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

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.

Holy Cross Seminarian Dies in Haiti Earthquake

As many of you know, the Congregation of Holy Cross, the order of priests and brothers that founded and runs Notre Dame, has a large presence in Haiti.  The order is organized into provinces with one of them being the Haiti Provence.  (Another provence is the Indiana Provence.)

The Congregation of Holy Cross has been serving the poor in Haiti for more than 60 years. Holy Cross missionaries from Canada first came to Haiti in 1944 to direct an existing secondary school in Cap Haitien. That initial mission, now called College Notre-Dame, sparked the establishment of other Holy Cross educational, social, and parochial ministries throughout Haiti, now organized as the Province of Notre-Dame du Perpetual Secours, with 70 religious members, including two Holy Cross bishops.

The Holy Cross school and seminary in Haiti were completely destroyed.  Worse still, one of the seminarians was killed.

Early Friday morning, Holy Cross leaders reported that massive damage almost completely destroyed the provincial house and the Congregation’s school, Ensemble Scolaire Basile Moreau, which opened in 1989 to serve the poor in Port-au-Prince. In addition, a seminarian who taught at the Congregation’s high school in northern Haiti was killed in the collapse of a building at the University Quisqueya.

Below is a video of the damage at Quisqueya University.



If you wish to support the Congregation, please send donations in care of Holy Cross Mission Center, P.O. Box 543, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

The Notre Dame Haiti Program building, despite being located closer to the earthquake's epicenter than Port-au-Prince, did not collapse.  Fr. Streit and several students who were there at the time of the earthquake survived and are in the process of returning to the United States.  Holy Cross Associates also has a program in Haiti.

Fr. Jenkins celebrated Mass at the Basilica this evening, a Mass in which several students who had worked in Haiti attended.

Prayer for the People of Haiti

A Prayer for the People of Haiti

(from the Catholic Relief Service website)

God of all creation, as we weep with our family in Haiti, console us.

In this time of crisis, open our eyes to look beyond the disaster to see Christ in our brothers and sisters in Haiti, as Christ sees us.

Be with all creation; strengthen us in solidarity with those living and working in Haiti. All creation returns to you in mourning and your grace guides our efforts to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort the grieving and stand for justice.

With your mercy, sustain us at this time as we continue to work for peace and justice.

Amen.

To make a donation to help the relief efforts, please consider the Catholic Relief Service, which has had a longstanding presence in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for many years and has over 300 people on the ground in Haiti, as well as the American Red Cross.

Notre Dame has had a longstanding Haiti Program, focusing on the work of Fr. Tom Streit, CSC, and his fight against lymphatic filariasis.  Notre Dame's response to the disaster in Haiti includes a mass and a ramping up of efforts to provide relief.  To make a donation to Notre Dame's Haiti program, please go here.