No Prejudice

"I have never been with an organization so willing to lend a helping hand without prejudice!  I commend the Church of Scientology for its much needed assistance in Haiti.  There is no other group that I have ever met that has shown the least bit of prejudice as Scientology!  I thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this team and this effort."  - K.W. RN, MPA


Unbureaucratic Help

"The yellow tents at the Haiti airport were like a field of beautiful daisies.  I was able to get all the needed medical supplies and go into the town of Delmas with a team and some of your members that helped save lives.

"Your volunteers help me secure a landline to get info on my sick mom.

"It was paperwork after paperwork with the UN to get medical supplies but you guys had everything we needed for wound care and triage maintenance supplies, gave us protein bars and water when we came for supplies.

"You guys are my heroes for helping people help others and helping University of Miami.  Please tell John Travolta I have pics to share and thank him for flying in and bringing you wonderful loving people and your supplies.  Your guys help us save lives.  Yellow hummingbirds with wings you are!" - B.L., MD

A Haitian doctor reports

"I am certainly one of the privileged physicians who was able to go to Haiti under the banner of AMHE [Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad].

"What are the lessons to learn from the trip?

"I understood very early that we were ill prepared to take this task and confront such devastation because we depended on the support of other organizations to handle our activities.  From Miami to Port-au-Prince the Scientology Volunteer group received us with open arms to share their shuttle flight.  We feasted on their generosity at the airport, on the flight, and in Haiti at their compound.  They tried to clothe us, offering clothes, because the night was cold.  They hosted us with respect and friendship.

"In Port-au-Prince, we arrived at 3:30 A.M., to see the same group take charge of the baggage and cargo, removing it from the airplane as well as the medical supplies, while we, as guests, were sitting. We were driven in their bus to their compound near Croix Des Bouquets because we did not have any other arrangements. We shared their facility, we ate their food, we used their bathroom and shower with plenty of water at their expenses. I want to thank them for their hospitality.

"At 8 A.M. a bus from the hospital would come to bring us to the General Hospital but the physicians and nurses go first and if there were other seat available, we would accommodate the Yellow Shirts. On site at the General Hospital, if material was lacking or needed, like dressings, water, etc. the volunteers were willing to find the material as soon as possible. I appreciated the devotion and the dynamism of those volunteers most of them young college students excited about their first mission. The tenacity of my two sons and their EMT friends made our day simpler by their providing transport or stretchers for our patients to go to X rays, Operating Room etc.  I want to thank them from the bottom or my heart.

"We understood that our team will face challenges with wound care, so we decided to divide our nurses and physicians supporting four areas: the emergency area, the “floor”, the Intensive Care Unit and the Operating Room. We had a wonderful crew organized by an ER physician from New York who did not hesitate to take the night shift from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M.  She covered the entire area in spite of the warnings of further instability following the earthquake. I tip my hat to her and commend her devotion.

"We also had 3 pediatric physicians and 2 others willing to cover the area of  abandoned, neglected and newborn kids. They worked in the emergency room, and at night they protected the babies who would have been at the mercy of the rats. They also worked with the Swiss team and Dr. Severe, Acting Chief of Pediatrics.  Like the surgeons who preceded us we understood that the Operating Room at the HUEH [Haiti's University and Educational Hospital] was a difficult area to work in because the foreign teams were very territorial and hostile to a certain point… they banished or excluded the surgical and orthopedic residents on arrival. Once on the site, my mission was to reintegrate them in the system. We met with physicians from Mount Sinai, Medecins sans Frontieres, Boston University team Michigan team, the Swiss team and the AMHE.

"At the beginning an Operating Room was started by Dr. E. Benjamin, AMHE member from the Mount Sinai team, at the Dermatology Building but after 10 days the conditions were found not adequate to fit all surgeons and the aseptic conditions were found inadequate for the surgeons.  We then moved to the Urology Building that was more spacious. This time Dr. Alex Dauphin was able to create a better theater where cases could be treated in a better way. But the aseptic conditions are still dangerous.

"The country will have to be dotted with functional hospitals where clean treatements can be safely performed. The present orthopedic patients are also lacking conservative treatment and we may have a generation of amputees to take care of…. We have an urgent need for PM&R [Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation] physicians and also orthotists to help the amputatees get fitted for prosthetic devices.

"The country is receiving massive help in food donations but we will need also massive help in hardware donations once all the long bone fractures will be ready to be fixed in a sterile operating room.

"Too many infected cases have been returned to the operating room and now we have applied external fixators to closed femur fractures in kids.

"God only will know the future of our nation. As physicians we have to be prepared for the rainy season and all the water- and mosquitoes-borne disease it can bring, including cholera. You need to be careful with the drinking water. Yesterday several nurses and helpers started to get sick with temperature and malaise and diarrhea.  Be careful.

"Lastly remember that if you are not US citizen, you will be unable to take a military flight back to the US. So your best bet it is make sure that you are on the return list with the Volunteers of Scientology."- M.C., MD