Haiti Still Needs Medical Help
Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland to Send Doctors, Nurses for 10 Day Medical Trip

Global Healing, Loma Linda University and Partners in Health to Assist with Travel and Ground Coordination

May 26, 2010

Oakland, Calif.– Haiti has dropped from the headlines, but the need for aid is as strong as ever — and a group of Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland doctors and nurses are responding with a 10-day trip to Port au Prince. A specialized pediatric surgery team including a plastic surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurses and respiratory therapists armed with 35 boxes of donated medical supplies are set deploy on May 27 to aid the children of Haiti in need of medical care. Global Healing, a Bay Area-based non-profit organization dedicated to bringing modern medicine to the developing world, is funding the trip.

When the earthquake hit in January, Haiti was flooded with humanitarian aid, but now almost six months later, the aid is dwindling but the need for medical supplies and services remain
extremely high.

According to Children’s Hospital Oakland pediatric intensivist and stateside team coordinator, Arup Roy-Burman, MD, “Now, months after the disaster, medical needs persist; however, these needs have evolved. Major acute general trauma and orthopedic injuries have been replaced by the aftermath of the initial injuries, including poorly healed and infected wounds. In addition, there has been a rise communicable diseases such as diphtheria.

“In recognition of this evolution in medical needs, along with the waning of medical support, Children's Hospital Oakland and Global Healing are joining together to provide medical assistance to those still in need in Haiti,” continued Dr. Roy-Burman, who is also chairman of the board for Global Healing..

In Port Au Prince, 10 of the 14 member Children’s medical volunteer team will work at
Adventist Hospital where the current patient population is almost 50 per cent children. The team will offer both pediatric and adult support in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The rest of the team will be stationed at the University Hospital of Haiti, where they will be assisting in both basic pediatric and pediatric intensive care. Loma Linda University is coordinating the primary team at Adventist and non-profit health care organization Partners in Health is coordinating the University group on the ground in Haiti.

“Global Healing is happy to be working together with Loma Linda University and Partners in
Health, and Children’s Hospital Oakland to support Haitians during this on-going state of current emergency,” said Cindy Basso Eaton, president of Global Healing. “With the onset of serious disease and the critical need for medical support, I am confident that the team from Children’s will help make a difference as the state of emergency in Haiti still exists.”

Children’s Hospital Oakland’s team will be curbside at San Francisco International Airport,
Terminal 3 at American Airlines at 8pm on Thursday, May 27, for photos and interviews.
Volunteers will also be chronicling their time in the earthquake-ravaged country at
www.childrenshospitaloakland.org.

CONTACT:
Erin Goldsmith
510-428-3069
egoldsmith@mail.cho.org

About Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland
Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland is Northern California’s only independent not-for-profit regional medical center for children. Children’s Hospital Oakland is a national leader in many pediatric specialties and sub-specialties including hematology/oncology, neonatology, cardiology, orthopedics, sports medicine, and neurosurgery. The hospital is one of only two solely designated California Level 1 pediatric trauma centers with the largest pediatric inpatient critical care unit in the region. Children’s Hospital has 190 licensed beds, 201 hospital-based physicians in 30 specialties, more than 2,700 employees, and an annual operating budget of more than $350 million. Children’s is also a premier teaching hospital with an outstanding pediatric residency program and a number of unique Pediatric subspecialty fellowship programs.

Children’s research program, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), is internationally renowned for taking state-of-the-art basic and clinical research and translating it into interventions for treating and preventing human diseases. CHORI has 300 members of its investigative staff, a budget of about $50 million, and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 research centers in National Institutes of Health funding to children’s hospitals. For more information, go to www.childrenshospitaloakland.org and www.chori.org.

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