Drs. Angela Martin, Kelly Ryan and Karl Disque volunteer their time and efforts to treat earthquake victims in Haiti.

A team of 20 medical professionals from Rush left January 23, 2010 for a 10-day medical mission trip to treat earthquake victims in Haiti. They returned to Rush on Wednesday, February 3. Among this first group of 20 Rush University Medical Center physicians to volunteer to go to Haiti to treat earthquake victims, were three physicians from Rush's Department of Anesthesiology: Angela Martin, MD an anesthesiology attending, and two Anesthesiology third year residents: Kelly A. Ryan, MD, and Karl Disque, DO. They joined a medical team that included volunteer internists, pediatricians, nurses and specialists in emergency medicine, plastic surgery, cardiology, critical care medicine, orthopedics, and pediatric orthopedics.

The team performed 30 to 50 surgeries and treated 500 to 1,000 patients per day in the hospitals, make-shift clinics in tent cities, and refugee camps in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. They campled on the campus of the Quisqueya Christan School, an elementary school that has served as a medical coordination center following the devastating quake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. The team also attended patients at a variety of neighborhood clinics and hospitals to provide whatever assistance they could.

Drs. Angela Martin, Kelly Ryan and Karl Disque spoke about their experience in Haiti during the Departmental Grand Rounds on February 24, 2010.

Also, Dr. Disque kindly shared his diary entries below which he made during the Rush medical mission trip to Haiti.

1-22-2010

I am going to Haiti! Well I must say, I feel very lucky. There was a huge response to the inquiry about the trip to Haiti. It was such a terrific outpouring of support. The department of anesthesia at Rush has been incredibly supportive and flexible to arrange for 3 of us to go serve.

1-29-2010

Today was long but many lives were saved. It was a ridiculously gratifying yet surreal experience. When you see these things happen, it really reveals character. Do you show compassion and love when you are tired, dirty, uncomfortable, unable to communicate and have no external gain? It is remarkable how many people here can say yes to that. Not only the people I see that volunteer but especially those who suffered terrific losses. We did a c section and resuscitation of a baby after premature contractions. Why was she having these? Her whole family (husband and 3 children) were trapped under a collapsed house and she had been digging them out with her bare hands for 12 days without rest until she got to them. She had not heard them crying for days, but she continued. She got to them, but it was too late. Such incredible courage and persistence. Staggering.

1-30-2010

As you can imagine the facilities were far less than stellar. If equipment was available it was very unreliable. We are working in a building that is condemned and they are using a marker on the cracks in the wall to monitor its progress daily. Somehow it makes no difference to me. I would rather be in that hospital serving this community than anywhere else now. Professionally, it has constantly tested my ability to troubleshoot. Challenges such as running out of wall oxygen half way through a case, a power outage during a case, and small bowel obstruction under spinal ect just bring out the creativity that has been dormant for a long time.

1-31-2010

Today was especially taxing emotionally. I heard once that the greatest gift of life, is life itself, the next greatest gift, is our power to choose our life. I feel that we have opportunities in this area that are far out of proportion of the Haitians and we may want to appreciate that. I am only a physician trained to serve others because of the choices I have made to great opportunities afforded me by an incredible environment. Do the Haitians have these choices?

2-1-2010

I feel very lucky to be involved in a group of 20 HC providers affiliated through Rush. Our internal medicine department treated thousands of patients during our time there. As a member of the anesthesia team, we worked closely with Rush's orthopedic surgeons as well as other surgeons from around the world to do hundreds of procedures. Very common challenges included fractures, crush injuries, skin and wound care to complement a few emergency c-sections and general surgery emergencies. During our short time in Haiti I worked at CDTI, Adventis, and general hospital. This has been an amazing opportunity to help out great people that have endured an incomprehensible loss. You see people from several different organizations from multiple nations working together to bring some sort of condolence to the people of Haiti. It is especially hard to leave knowing what we are leaving behind, I can only hope that by affecting one life that others will be affected as well.

The Department faculty, residents and staff are urged to attend their presentation.