UPDATE: CRUDEM HOPITAL SACRE COEUR: March 3, 2010
March 8th, 2010
HOSPITAL VS. REFUGEE CAMP
I’ve decreased my updates to weekly because the acute phase of this
catastrophe has ended. However the catastrophe continues and in many
ways is worse than the acute phase. We still have 300 patients in
Hopital Sacre Coeur and still have over 50 volunteers a week. Our staff
continues to work without complaint and we are receiving calls from
around Haiti to accept patients. The most recent was for a patient who
had a cervical spine fracture that left him paralyzed on the left side.
This patient was deaf and taught sign language so his injury was
especially incapacitating. Only the spine surgeons at Hopital Sacre
Coeur could give him a chance to recover his mobility.
These patients need our care and are willing to come to Hopital Sacre
Coeur. However most if not all of them will not have a home or family
to return to. The patients that were sent to us after the earthquake
for emergency care are also discovering that they have no family or
home to return to. So……. they refuse to leave the hospital and the
family members that survived travel from Port au Prince to be with them
and also stay at the hospital. That leaves us with the responsibility
to feed over 1000 people a day.
Now we have a full service referral hospital to which everyone wants
to send patients and a growing population of patients that can leave
but refuse to leave. These people are labeled internally displaced
people by the aide agencies. However despite our efforts there are no
agencies in the northern part of Haiti that are providing services for
these people.
We just had our board meeting in St Louis. I again was impressed by
the dedication and depth of experience of our board. We discussed our
future and our responsibility to the people of Haiti. We approved many
building projects, agreed to accept patients for the care only we can
provide and will continue to care for the internally displaced people
at our hospital. However we also understand our financial constraints.
Although we have received many contributions since the earthquake we
recognize that to provide care we need continued support.
It is easy to forget about Haiti especially with all the other
problems in the world. Our prayer is that you won’t forget. We need
your support now more than ever before. One of our orthopedic teams is
sponsoring a fund raising event in Washington, DC on March 19 at 6:30
PM at Famosa Restaurant on 5471 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase,
Maryland. If you are in the area and can attend please rsvp to Lesley
and John Duncan at fjduncan@gmail.com.
Please continue to keep Hopital Sacre Coeur and the people of Haiti
in your prayers. We have accomplished a lot since the earthquake but
have a long road ahead of us. If you have any contacts with aide
agencies that can help us care for these internally displaced people
please let me know.
God bless you,
Peter Kelly MD / President
Posted in Uncategorized
From CRUDEM board member, Charles Dubuque
February 23rd, 2010
From CRUDEM board member, Charles Dubuque:
What an amazing day!
Many of you know that I am not usually at a loss for words…well, try
sitting at a press conference that is hosted by a non-profit organization
that caters to the homeless of St. Louis. Have the host of the event
introduce the corporations that helped fund an event to benefit your
charitable organization!! Then, he introduces the staff that helped put it
together & then introduces a number of the homeless clients that worked
countless hours to do the baking…then, he shows a slide show of pictures
from Haiti & then shows a recent video from CRUDEM… I get so emotional
watching these. Well, at that point, Dan Buck, Executive Director of Saint
Patrick’s Center in St. Louis called myself, Susan & Steve Reese to the
podium to accept a check from their organization for $57,000.
I was speechless, emotional & grateful all at the same time. I am amazed
that a homeless shelter had the initiative, creativity & organizational
ability to reach out to another charity and give so extraordinarily. What
is so captivating to me is that St. Patrick’s reached out to another
organization. One of the clients who was recognized for the enormous hours
that he devoted to baking & packing the cookies, stated in front of the
gathering, “I’ve had it bad, had some tough times, but I never had it as
bad as those in Haiti, it was a pleasure to give something back”. People
just humble me, daily…
Well, I gathered myself after this extraordinary event & headed to Shriners
Hospital. I hadn’t see Jean Patrickson since his surgery. I walked into the
lobby & there he was squirming in his wheelchair with an enormous 10lb
metal brace on his leg.
He was preoccupied with the pain, you could tell it was wearing on him, he
just couldn’t sit still. I slowly described to Romel his cousin that I had
brought some cookies from St. Patrick’s Center for Jean & him. Romel’s eyes
grew wide when I described the bake sale & what it raised & who they raised
it for…he said, “people are so beautiful”. Jean was not interested in the
cookies, nor was he interested in the Ted Drewes custard that I brought for
them. He was just too focused on the pain. The minute Romel was out of his
site, Jean would arch his back to look for him, making sure he was nearby.
It was 30 minutes before his next dose of pain relief the nurse said. Romel
didn’t flinch, he just looked at the nurse, then at Jean & said “he will be
fine, I will be here”, and he quietly opened the container of Ted Drewes,
sat on the bed next to Jean & slowly tried to preoccupy Jean from the pain
he had until it was time for his medication.
A humbling day….but in such a good way!
Below, is the press release for St. Patrick’s Center.
Foundation to fund Haitian disaster relief
(St. Louis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 22, 2010
St. Patrick Center homeless clients present $57,000
to CRUDEM, MO) Several St. Patrick Center homeless clients today presented
a check for $57,000 to CRUDEM Foundation for the total funds they helped
raise during the “Helping Hearts Cookies for Haiti” initiative following
the January earthquake in Haiti.
More than two dozen homeless men and women volunteered their time in
January and February to bake heart-shaped sugar cookies to sell to local
businesses, churches, schools and organizations for community bake sales.
