Bill Devir's Report from Haiti

At our monthly luncheon on March 25, 2010, Dr. Jim Lehner gave a slideshow presentation on his service in Haiti.  For everyone there, it was a tremendous story of service, faith, and world cooperation in the face of great need.

At that luncheon, we also learned that Dr. Lehner is not alone among our club members who have served in Haiti.  Bill Devir went to Haiti as one of the first responders to the tragedy.  He is the Commander of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team OH-5, which was sent to Haiti as part of the federal government's response to the earthquake.  I've asked him to give a short report from his time helping the people.  Below is that report.

I had the privilege to lead a group of 34 federal medical responders, the Disaster Medical Assistance Team OH-5, as part of the US Department of Health and Human Services response to the Haiti Earthquake, in coordination with the US Department of State and international medical responders from over 30 countries. Our team took over the site of the Israeli Field Hospital, and provided medical care to 600 patients over the course of 10 days. At the combined US DHHS sites in Haiti, medical personnel have treated more than 29,300 patients. They have performed 139 surgeries and delivered 33 babies. Members of the NDMS Disaster Mortuary Response Teams continue operations in Haiti today, identifying the remains of US citizens for return to their families in the United States.

The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) was designed twenty five years ago as part of an integrated national response, temporarily augmenting state and local authorities in dealing with the medical impacts of major peacetime disasters. The NDMS can also provide support to the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs medical systems in caring for casualties evacuated back to the U.S. from overseas armed conventional conflicts. The NDMS provides medical response to a disaster area in the form of personnel, supplies, and equipment, patient movement from a disaster site to unaffected areas of the nation and within the U.S., can provide definitive medical care at participating U.S. hospitals in unaffected areas. The NDMS team members have non-federal jobs and become federal employees intermittently to support a disaster. NDMS falls under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within DHHS. The OH-5 team is based in Dayton, Ohio, and has responded to Hurricanes Frances, Katrina, Gustav and Ike, and its members responded to Pennsylvania, Washington DC and New York City as part of the health and medical response to the attacks of 9-11. This was the first international deployment for our team. Drawing on my personal international experience, we were able to work with local nationals to source Creole translators as well as local labor to assist with our disaster medical operation.

This picture shows Bill Devir comforting a Haitian infant in the care of Disaster Medical Assistance Team OH-5 at the Thebaud Field Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti