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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Let's Dance for 100 Beds Tonight

Do you love 90's music? And dancing? And... beds?

Tonight at Middlesex in Central Square Cambridge, MA they'll be pumping up the 90's jams for a cause is not only worthwhile, but specific and measurable.

I found out about 100 Beds for Haiti through connections I made while working at Hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot.  Their goal is simple: to send 100 beds to HSC by June 2010, and guess what?
Thanks to great organizing, 100% of the money raised is earmarked for this specific cause.

These beds will improve patient care now, but will also allow the hospital, which not only services the earthquake victims, but also serves as a health care center for a larger, local community to develop long term plans for sustainability.

So come on out tonight at 9pm and meet me at Middlesex at 315 Mass Ave in Cambridge, MA.
It's a $5 donation at the door, we'll rock out to some Spice Girls and Michael Jackson, and before you know it we'll have made it possible for this amazing hospital to be even more amazing.

I'm not convinced yet. Why beds?
Before the earthquake HSC was just a 73 bed hospital, but in a matter of days it expanded to welcome more than 400 patients. There were at least 175 mattresses that I know of donated by a cruise ship, and probably more than that from near and far as well, but many of the patients we cared for rested day and night on bare cots.

While I was in Milot the hospital was home to about 273 patients; as of March 17th they have discharged some more to Port Au Prince, but the hospital plans to continue offering services to a newly expanded population.

It would be great to start expanding the number of beds to match the number of patients. Having proper beds improves patient outcome by limiting post op discomfort which in turn aids in speeding physical therapy tolerance. PT promotes rehabilitation (obviously) but also prevents complications such as pneumonia and DVTs. Plus.. I didn't assemble a sample group or crunch the numbers myself, but from sheer observation in the tents I can tell you that decubitis ulcers (bed sores) seem to form quicker in patients who are cot-ridden as opposed to bed - ridden.

Imagine surviving an earthquake, a painful and debilitating crush injury to your leg and an amputation  in a very limited surgical environment only to die while in recovery from a preventable condition like a DVT or an infected bed sore?

Adding more beds to Hopital Sacre Coeur serves a short term and a long term purpose. It  improves the outcome of patients who are currently being treated and it also offers sustainability for the hospital's future. Part of CRUDEM's mission is continuing to stabilize HSC so that even when the foreign volunteers begin to dwindle, local staff can continue to offer exceptional care to their patients. Adding 100 more beds allows HSC to plan for the long term development of their recovery center.

Check out the facebook event for YoYoYo 90's Jam: Heal the World Edition, and  invite your friends. Then grab a slap bracelet, a mood ring and a five dollar bill and meet me at 9pm. Simple.

2 comments:

Daren McKelvey said...

Thank Misch and Colleen (and your other friends Mike and one other?) for coming out last night and gettin down! We raised $437 :-) .. Video will be up by tonight or tomorrow. Have you been chatting with Cassidy or Judith from @100bedsforhaiti? We should all connect..both are on my fb

Misch said...

Thanks so much, Daren! I just saw that you plugged MischMash on the 100 Beds Blog which is great! Let's all stay in touch about more events for fundraising... maybe I could help you guys with a local comedy night...