sisters does matter. We are all our brother’s keeper. David L. Griswell, MD Virginia Medical Center Arlington [You can read all of Team Rubicon's updates on Blackfive here] [You can visit and support the team here.]
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/zvGmWxHFHa0/rubicon-rescue-mission-haiti-part-20-doc-griss-impression.html
Posted
Jan 19 2010, 11:34 PM
by
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