Help for Haiti

When news of January’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti broke and images of the devastation began to sink in, Piedmont Healthcare and its employees knew they had to help. Following are some of Piedmont’s outreach efforts – true examples of employees living the Piedmont Promise.

First Haiti Mission Trip 

A week after the earthquake, Piedmont Healthcare supported a team with critical areas of expertise going to the region. Medical professionals from Piedmont Hospital and the WellStar Health System embarked on a five-day mission trip to aid the medical staff of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, a surgical hospital located near Port-au-Prince.

Piedmont Healthcare paid the $10,000 in transportation costs for the team that included Piedmont Hospital medical team members Stephen McCollam, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon; Lee Kelley, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon; Marcel Gilli, M.D., anesthesiologist; Rick Hodge, RN, surgical orthopaedic nurse; Deborah Shreer, RN, surgical orthopaedic nurse; and WellStar orthopaedic traumatologist Douglas Lundy, M.D. In addition, Piedmont Hospital donated nearly $35,000 in medical supplies.

The Atlanta-based team took 500 pounds of medical cargo, including medical equipment, tetanus vaccines, antibiotics, analgesics, anesthesia and various other medications donated by Piedmont, WellStar, Stryker, Synthes, the Surgical Implant Generation Network and others. “The value of the equipment and medications is over $500,000, and we are incredibly grateful to all the organizations that donated items,” says Dr. McCollam.

Back to Haiti a Second Time 

After the first mission trip, Piedmont Healthcare responded again by supporting a team of physicians in their week-long stay as they aided the medical staff of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti.

The group of six medical professionals included Michael Behr, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon; Robert Hendley, PA-C, anesthesiology physician assistant; and Jonathan Clayton, M.D., anesthesiologist. They are all on staff at Piedmont Fayette Hospital. Also making the trip were orthopaedic surgeons Stephen Smith, M.D., on staff at Piedmont Hospital; Obi Ugwonali, M.D., on staff at Northside Hospital; and Danny Guy, M.D., on staff at West Georgia Health System. The expertise of the team fulfilled one of the major medical needs requested in Haiti, that of repairing broken and crushed bones.

“Things were changing in Haiti so quickly that we weren’t sure what we were going to find,” says Michael Behr, M.D. “We treated both primary wounds and fractures that hadn’t been treated, as well as secondary wounds, some with infections that had developed since their initial treatment.”

Piedmont Hospital and Piedmont Fayette Hospital donated more than $50,000 worth of pharmaceuticals and supplies, including antibiotics, anesthesia medications and equipment.

“Most Difficult Mission of My Career”

With just five hours to prepare and pack, Jeff Wilson, RN, education program manager at Piedmont Fayette Hospital and an Air Force reservist for 17 years, was on his way to Haiti. He was joined by a crew of four other medical professionals in an Air Force C-130H. Their mission: to pick up three patients and treat them 30,000 feet up in the air in the plane’s cargo bay on their flight to Florida hospitals. When the crew arrived, 26 patients were waiting.

“This was the most difficult mission of my career,” says Wilson, a team member of the 94th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron who recently served in Iraq. “No one spoke English, only French and Haitian Creole. Communicating was a real challenge.” The crew convinced a U.S. Army interpreter to join them on the flight and promised they would fly him back to Haiti that day.

“The injuries were extensive,” Wilson says. “There were skull fractures, spinal cord injuries, amputees and burns. We also had in our care one-week-old twins, born 10 weeks premature.”

Six hours after the first patient was brought on board in Haiti, the four critical-care patients were off loaded at Miami International Airport to awaiting emergency medical teams. The rest of the patients were flown to Fort Lauderdale.

“This was a coordinated effort that involved the Department of Defense, civilian agencies and volunteers,” he says. “Our medical crew’s training and rapid Aeromedical transport provided our patients with the higher level of care necessary for their survival and recovery.”

James Ingvoldstad, M.D., OB/Gyn, who has been going on church mission trips to Haiti several times a year since 2001, was there when the earthquake hit. He stayed to help, giving up several opportunities to return home.

Despite shortages of electricity, time and a low battery, he was able to send an e-mail to his practice at Peachtree Women’s Specialists and the Women’s Services team at Piedmont Hospital. He wrote:

“I had seen a few patents at the Wesleyan Hospital and learned that they were planning to send a medical team to Port-au-Prince…they were in desperate need of help…we saw many patients who came by boat from Port-au-Prince to have their wounds treated on La Gonâve. The main surgeon and nurse anesthetist had gone to Port-au-Prince to look for their families. So Saturday morning, I did a C-section under local anesthesia. Prefer not to do that again. Both baby and mother are fine – a ‘little’ girl of nine pounds.” 

By the time he returned from Haiti on January 21, Dr. Ingvoldstad had treated patients at three make-shift clinics he helped to set up, one in one of the worst hit areas, Car-fu-faix. He traveled by lobster boat and an old truck, acquiring a generator and supplies along the way, and provided care where people needed it.

“We cared for more than 100 people that first afternoon, often without anesthesia,” he reflects, adding that their “stoicism is what I remember most.”