Panorama sends team to Haiti
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Local medical team heading to Haiti, thousands of injured still need help
Panorama Orthopedics in Golden is sending an 18-person team, including surgeons, an anesthesiologist, physical therapists and more
DENVER- An 18-person medical team organized by Panorama Orthopedics in Golden is leaving Friday, March 5, for the small northern Haitian town of Milot, which is 80 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Though the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti more than a month ago, thousands of Haitians remain in need of medical care. The team will return, Sunday, March 14.
The team is heading in as doctors in Haiti brace for another onslaught of patients, as emergency workers leave the country and thousands of surgeries done after the Jan. 12 earthquake need to be redone. The medical team will perform surgeries, skin grafts, redo amputations that aren't healing, treat infections and more. Massive numbers of injuries were originally treated in poor conditions in the days following the earthquake.
The Panorama team will be working at the Hopital Sacre Coeur, a 73-bed hospital opened in 1986 that has seen its patient load soar to nearly 400 people a day, the majority of whom stay in a temporary tent hospital outside. The hospital is better equipped than many facilities and includes three air-conditioned, modern operating rooms and three treatment rooms, which can be used for things like setting fractures and changing dressings.
"This particular hospital had no damage during the earthquake particularly because it's a new facility," said Dr. Chris Brian, who specializes in orthopedic hand surgery and is one of the team leaders for the Panorama team. "This will not be as rugged and remote as the tent hospitals that were set up early on in Port-au-Prince."
However, doctors treating patients are still working in less-than-ideal settings. For examples, a lack of anesthesia and sufficient blood supply has forced doctors in Haiti to treat patients with spinal injuries and pelvic fractures - who typically in the United States would receiver surgery - instead with traction.
"So we'll be able to do ... not exactly what we do in America but more ideal than on a park bench and in a tent," Brian said.
Brian was originally asked to go down to Haiti by former colleague at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Brian did his orthopedic internship. Brian said his 11 years in the military, during which he treated soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq, has prepared him for this kind of work.
"We are going to do everything we can to do the best possible medical care in that environment for every patient we have," Brian said.
The team organized by Brian includes three surgeons, three anesthesiologists, an X-ray tech, a physician assistant, five nurses, three occupational and physical therapists and two others. Seven of the members are Panorama employees; others work for St. Anthony Hospital and other medical facilities that have a tie to Panorama.
The hospital in Milot is operated by the CRUDEM Foundation, a tax-exempt public charity established by Dr. Ted Dubuque, a surgeon, and Carlos Reese, a businessman, both of St. Louis. CRUDEM stands for the Center for the Rural Development of Milot.
Today the hospital is over capacity because of the large number of earthquake victims who need, among other things, additional treatment for amputations, infections, as well as physical therapy
Immediately after the earthquake, "physicians were put in the horrible position of having to amputate limbs with regular old power tools or tools that were non-surgical," said Dr. Joni Paterson, director of administration and development for CRUDEM, which has an office in Ludlow, Mass. "They did it under non-sterile conditions. Those injuries have gotten infected and that infection has spread through the bodies."
Paterson said the hospital is still performing about 25 surgeries a day.
"The work has really just begun at this point because now that the acute phase is over, the types of injures we are seeing are the most serious in Haiti," Paterson said. "They are going to require some complicated surgeries and extensive rehabilitation."
Panorama is accepting donations to send this team to help the citizens of Haiti. Donations can be made to the Panorama Research and Education Foundation Haiti Mission and are tax deductible. If you have questions or would like to donate please contact Roger Smith, rsmith@panoramaortho.com. Or you can donate online at https://www.panoramafoundation.org/transaction.html.
About Panorama
Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center, PC has three locations in the Denver Metro area. The Golden office houses an ambulatory surgery center, physical therapy and an MRI imaging center to provide full service coverage of orthopedic needs. The clinic treats a full spectrum of patients with orthopedic problems and includes specialists in sports medicine, joint replacement, spine, trauma, hand, and foot and ankle. For more information, please visit the clinic's website at http://www.panoramaortho.com/.
