Jonge patiënten in het ziekenhuis

Van onze contactpersoon in Haïti

There are 140 patients in the hospital and two-thirds are children. Sixty children are under five and 35 children are over five.  Three mobile medical clinics were treating patients in the community and each treated roughly 80 patients each, mostly children. 

The UN search and rescue efforts are officially coming to a halt, but on Saturday a 24-year old student was found alive. The estimated death toll is 110,000 and 600,000 people homeless. Estimates are 20,000 still injured and approximately 1,000 people need advanced medical care. Today we transported four patients to the USS Comfort for advanced care.

We are very grateful to all the people supporting us!  Today we received a huge deliver of medical supplies sponsored by a TV audience in Germany. We also received one-month stock of rice, beans, oil and salt from the World Food Program.  The American Academy of Pediatrics sent medicine along with casting materials which now gives us a sufficient stock.

Hollywood actor, Sean Penn visited the hospital on Friday and brought a much-needed supply of crutches. We are extremely grateful!

Fr. Rick arrived in Haiti Saturday morning after driving all night from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is happy to be back in Haiti but shortly after his arrival, he was called to a meeting with Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, to discuss the efforts in how to alleviate the suffering of the Haitian people. After the meeting, which was at the Port-au-Prince General Hospital, Fr Rick was interviewed by CNN. All the other meeting participants left in their air-conditioned cars parked between the rubble and stinking streets. But Fr. Rick mounted the back of a motorcycle and rushed back to the hospital. He prefers to use the same means of transport as the local people.