Dr. Lehner's Report on Haiti

One of our own has just returned from Haiti.  Dr. Jim Lehner is an orthopedist who provided medical service to the people of Haiti affected by the earthquake.  His work was coordinated through the Notre Dame Haiti Program, which is featured as part of the "What would you fight for?" ads during the football games.

Dr. Lehner will attend our luncheon on March 25 at noon at the Dayton Country Club.  He will bring pictures with him, so plan to come for a firsthand account.

The picture to the right is one that Dr. Lehner took.  It shows Frs. John Jenkins and Tom Streit.  (Fr. Jenkins is the President of the University of Notre Dame and Fr. Streit is the Holy Cross priest who is featured on the "What would you fight for?" ad relating to the curing of people with lyphatic filariasis, more commonly known as elephantiasis.)



The following is a letter that Dr. Lehner sent to me describing his work:

Marty:


Just got back from working with the Hospital Sainte Croix in Leogane, Haiti. I was the "team 6" (sixth week) Orthopod with the disaster relief team in Leogane, centered out of the Notre Dame house where the filariasis research project was going on before the quake. After the quake, the house let some ND grads go wild with first quake relief out of the standing nursing building (the old Hospital Sainte Croix was destroyed) and as of 2 weeks ago we got a MASH type hospital (made of tent material) donated by an anonymous doner (domer?). We worked helping the people of Leogane recover from this disaster. 95% of all housing is destroyed in Leogane, and ALL of the people are living in tents. Leogane was the EPICENTER of the quake, so no place else was more severely affected. More than 10% (25,000 est. out of 250,00) were killed, and we had so many injured it was considered the worst disaster the world has ever seen.

We can all be proud of "du loc" in this effort. Certainly our University has never been a health center per se in the past, but the MASH hospital is right on the grounds, and the house is (straining) letting all the volunteers live there, either in rooms they have or in tents on the grounds.

Fr. Jenkins visited this week. Brennan Bollman (valadictorian, class of 2009 and 1st year Med school Harvard) has dropped temporarily out of school to coordinate the volunteer efforts. I saw 30-50 patients each day (8 days) and did secondary surgery for the quake victims. The initial care (mostly ND people) was excellent and we are left doing the seventh week care of fractures and the severe wound follow up (skin grafts don't heal well as the nutrition is so poor, and they are living in tents or nothing.)

The ND program in Leogane is a shining example of Notre Dame at its best in service. Donations can go through the Annual Fund targeted specifically to the Leogane project. I'm sending $1000 now.

Some of our members know I've worked overseas several times before. The Bengali ND program is close to my heart, and is the first check I write every year, but this is of a scope the world has never seen. Pray for Haiti.

Thanks Marty!

Jim Lehner, M.D.

UPDATE

Below is a picture of Dr. Lehner, his nurse Diane who went with him to Haiti, and our own Joe Krug. Below that are just some of the pictures that Dr. Lehner shared with us.