Sunday, January 31, 2010 

Watch Forward in Health's Pre-quake Mission Video

In August 2009 a medical team from Forward in Health, accompanied by 3 talented members of C.2k Entertainment, www.c-2k.com, traveled to Haiti. The result is this video which is an introduction to Forward in Health. Copies are available by sending an e-mail to chronor2@gmail.com.
Since the earthquake of January 12, 2010 our ultimate mission of building a permanent health care clinic in Haiti has not changed but has been delayed as we respond to the disaster. Now more than ever medical care is needed as conditions have worsened. Haitians will need access to doctors and nurses to care for amputations, wounds, malnutrition, and infectious diseases as a result of the earthquake.

6:45 PM | |

 

Team B on its' way

Medical Team B departed today for 6 days. The team is traveling to Miami and then to Santiago, Dominican Republic. Like Team A Team B will fly into Leogonne and be centered with our directors Lex and Renee Edme in Grand Goave.
Renee told us yesterday that people are still showing up 18 days after the earthquake with fractures and wounds that have not been cared for.
The team is lead by Paula Mulqueen and Jan Shepherd. We are fortunate to have 3 doctors; a family practitioner, anesthesiologist, and orthopedic surgeon. In addition the team is comprised of two additional nurses, a student nurse, physician's assistant, and 2 EMTs.
Thanks to everyone who has made this second trip possible; the many donations of medical supplies and money has been overwhelming and makes our emergency work possible.

4:12 PM | |

Thursday, January 28, 2010 

Support from Gardner's Jacque Cessaire

http://prod.static.chargers.clubs.nfl.com/assets/images/imported/SD/photos/player-dcr-photos/Cesaire_Jacques_ci.jpg

Gardner native and current San Diego Charger Jacques Cesaire has endorsed the efforts of Forward in Health. Jacque's parents are Haitian born immigrants and his dad Carmy traveled with Forward in Health in January 2010. An interview with Jacques, his father, and the San Diego Chargers can be found at
http://www.chargers.com/news/article-1/Cesaire-reaching-out-to-Haiti-/378f6b48-6f98-4e11-b50b-c3c83f70eb9f .

10:56 PM | |

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 

Team B hoping to leave soon


Having returned Team A from Haiti (NECN article at (http://www.necn.com/pages/landing?blockID=169572 ), Forward in Health is quickly packing and planning to send Team B. The 10 member team of doctors, nurses, and EMTs is ready and standing by. The need is still great in and around Gran Goave, our present home base.

The only problem is getting into the country. Commercial airlines are still not flying into Port-au-Prince. The charter company that was flying from the Dominican Republic into Haiti has had to stop for financial reasons. The group has looked at all options including a bus from the Dominican Republic to Haiti and a ferry. At the present time we are on the waiting list to fly into Port-au-Prince with Missionary Flights International out of Florida. They will give us 48 hours notice to be in Florida ready to go. The bags are being packed with supplies and Team B has its' exit interview Saturday with Paula with the hope of being in Haiti by early next week.

9:31 PM | |

Sunday, January 24, 2010 

Team A Home



Team A has returned home. We left the Dominican Republic at 3 AM and arrived in Boston at 10:30 AM. Physically and emotionally exhausted we are all grateful for the opportunity to use our talents to help those in desperate need. This could not have been accomplished without the generosity of many in the Worcester area and beyond. It was a privilege to work in Haiti.

Team B to be lead by Paula Mulqueen is forming and likely to be in Haiti in 1 week to continue what will be a long recovery for the people of Haiti.

10:13 PM | |

 

Final Clinic Day the Most Intense


The final day of clinics began unsure of exactly where we would end up. Planned to follow up at two different refugee camp sites. Called instead to the heavily damaged city of Petit Goave. The pediatric, maternity wards and one OR at the hospital were heavily damaged and unoccupied. Doctor's Without Borders had set up on site but were moving southwest to an area not damaged but where people were relocating.

We saw many crush injuries and some general medical patients. Worked until early evening primarily cleaning and dressing wounds and applying casts to fractured arms and legs using sedation.

The day unfortunately ended with sad but for Haiti not uncommon patients. One was a 12 year old boy who had an open fracture of his leg from the earthquake 10 days earlier. He had been seen but the leg had become infected and needed to be amputated. His mother had died 2 years earlier and after the earthquake he and his dad were sleeping in the streets.

A second child was seen for a second degree burn over about 20% of his body 2 days earlier after soup fell on him. The wounds needed to be cleaned and dressed under sedation.

After leaving the hospital we were called back 1 hour later as a mother had a breech delivery and the child was stuck and could not be delivered. Having an obstetrician and pediatrician with us members of the team raced the 15 minutes it takes to get to the hospital. Dr. Blake delivered the infant saving the mother. The newborn however never had a heartbeat or started breathing. Dr. Mulqueen and EMT Kevin Casey attempted to resuscitate the infant but were unsuccessful. The parents were grateful for our work and felt some comfort that we were available and tried to help.

