Main content

    Third Bay Area Medical Team Goes to Haiti

    A third team of doctors and nurses from Sutter-affiliated Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and California Pacific Medical Center went back to Haiti on a new medical mission on Thursday, August 12.

    The team returned to L’Hospital St-Nicholas in the city of St. Marc outside of Port au Prince. Team members paid their own way on this trip and delivered much needed supplies and equipment, including a high-tech robot that will allow them to help doctors in Haiti perform surgery long after the Bay Area team has returned home.

    The VisitOR1 robot allows surgeons anywhere in the world to ‘beam’ into the Operating Room at St. Nicholas’ hospital to watch what is going on, manipulate cameras and zoom in to see close up how the patient is and to offer advice to the local surgical team. The group will also take a much needed miniature x-ray device. Unavailable in previous trips, the teams relied on their experience to fix often severely broken bones.

    Follow Dr. John Donovan's (Alta Bates Summit) daily blog:
    http://www.shhelpshaiti.blogspot.com/ External Site

    The Surgical Team

    Lamont Cardon, MD, Alta Bates Summit (Orthopedic Surgeon)

    Joan Chamberlain, RN, Alta Bates Summit (OR Nurse)

    John Donovan, MD, Alta Bates Summit (Anesthesia)

    Susan Bailey, MD, California Pacific (General Surgeon)

    Susan Blaschak, RN, California Pacific (PACU Nurse)

    Lucy Duffy, RN, California Pacific (PACU Nurse)

    DJ Eadades, RN, California Pacific (OR Nurse)

    Emily Harnden (Medical Resident)

    Cassie Kinser, RN, California Pacific (OR Nurse)

    Steve Lockhart, MD, Sutter Health East Bay (Anesthesia)

    Monica Payne, RN, California Pacific (PACU Nurse)

    Elizabeth Petruzzella, RN, California Pacific (ICU Nurse)

    Taylor Smith, MD, California Pacific (Orthopedic Surgeon)

    Photos from Haiti

    Hold your mouse over one of the thumbnail images to view the larger image below.


    These OR photos are such a contrast to the debilitated conditions during the first trip shortly after the earthquake. There is state-of-the-art equipment and even real head lamps!Using power tools (loaned by Stryker) and flouroscopy (donated by Hologic), Dr. Lamont Cardon (Alta Bates Summit Medical) and Dr. Taylor Smith (California Pacific Medical Center) place an intramedullary rod in a patient with a complex leg fracture.Dr. Lamont Cardon (Alta Bates Summit) ) at work repairing a wrist fracture.Working without power after the earthquake in January and making use of hikers headlamps!The hospital in August 2010.

    The hospital in January 2010.Radiology in January 2010.Radiology in August 2010.Dr. Taylor Smith repairing a tibial plateau fracture that happened during the earthquake. He could not do this procedure properly without the flouroscope. Hospital St-Nicholas is now one of only four hospitals in Haiti with intraoperative x-ray capabilities.IV pump training.

    Video robot training.Here is the patient after the procedure. After months of pain she has finally had the surgery she needed to realign her knee. No wonder she's smiling!The hospital ward in January.The hospital ward currently.Susan Blaschak, RN, CPMC, PACU (CPMC nurse) instructs HSN medical staff in the use of IV pumps donated by Sutter Health. Staff has been relying on gravity flow, or drip technique for infusions. These will be the first pumps ever used at the hospital.