Dr. Bristow helped deliver AmeriCares medicines and supplies to doctors and nurses treating earthquake survivors.

Getting Medical Aid into Good Hands in Haiti
Carol Shattuck
02/18/10

Carol Shattuck, our Chief of Staff, recounts her experiences from AmeriCares relief efforts in Haiti. Carol brings over 10 years of experience with AmeriCares, including dozens of relief missions. Read her latest report from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

While working on medical aid distribution in Haiti, it was great to meet up with Dr. Robert Bristow, an old friend of AmeriCares. Dr. Bristow is Director of Disaster Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and serves as Medical Director of Disaster Medicine New York Presbyterian. He has helped with AmeriCares on disaster relief and emergency preparedness since 1994 when he joined us for on an emergency airlift to help Rwandan refugees during the country's horrific civil war.   
 
Dr. Bristow arrived in Haiti ten days after the devastating earthquake with a team of doctors, nurses and medics to aid in the emergency medical response. They went right to work seeing patients.
 
At the end of their first two days in Haiti, they had seen 1,000 patients and almost completely depleted the medicine and supplies they brought with them. Dr. Bristow then turned to AmeriCares in Haiti for help. He picked up 85 cases of antibiotics, pain medicines, ointments to treat fungal infections, disinfectants, pediatric syringes, vitamins and other urgently required items. The supplies would help men, women and children receiving treatment at the Central Hospital and at various mobile clinics in the affected area. 
 
Wasting no time, Dr. Bristow went straight from our warehouse to one of the mobile clinics where he delivered the medicines and supplies so that the doctors and nurses could continue treating their patients. He told me they saw many people suffering from infected wounds. Many patients needing post-operative care had to leave the hospital quickly to make room for the new patients pouring in behind them. While the speedy discharge saved lives, it increased the number of cases of skin infections and other post-surgical complications.  
 
Dr. Bristow was surprised that almost two weeks after the disaster, many people with earthquake-related injuries were just being seen for the first time. I share Dr. Bristow's concerns about the potential for a public health crisis with a variety of communicable diseases possible in the heavily populated camps. He said the Haiti crisis reminds him of Rwanda where he traveled with AmeriCares back in 1994. 

Dr. Bristow had planned to stay in Haiti for ten days, but patient needs will keep him here much longer. And as long as Dr. Bristow and other dedicated doctors and nurses need AmeriCares emergency medicines and medical supplies to help treat survivors, AmeriCares will continue delivering the lifesaving support they need to do their critically important work.