The day ended on a graceous note at the UN compound with the Sri Lanken soldiers and Sri Lanken food.

The team spent the rest of the night talking about the stressful day and making plans to travel the next day to the Dominican Republic. A child lost his leg but this was necessary to save his life, a severely burned child had his burns cleaned and dressed to help them heal and prevent infection, and parents felt some comfort that their newborn died but doctors were available and tried everything they could to save their child.

9:27 PM | |

Friday, January 22, 2010 

Haiti Update


Finished a second day of clinics yesterday. 2 nights ago and yesterday felt a few pretty good aftershocks. Only lasted 2-5 seconds but one once strong enough to take notice. Other than that can feel light rumbles like a truck going by.

Spent yesterday morning seeing patients at Mission of Hope's church and where their orphanage is. A tent city has popped up in the courtyard for the orphans and others. By the end of the morning we were starting to see less ill people although the last boy of the day was diagnosed with malaria. During the day treated lots of wounds and some orthopedic problems. Our orthopedic Dr., Dr. David Fabien, relocated a dislocated hip and casted a fracture of a femur under sedation.

After lunch traveled to Lex and Renee's visitor home by the beech. The navy landed there today and is setting up shop. The home there is destroyed.

The afternoon we traveled along the road and stopped at 2 different tent/refugee camps. Needed to treat 3 people for broken bones that has still not been casted and then many wounds, some worse than others.

Will be returning to the camps today as they let people in the mountain area know we will be there.

7:06 AM | |

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

"Team A" Close To Their Destination

We received word just a little while ago that the 14 members of "Team A" representing Forward In Health have safely made it to Santiago, Dominican Republic. Due to the fact that there was not much daylight remaining and the Jacmal, Haiti airstrip has no lights for the planes to land, the Team was forced to stay the night in Santiago. They are bedding down for the night in a local school. Word came from Haiti today that roads had been blocked off in Leogane but it turns out that the roads were blocked off for the landing of our Team. The Team is schedule for an early start in the morning(Wed.) with a schedule 7:00am departure to Leogane on military helicopters. They will be landing right on the roads that were blocked off and will be picked up by or director in Haiti, Lex, and brought to Grand Guave and the Mission of Hope. The Team will hit the ground running providing medical care to those in need. They will be in for a long day!
Posted by John Mulqueen, M.D. at 6:01 PM 0 comments
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4:22 PM | |

 

Just finished first day seeing patients

Our medical team is in Haiti only through the help of many people unknown to us a few days ago.
Many thanks to the crew on the American Airlines flight from Boston to Puerto Rico. Our layover in Puerto Rico was tight, only 40 minutes to begin with and our flight was delayed almost an hour as the plane needed to be deiced in Boston. The American Airlines crew called ahead to our connecting flight and begged to have it held. The plane in Puerto Rico agreed to hold the plane for 30 minutes. After loading us up with extra cups and Orange juice the American Airlines crew had the rest of our plane wait as we departed first. We want them to know that because of their kindness we made our flight to the Dominican Republic.

We arrived in the Dominican Republic and spent the night as it was too dark to fly. Our landing strip ( a road) has no lights. A group Go Mission is accumulating medical supplies and offered them to us, fed us, and allowed us to stay with them for free.

As we were about to leave shorthly after 7 am for Leogone, Haiti we felt a tremor. Grand Guave, the home of our directors, had a 6.1 earthquake. We were allowed to leave and landed on a road.
There is no phone service and our directors were 1 hour late. They finally arrived and are OK.

We traveled 45 minutes and saw patients in a remote area that has yet to see medical professionals. It has been 8 days and what we saw is incredibly sad. Broken arms, legs, ankles that have not been cared for. Open wounds that are now too old to repair. A little boy has a dislocated elbow and cannot bend his elbow at all. It has been too long to be reduced without anesthesia. If not fixed he will never be able to bend his elbow and his arm will be held straight out.

At the end of the clinic we met a doctor from Doctors Without Borders. They are setting up an OR tomorrow in Leogone and we will be able to have him seen there.

Need to go for now. Some areas are so incredibly sad, yet the spirit of the people we have encountered is not broken. In the saddest times the grace of God is still found.

2:21 PM | |

Monday, January 18, 2010 

Leaving for Haiti

Sorry for the delay in posting, but the past day has been hectic as we have finalized plans to travel into Haiti. Our medical team is now up to 14 including 2 Haitian born nurses, an orthopedic surgeon, pediatrician, family practitioner, and obstetrician/gynecologist. We have nurses, a founding board member of FIH, and paramedic.

