Volunteers busy in Haiti, plans for second deployment in works

Thirteen volunteers from the medical center are busy treating the wounded in Haiti this morning. Meanwhile, UNMC already has started to lay groundwork for a second deployment to help the Caribbean nation recover from the massive earthquake that struck on Jan. 12.

Patients wait outside an overcrowded hospital in Haiti with some afraid to go inside for fear of aftershocks that have continued to rumble following the massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck on Jan. 12. The photo was taken by Oluyemisi Odugbesan, M.D., a UNMC instructor of anesthesiology and a member of the medical center’s 13-person volunteer team that deployed to Haiti this weekend.

One group of volunteer doctors and nurses from UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center landed in Port-au-Prince on Sunday morning and went directly to work in a community hospital and a private clinic.

A second team landed on Monday morning and immediately was ushered into the Project MediShare field hospital at the main airport.

“There are only three nurses for 300 patients here,” said Nick Hall, a nurse at The Nebraska Medical Center who is immersed in bedside nursing. “Wound care is the biggest unmet need.”

As such, bedside nurses and wound care materials will be high-priorities as UNMC works to coordinate its next wave of volunteers.

Physician blogs from Haiti Volunteer Oluyemisi Odugbesan, M.D., a UNMC instructor of anesthesiology, has set up a blog to share her experiences from Haiti. “There are very few words to describe the devastation, but I’m already encouraged by the lives that have been saved and how those who were spared are volunteering to help their fellow man,” Dr. Odugbesan said in a Sunday evening blog post.

More than 100 people have volunteered to help in the next deployment and potential volunteers will be contacted about participation in the coming days, said Ayman El-Mohandes, M.B.B.Ch., M.D., M.P.H., dean of the College of Public Health and a co-leader of UNMC’s response to the Haitian tragedy.

Priority will be given to doctors and nursing staff and others that respond to the greatest current need, he said.

UNMC employees can assist their volunteer colleagues by donating to the University of Nebraska Foundation’s UNMC Haitian Relief and Outreach Fund, which supports this and future deployments to Haiti and reduces the personal financial burden on volunteers.

Those who do not wish to donate online can do so by sending donations to:

Omaha Office of the University of Nebraska Foundation

2285 S. 67th St. Suite 200

Omaha, NE 68106

Also, those with friends, family and colleagues who work at Union Pacific (UP) can let these people know that UP will match dollar-for-dollar employee contributions to the UNMC fund. For more information, contact Magda Peck, Sc.D., at mpeck@unmc.edu.