Posted on 01/15/2010 2:39:42 PM PST by iowamark
CORALVILLE – Congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti is hampering the ability for one University of Iowa emergency medical doctor to travel to the country and provide assistance to those who survived the quake.
It has been an agonizing few days for Dr. Christopher Buresh, assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, to hear about what is happening in a country he has frequented and to know he cannot get there as quickly as he would like.
“The emails say ‘Help, we’re out of Band-Aids, we’re out of gloves, we’re out of medicine, we’re out of food, [we] just had to bury 90 people today,” said Dr. Buresh.
Dr. Buresh says the difficulty getting there is getting frustrating and he is growing impatient. For now, he is biding his time collecting the necessities he thinks he might need when he finally arrives in the disaster zone.
Sprawled across the floor of his home are sacks filled with gauze, syringes, water filtration devices, and dehydrated food he will take with him to Haiti. There is also an axe to chop wood to fuel fires to purify water and a camping saw which will be used for amputations. Though Dr. Buresh has collected much, he is missing a critical component to treating the living in Haiti.
“I’m thinking we’re going to need a lot of antibiotics for infectious wounds, diarrhea, people with broken ribs get pneumonia,” said Dr. Buresh. “I think it’s going to be pretty ugly.”
Dr. Buresh admitted he is not exactly sure what exactly the Haitians need right now. He is realistic that he will not be able to help everyone, but knows his team can do some things.
“We need to dig some latrines, start purifying water, make sure everyone is safe and start triaging folks,” said Dr. Buresh.
The majority of Dr. Buresh’s efforts will be focused on helping those in Leogane, a village 20 miles from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. He has not heard how many of his Haitian friends there are doing and he is desperate to get there as soon as possible.
“I’m about as determined as you can be,” said Dr. Buresh. “I’ll do everything I can – move heaven and earth – I’ll swim if I need to.”
Dr. Buresh says he plans to either fly down on a private jet or with the Minnesota Air National Guard. If he cannot fly in, he has some friends in Florida who will take him there in a boat.
If you would like to donate supplies to Dr. Buresh and his team to take with them to Haiti, email the doctor at christopher-buresh@uiowa.edu.
By KCRG TV9 News
Dr. Christopher Buresh, 34, of Coralville said he won’t be able to look at himself in the mirror if he doesn’t find a way to help. He made a lot of friends in Haiti since he began traveling there seven years ago, and he wonders what has happened to them.
“In emergency medicine we talk about things like this a lot, and we have disaster drills,” said Buresh, an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine. “This is not a drill.”
Buresh says even before the earthquake, conditions in Haiti were reminiscent of a disaster zone.
“You just can’t count on having power or electricity, and it’s always hard to get around,” he said.
Bricks and mortar aside, the doctor is most concerned about his patients. Some of the 900 or so people his team saw last week went to Port-au-Prince for more treatment.
“I don’t know how they’re doing, but I’m really worried about them,” he said.
For those who survived, people in poor health will face other challenges perhaps too difficult to overcome, he noted.
“People are going to get real sick,” Buresh said, adding the area soon will be inundated with mosquitoes followed by outbreaks of malaria and Dengue fever.
Less-severe problems could kill other Haitians.
“All it takes is a little diarrhea or a little cold to kill someone,” he said.
Knowing that is troublesome and adds to his determination to get to the disaster zone and do all he can to help.
Buresh hopes to join an organized medical team leaving Thursday. If he can’t, his team that just returned will leave again for the region on Tuesday.""
“cann” should be can, of course.
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