We leave tomorrow from Logan Airport, land in Puerto Rico, fly to the Dominican Republic, fly to Jacmel, then helicopter into Leogonne, and travel by truck to Grande Guave. We will conduct 4 days of clinics. We are prepared as much as we can be for a variety of medical conditions, not actually sure what we will find.

Thanks to the many who have made donations, offered their best wishes and prayers, and inspired us to do what we are doing. Many have stepped up. Paula Mulqueen has put together a trip most thought impossible to organize from little Gardner, Massachusetts in just a few days. She is the driving force for behind this trip and its' success.

9:26 PM | |

Saturday, January 16, 2010 

Awaiting Departure

Forward in Health Team "A" is packed and ready to deploy...Waiting for Westover Air Force Base to give us our 24 hour notice.....Medical Team "B" starting to pack....Thanks to all who helped in these life saving missions.....response has been wonderful...Gardner and the surrounding communities came to the aid of the Haitian people in a big way!

10:59 PM | |

Friday, January 15, 2010 

Medeical Supplies, food, and monetary donations

It has been 36 hours since Forward in Health received an emergency plea from our Haitian directors Lex and Renee Edme, "Come now." In 36 hours a medical team of 11, including a registered nurse from San Francisco, has been mobilized.
$4,656 has been raised through online donations via our web site.
FIH has received $10,000 in donations from student and faculty at Gardner High School, employees at Heywood Hospital in Gardner, and people dropping donations off at our home or pediatric office. A gentleman handed us $500 in cash plus a $20 bill he won on a lottery scratch ticket. He insisted that the $20 be used to buy candy for the children at the orphanage. He refused to give his address so that we could send him a thank you note.
Heywood Hospital, Health Alliance Hospital, and University of Massachusetts-Memorial Hospital have donated medical supplies. Heywood Hospital has discounted medications through their pharmacy. Packing begins tomorrow at 1 PM for the trip.
The Michael Carlson Memorial Fund donated all of the money to buy the medications purchased through the Heywood Hospital Pharmacy.
Our home looks like a Peace Corps center with many boxes and bags filled with everything from bandages to vitamins, to peanut butter to tuna fish to protein bars. Food has been in short supply in Grande Guave, our destination.
Medical trips usually take 4-6 months of planning. The same will be accomplished this time in 3 days thanks to many helping hands and generous people. Our original plan was to provide help in some small way to the devastated people of Haiti, people who had very little who now have nothing. If nothing else by the time we leave they will again know that people in the United States care that they are in trouble and will have provided them with hope.

11:10 PM | |

 

Medical Team Mobilized

Forward in Health is responding to the earthquake disaster in Haiti by mobilizing a team of 12 physicians, nurses, and a marine medich/EMT. We will be working in Grande Guave, the home base of our directors Lex and Renee Edme. The area is 30 miles from the epicenter and was hard hit.
We are flying in on Delta Airlines Tuesday and returning Sunday. Our focus will be to triage patients in the area and treat people depending initially on severity. When we arrive we will have a better understanding on what the need is. We are unable to have much communication with Lex and Renee, but we are confident that they are already coordinating plans.
For this trip we will be bringing freeze dried food and water as the basic supplies are already running short. We will also bring protein bars, tuna fish, peanut butter, and other sources of protein for the children in the orphanage.

9:03 AM | |

Thursday, January 14, 2010 

FIH Medical Team Mobilized

A medical team made of of doctors, nurses, and a former marine medic who served in Iraq will be traveling to Haiti at the request of our directors Lex and Renee Edme. Renee e-mailed FIH today requesting medical assistance now. The earliest flight we can arrange out is on Tuesday January 19th. We will return the following Sunday.

Donations made at this time through our web site will be used first to defer the cost of the trip and second to help with reconstruction of the orphanage that collapsed. Several members of the medical team were in Haiti in August 2009 and if possible FIH would like to help them this time with the cost of the trip which is usually $1250. The cost of the airline flight alone is $600.

2:02 PM | |

 

Forward in Health's Response to the 2010 Earthquake



Many people have asked how they can help and what the response by Forward in Health will be. As the dust settles, literally, it is becoming clear what can be done at this time.
Physicians, nurses, and EMTs associated with Forward in Health have volunteered to travel to Haiti. If and when there is an organized need we will be able to send medical volunteers. We will not send people into an unsafe situation without food, water, medical supplies, a place to stay, or a place to work out of.
If you would like to donate money or supplies, monetary donations will be used initially to help rebuild the orphanage and visitors house run by our directors Lex and Renee Edme of Mission of Hope. Forward in Health has a close working relationship with Mission of Hope and know that this is a small well run organization doing excellent selfless work.
Medications, Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, children's vitamins, antibiotic and antifungal creams can be collected and will be brought down when we travel.

