Making a commitment to Haiti

June 9, 2010 — 9:35 am

Sunset as doctors return to the clinic

Group Health has developed a long-term volunteer program that will send clinicians to provide medical care in Haiti throughout the rest of 2010. Led by a different doctor each trip, Group Health’s goal is to sponsor two one-week trips per month. Volunteers include physicians, physician assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners, and lab and pharmacy personnel.

Don Van Nimwegen, MD, a retired Group Health anesthesiologist, will lead the pilot trip to Haiti leaving on June 12. Working with Healing the Children, the experienced medical relief doctor already spent three weeks in Haiti looking for ways to assist the devastated nation. He found a starting place—a tent encampment near Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Nimwegen told us, (more…)

Husband and wife team return from Haiti

March 10, 2010 — 3:04 pm
Drs. Lindsay and Dan MacDougall volunteering in Haiti

Drs. Lindsay and Dan MacDougall volunteering in Haiti

The Group Health husband-and-wife team of Drs. Lindsay and Dan MacDougall are medical relief veterans with approximately 14 tours under their belt, returned last weekend from three weeks stationed just outside Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Dan MacDougall, who became involved in medical-relief missions after the 1986 Mexico City earthquake, asked me to share the following account and photos of their experience:

Drs. Lindsay MacDougall

Dr. Lindsay MacDougall

“The areas of P-a-P (Port-au-Prince) and the surrounding towns and villages were destroyed to a degree that even the pictures we have seen on TV gave little justice to. The collapsed buildings, the piles of rubble and trash, and the aimless crowds of victims who had lost just about everything they had, including family, was almost overwhelming. Many people lived in 4×6 plastic wrapped shelters or just under bed sheets.

Our primary job there with Medical Teams International was to (more…)

Views from Haiti and Dominican Republic

March 3, 2010 — 1:52 pm
Dr. Mary Wierusz in the Dominican Republic with a Hatian patient who needed a skin graft.

Dr. Mary Wierusz in the Dominican Republic with a Hatian patient who needed a skin graft.

What is it like to be on the ground, as a physician, helping as best as possible in such conditions? Reports from two physicians—one a new doc at Northgate and the other a retired Group Health physician—tell the story. View more of Dr. Wierusz photos here: Images from Dominican Republic

“We cared for refugees who came to the Dominican Republic from Haiti, most with orthopedic problems—crush injuries, need for amputations, wound infections—but some tropical diseases such as malaria, too,” said Mary Wierusz, MD, a family physician at Northgate Medical Center, recently returned from 12 days in the Dominican Republic. “As a volunteer with Children of the Nations, I was one of five physicians on a medical team of three surgeons, and another family physician.” (more…)

Words from Haiti

February 10, 2010 — 4:36 pm

The following is a powerful message from Group Health Urgent Care Dr. Ken Elam, who just returned  from volunteering in Haiti. He shares his experience, sadness, joy and advice.

Dr. Elam with nurse, and proud father

Dr. Elam with nurse, and proud father

Before on trips to Haiti, we often had trouble nailing down with patients when exactly symptoms started, probably a point of little relevance to those seeking treatment. Now, however,the tremblement de terre or earthquake is the starting point of all misery, injuries of course, but headaches, back pain and acid stomach too. With few new additional injuries, our focus in  an area of Port au Prince away from the worst destruction was on care of the scores with wounds often hastily covered the first days, and post op care for the many people with bones fixed in place surgically with metal rods and with amputations. The heart freezes, the breath gasps at the sight of every amputated child. (more…)

How Group Health is helping Haiti

January 28, 2010 — 10:23 am

As the tragedy in Haiti continues to unfold, Group Health Cooperative and Group Health Permanente are stepping up to assist.

With the need for assistance likely to last for months, Group Health is sending both medical assistance and cash donations—as we did in the wake of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Medical assistance (more…)