	A Helping Hand Since 1957, POC Doctors Have Donated Time and Supplies Providing Orthopaedic Care to Impoverished Haitians. Visit our You Tube page to view videos of our relief efforts in Haiti.
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The Haiti Connection

Haiti is a stunningly beautiful island, but the harsh reality is that it is plagued with violence, political upheaval, grinding poverty and most recently a massive earthquake. This crushing poverty has resulted in a life expectancy of just 53 years. More than half of the population dies of malnutrition. Haiti is one of the most medically deprived regions in the Western Hemisphere and has the highest infant-mortality rate in the world. It was in this troubled environment that a young F. James Funk, M.D., began his efforts to help the people of Haiti. Every four months since 1957, surgeons from Peachtree Orthopaedic Clinic (POC) travel to Haiti to provide orthopaedic care to impoverished Haitians who would otherwise go untreated.

History

While Chief Resident at Children’s Hospital in Boston in 1952, Dr. Funk received a letter from Sister Joan Margaret, a nun who ran St. Vincent’s School for Handicapped Children in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Sister Joan asked for donations of broken crutches, braces and wheelchairs. Intrigued, Dr. Funk made a visit to Sister Joan and St. Vincent’s School and saw first-hand the lack of medical care available to the handicapped children. Many had been abandoned at birth by parents who were financially unable to care for them. Dr. Funk established a program in which he traveled to Haiti annually to treat patients and perform much-needed surgery.

Dr. Funk formed Peachtree Orthopaedic Clinic in 1953; Robert E. Wells, M.D. joined him in 1955. Dr. Wells soon began to participate in the Haitian clinics. Joseph H. (Skoot) Dimon III, M.D. became a member of POC in 1960 and also joined in the effort. Other POC physicians who have participated throughout the years include Dr. Xavier Duralde, Dr. Carl Fackler (retired), Dr. Lee Kelley, Dr. Steve McCollam, Dr. Allen McDonald, Dr. Herndon Murray, Dr. Obi Ugwonali, Dr. Doug Murray and Dr. Steve Smith.

The exceptional commitment of POC was recognized by the Haitian government in 1983 when Dr. Funk was honored with the highest accolade bestowed on a civilian, the National Order of Honor and Merit.

Typical Visit

The work of POC physicians has extended throughout Haiti into remote regions in which residents have little or no access to healthcare. A typical visit to Haiti lasts approximately one week. POC physicians have worked with the Hospital Albert Schweitzer since it's founding in 1956 by W. Larimer Mellon, Jr. (whose great uncle was the industrialist Andrew Mellon). Dr. Mellon, whose life was influenced by the medical missionary Albert Schweitzer, spent his inheritance building the hospital. Located deep in the rural interior of Haiti, the hospital is totally apolitical, but is licensed by the government. When POC doctors are holding a clinic, people gather from miles around and literally set up camp. They come on donkeys, horses and on stretchers carried by family members. Families whose loved ones are undergoing surgery wait under makeshift tents and sleep on the roots of the Banyon trees that surround the hospital. Patients willingly wait up to several days to be treated by the POC staff.

In addition to the time devoted to this ongoing effort in Haiti, the POC physicians donate all the supplies used while conducting the clinic. The Hospital Albert Schweitzer cares for the needs of over 300,000 island inhabitants. POC provides volunteer orthopaedic care year round for these citizens of Haiti. The plan is to increase their involvement because of the recent earthquake catastrophe.

Program goals include not only treating patients, but also providing the local citizens and medical staff with education that can be used long after POC physicians have returned to the U.S.

Living Conditions/Political Situation

Haiti’s political situation has been tumultuous throughout the many years that POC has been active there. Dr. Wells’ first visit in 1956 coincided with the rise to power of the infamous strong-arm dictator, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and the formation of the Haitian secret police, the violent Tontons Macoute. This military government spent less on education and public health than any other nation in the Western Hemisphere. POC’s relationships in Haiti have outlasted the rule of Papa Doc, which ended in 1971 and Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, whose reign was toppled in 1986. The money left in the national treasury after the overthrow of Baby Doc went toward maintaining a system mired in graft and bribery. It is estimated that he looted his country of $800 million before his ouster. Violence in Haiti is still very common and political stability has yet to be achieved. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (also known as MINUSTAH) has been in the country since 2004. The ongoing combination of political upheaval and oppressive poverty create an environment in which the most basic necessities of life – such as healthcare – are not met. This is the gap filled by visits from POC physicians.