7:18 AM | |

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 

Thanks for all of the good wishes

Paula and I would like to thank everyone who called or e-mailed with concerns and good wishes. Thanks for donations received. Members of Forward in Health have volunteered to travel to Haiti if and when the ability to travel occurs.
No word about our wall and the people of Fonfrede. We have heard that a few buildings in Les Cayes collapsed and 14 people died.
The Forward in health club at Gardner High School has organized the student body at Gardner High School to wear yellow, the club colors, and the club members are wearing their FIH shirts.

9:57 PM | |

 

FIH put to use in earthquake disaster update

Forward in Health recently shipped a bus to Haiti to transport visitors from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes. Lex and Renee had visitors and children from the orphanage sleep in the bus the first night. Good idea as much of the orphanage has colloapsed.

9:53 PM | |

 

News from Rene

1-13-2010 Today at 11:18am
Hi Everyone.

I lost power and lost the entire note that I'd written. I may be briefer with this one...

Our visiting team, our children and I were at the office when the first tremor hit. It took a couple of seconds to realize that it was an earthquake, by which time I was falling on the floor and screaming for my children (I didn't know their exact location). That first tremor seemed to last forever and it was sooooo violent. It was certainly the most terrifying moment of my life and I am so grateful that the peace of God rules my heart and mind.

Lex was in Leogane at the UN headquarters there when the earthquake hit. That, of course, was heart wrenching for all of us, as there was no way of contacting each other. As he made his way back home (partially driving, partially walking) he witnessed the horror of seeing so many bodies along the street some people severely injured and others already dead. Knowing that we were likely in the office, he was very concerned about the structure falling on us. We were all greatly relieved upon our reunion.

One of our preschool teachers was killed. Many of our staff and students' families lost their homes.

A young girl 2-3 years old, was struck in the head when a concrete wall fell. Her skull was split wide open, but no medical help was available. She was close to death when they carried her away.

The group visiting spent the night in the Forward in Health bus. Our family laid in the yard along with the orphans and the many neighbors that joined us.

Some of the "after shocks" most certainly were earthquakes themselves. It was horrifying in the dark listening to the orphanage crash down behind me.

We are still experiencing tremors and would appreciate prayer for them to stop...permanently!

There must have been something like a small tsunami, because the ocean rose all the way up to our well at the very back of the beach house property...about 125 ft higher than normal. Everything on the property has been destroyed, including all the surrounding walls.

Bathrooms at the orphanage are not accessible so we now have people relieving themselves in the yard. And we don't want people near the buildings or walls, so it's pretty concentrated. Sad, since we've worked so hard to train the Haitians to use the bathrooms.

We have NO food available for distribution. A container of Kids Against Hunger food is expected in about 3 weeks...unfortunately it'll be about 3 weeks too late.

We will use the chapel to house some of the homeless families in Grand-Goâve.

We expect school to be closed for quite some time, as we all dig out and determine where to go from here.

Today, January 13th, there are still several tremors occurring every hour. Please pray. Anyone wanting to help with the tremendous financial burden of providing relief to people in urgent need, as well as rebuilding much of the mission, may make donations to Mission of Hope. Checks may be sent to PO Box 176, Merrimac, MA 01860. If you prefer to use a credit card, go to http://missionofhopehaiti.net/donations.htm to make a donation online.

That's the update for now. Again, thank you everyone for all your encouragement and prayers.

Blessings!

Renée

11:28 AM | |

 

Earthquake Update

I want to update you about what we know about the conditions in Haiti.

First our directors Lex and Rene are OK. They are about 30 miles from Carrfour the epicenter. They had some damage to the wall around their buildings, but their family, children, and the orphans that they care for are all OK. Rene said today that her worry is food running out although they are OK right now. They do have a group that traveled from the US with them and everyone is fine.

No real word from Les Cayes other than Fr. Mark who has an orphanage just outside of Les Cayes has posted on his web site that they felt the earthquake and the children were frightened but no real damage.

8:57 AM | |

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 

Earthquake devastates impoverished Haiti

Forward in Health is concerned and saddened by what is likely to be a horrific and deadly earthquake in Haiti. As we learn more we are relieved to hear that our directors in Haiti, Lex and Rene Edme and their children are well. They live in Grand Goave about 30 miles from Carrefour, the epicenter of this 7.0 earthquake. Rene has phoned in and although there was some damage to the wall of the orphanage the children are all well. The buildings of the orphanage, church, and school are intact. We are waiting to recive more information about the Les Cayes area. We do know that the earthquake was felt in the Les Cayes area.
We do not have any current plans for emergency fundraising or travel. The scheduled February trip with students from St. John's and April trip with Gardner High school and Marianapolis Preparatory School in Connecticut are on hold but not canceled.

9:14 PM | |