Hollyberry Baking Company donated time and materials to train and supervise
the homeless clients in the production of cookies. St. Patrick Center
donors, including Wells Fargo Advisors, World Wide Technology and GFI
Digital, covered all ingredient costs, allowing 100 percent of the proceeds
to go to the CRUDEM Foundation’s Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, Haiti.
Following the quake, St. Patrick Center homeless clients were looking for a
way to assist with the relief efforts. “Our clients were moved by the news
reports about Haiti,” said St. Patrick Center CEO Dan Buck. “They wanted to
do something to make a difference for the victims. One of our clients
suggested holding a bake sale, and Helping Hearts Cookies for Haiti was
born in our Culinary Suite in the BEGIN New Venture Center.”
Beginning on January 19, St. Patrick Center clients and community
volunteers baked, packaged, distributed and sold more than 30,000 Helping
Hearts Cookies in one of the St. Louis area’s largest bake sales. In
addition, the St. Louis business community embraced the endeavor. On
February 12, 2010, GFI Digital employees and several other local companies
volunteered their time to pass out more than 15,000 Helping Hearts Cookies
at Scottrade Center prior to a St. Louis Blues game. All donations
collected went directly to Haitian earthquake relief efforts.
“We were honored to be involved in this wonderful, grassroots effort on the
part of St. Patrick Center clients to assist the earthquake victims,” said
Holly Cunningham, president of Hollyberry Baking. “Every penny raised
during this effort will help to rebuild the lives of those affected by this
disaster.”
Representatives from the CRUDEM Foundation attended today’s event to
collect the check. “Helping Hearts Cookies for Haiti was a spectacular
idea,” says Charles Dubuque, CRUDEM Foundation board member. “Our entire
board was so impressed and grateful that St. Patrick Center clients and
supporters trusted our mission to support us in this special way.” The
CRUDEM Foundation operates the largest medical facility in Northern Haiti,
about 100 miles north of Port-Au-Prince. Prior to the devastation, the
facility held 73 beds. Since the disaster, the hospital has housed as many
as 400 people.
###
Photos, including some from the hospital in Haiti, are available upon
request.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kelly Peach
Senior Director of Communications
St. Patrick Center
Direct line: 314-802-0687
Cell: 314-581-7126
kpeach@stpatrickcenter.org<mailto:kpeach@stpatrickcenter.org>
Stephanie Rea
Writer/Producer
St. Patrick Center
314.802.1968
srea@stpatrickcenter.org<mailto:srea@stpatrickcenter.org>
www.stlhelpinghearts.org<http://www.stlhelpinghearts.org/>
www.crudem.org<http://www.crudem.org/>
www.stpatrickcenter.org<http://www.stpatrickcenter.org/>
Posted in Uncategorized
Update: February 17. 2010
February 18th, 2010
Update: February 17. 2010
DISASTER DRILL
You would think that after all the helicopters and emergency patients we have received over the past month the last thing we would need is a disaster drill. However that’s what makes Hopital Sacre Coeur special and why they are still sending emergency patients and patients that require specialized care to us. Everyone knows that we have quality physicians and staff and strive to provide the best medical and surgical care in Haiti.
Yesterday as the flow of patients from Port au Prince was continuing to decrease we received word that a school in Cap Haitian collapsed under a mud slide. As Bill Guyol a board member on site describes,” After hearing word of the collapse, an unplanned disaster-response scenario played out…a response team was sent by ambulance in anticipation of casualties. At the hospital, a flight paramedic with disaster -response training soon had an area laid out…our ER physicians were alerted to be on call and fresh off the plane and into scrubs, our new pediatric surgeon and cardiothoracic surgeon were warned we might need them. Dr John Lovejoy approached me with a simple ‘ what would you like me to do ?’- this from a man far my superior in so many ways was humbling. He exemplified for me the attitude of this team. The needs of the patients come first and we adapt and become what that patient needs.”
We continue to recruit teams of primary care physicians, orthopedic surgeons, plastic and general surgeons and nurses to care for our increased population of inpatients. Our current census of patients is 248 in the tent hospital, new pediatric ward, ICU and PACU and another 64 in the old hospital. We have finally received food from CRS thanks to the tireless effort of Dr Roger Jean Charles KM and Jim O’ Connor KMob. Our current focus is on drilling new wells to supplement our increased need for water and to improve our sanitation with dry toilettes and latrines for our tent hospital.
Today we put out an urgent request for anesthetic gas needed to perform the large number of surgeries and Project Hope responded within minutes with an offer to provide the necessary gas. This is typical of the response we have had to our many needs. The Order of Malta, Americares, CRS, CMMB, private donors and many corporations have generously responded to our needs and continue to respond.
The effort to recruit the 40 to 50 volunteers we need each week, get their personal data and credentials and document their travel plans is overwhelming to say the least. We have a team that functions on less than 4 hours of sleep a night to accomplish this task. Carol Fipp, Deb Paine- Motyl, Julie Condon, Denise Kelly, Joni Paterson and Deb O’Hara-Ruskowski make up this team. They also perform many other tasks necessary to keep the hospital functioning.
As I reflect over the past month on all that has happened and what we have accomplished and I remember how Hopital Sacre Coeur started, I cannot help but see the hand of God. For those of us that have seen the daily financial struggles to meet the hospital expenses, the growth of employees and patients and the need for expansion over the years, we remember that God always provided. Today as the memory of this catastrophe starts to fade it is important for all of us to remind everyone we know of the struggle that faces the Haitian people. We need to continue to work to provide the care for these wonderful people as if it all depended on us and to continue to pray to God for guidance knowing that we are dependent on Him.
God bless all of you for all you do to continue the work of Hopital Sacre Coeur. Peter Kelly MD, President
Posted in Uncategorized