Living conditions in Haiti are minimal at best. There is not an adequate supply of clean drinking water or sanitation facilities. Many areas lack running water and people rely on the rivers to provide water for drinking and bathing. The people of Haiti have learned to be resourceful and are accustomed to many hardships that would seem intolerable in our culture.

Dr. Funk’s first visit to Haiti decades ago has resulted in a more than 50-year relationship between the people of Haiti and POC physicians. This relationship has improved the lives of thousands of Haitian citizens and enriched the lives of our good doctors who have had the opportunity to participate in the effort.

Haiti Today

As news of Haiti’s 2010 quake reached Atlanta, Steve McCollam, who is in charge of POC’s volunteer program in Haiti, received an e-mail from the HAS hospital director reporting they were becoming rapidly overwhelmed and were very low on supplies. (An ABC News report indicated 500 patients for an 80-bed facility.) HAS was one of the few hospitals in Haiti left standing. Dr. McCollam e-mailed POC physicians (active and retired) as well as physicians and surgical staff at Piedmont Hospital and the Georgia Orthopaedic Society, asking for volunteers and medical supplies. The response was immediate and generous. With doctors, nurses and supplies in place, the question was how to get there with the Port-au-Prince airport closed to commercial flights.


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The solution came when Piedmont Hospital chartered a plane to carry a medical team of six—three orthopaedic surgeons, an anesthesiologist and two OR nurses and medical supplies. On January 20 the charter landed at Cape Hatien’s small airport on Haiti’s northern coast, where HAS vehicles met them for the five-hour ride on winding mountain roads to the hospital. As soon as they arrived, team members went to work, busy until 10 or later each evening caring for 15 or more femur and other bone fractures daily in the OR. (HAS general surgeons performed most of the amputations.) When the medical team returned to Atlanta four days later, the backlog of orthopaedic patients was under control, a Canadian medical team had arrived and the influx of patients from Port-au-Prince slowed as the price of diesel fuel rose four-fold.

Other teams from POC and Piedmont Hospital will travel to Haiti over the next several months. The Georgia Orthopaedic Society is working with hospitals throughout the state for donations of pain medicines and antibiotics. Numerous other orthopaedic surgeons from the Georgia Orthopaedic Society have joined the POC team to aide with the relief effort. Dr. McCollam points out that there’s “more work to be done as thousands will need revision surgery and many yet will unfortunately die of sepsis [infection]. It will truly be a lost generation that will impact Haiti for decades to come.”

For more information on the hospital, see www.hashaiti.org.

How You Can Help

Since 1957, POC doctors have donated time and supplies providing orthopaedic care to impoverished Haitians. The POC Foundation is accepting donations to defer costs for relief efforts, which are greater than ever due to the 2010 earthquake. The POC Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation. We appreciate your contributions. To donate, please contact Hamano Ross at hross@pocatlanta.com.

Help for Haiti

When news of January’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti broke and images of the devastation began to sink in, POC physicians knew they had to respond. Learn more about the efforts of POC physicians and other Piedmont Healthcare providers.

(This article appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Piedmont Profiles, a publication of Piedmont Healthcare.)

Article featured in recent Atlanta Journal Constitution

Haitian earthquake survivor hopes to help others back home. Guerline Charles was sitting in Spanish class when the walls shook violently, raining huge chunks of concrete and metal down on her and her classmates. Charles was trapped for two days in the ruins of a building in a Port-au-Prince suburb before she was pulled from the rubble by bystanders. Nineteen of her classmates died in the January earthquake that shook Haiti.

Click here to read this article.

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