Two U.S. Army surgeons from the Task Force "Bon Voizen" (Good Neighbor) New Horizons Haiti 2011, Col. Paul Phillips III, an orthopedic surgeon and Col. Eric Romanucci, colorectal surgeon, have shared this week, their highly specialized skills, with local residents doctors of the hospital Saint-Nicolas, to Saint-Marc.

During their visit, the two doctors spent time in the emergency room and the orthopedic ward, they found a scarcity of medical specialists. According to a Haitian doctor of the hospital "here are a total of three neurosurgeons in the entire country, all of whom practice in Port-au-Prince..." Challenges resulting from this shortage are exacerbated by the lack of compliance and enforcement of traffic law in Haiti. According to this physician, serious car and motorcycle accidents occur frequently, generating untold numbers of brain injuries that are often beyond a Haitian hospital's ability to properly treat.

Despite this, the medical professionals at St. Nicolas are doing what they can...

Pierre Woolley, a resident at the hospital, studied in the U.S. and France before returning to Haiti to serve his country, is fully aware of the disparity between the resources available to the Haitian doctors and those in more developed countries "It's a different way of practicing medicine, but it's still medicine. On the orthopedic ward, we are always in need of lots of plates, lots of screws. We must be very creative with what we have here..."

This pragmatic approach to medicine was not lost to the two military surgeons who have the experience of wartime medicine in Afghanistan, accustomed to working in difficult conditions "It isn't always about meeting standards as they exist in the U.S. It's about doing what you can with what you have", has declared the Dr. Phillips.

"Compared to the civilian hospital that I visited in Afghanistan, this hospital is impressive," Romanucci said upon the arrival of an ambulance to the door of the emergency room. "They have an ambulance, and the place is very clean. They're really doing a lot with what is available."

Learn more about New Horizons 2011 :

Task Force Bon Voizen, New Horizons Haiti 2011, is a Commander, U.S. Southern Command sponsored, U.S. Army South conducted, joint foreign military interaction/humanitarian exercise deploying U.S. military engineers and medical professionals to Haiti for training and to provide humanitarian services. Task Force Bon Voizen will build a school, two medical clinics and one latrine facility, as well as staff three medical clinics and one dental clinic between April 28 and June 25 in the Artibonite Department.

See also:

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2902-haiti-humanitarian-opening-ceremony-of-the-mission-new-horizons-haiti-2011.html

HL/ HaitiLibre