100 Beds for Haiti Video

Here's an awesome video by Daren McKelvey from the YoYoYo 90's Jam fundraiser for 100 Beds for Haiti on March 23rd. The video includes a couple clips of me and Colleen W. talking about Hopital Sacre Coeur.*



YOYOYO 90's Jam: Heal The World Edition w/100 Beds For Haiti from 100BedsForHaiti on Vimeo.


* Be sure to watch for when I can't decide between saying DVT and "deep vein thrombosis," and end up almost saying  neither. Then go donate!

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.

Tom's of Maine Contest

The Tom's of Maine community voting project continues. You can vote for up to five clinics once a day until March 12th. Please go to the Tom's of Maine website and vote for Boston Healthcare for the Homeless.
We would like to put the $20,000 towards a new initiative to target the dental health of diabetic and HIV/AIDS patients.

Relief for Haiti

I was pouring medications at my med station when I heard a cell phone ring.

Looking up and expecting a patient, I was surprised to see a coworker grab at her pocket and bring a phone up to her ear without even looking at the number on the screen.

"Hello!" she started. then silence. "Mmmhmm," she said, and then, "Ok. Ok. Ok."

This particular co worker is a wonderful and hard working nurse for whom patients always come first, so her answering a personal call in the hallway was an immediate red flag.

"Are you ok?"

"No," she said, putting the phone away, "my entire family is in Haiti." And then, "I haven't heard from anyone."

She spent the shift quietly working with her patients; I thought I heard her sniff once, but I looked over and she was bent over a set of orders.

As we sat having lunch she showed me photos on Facebook of her home town, destroyed.

"I went to school there," she said pointing to a once cheerful blue and white building covered in dust. The building's roof was completely caved in.

"I hope the nuns are ok. That's where they lived."

We stared at the photo, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

All over our building, all over our program, all over the city and state, people tried to carry on their days here while their hearts and thoughts were miles away in Haiti.

I know some of you have already gotten this information from Twitter, Facebook or CNN.com or wherever, but for the sake of organizing I thought I'd engage in some repetition.

Money, money money. Money is what is needed the most right now. Money to fuel the organizations that specialize in relief action. At the meeting held last night at Holy Cross, the resounding themes from every speaker were patience, prayer and money. There will be a time soon for canned goods and food, and even for more volunteer groups to deploy, but right now, money is the biggest need.

The problem is there are a lot of places that are asking for money right now.

So which ones do you pick?

The important thing is to try to channel funding into the most useful organizations. The programs with the infrastructures most suited to immediate action.

The Mayor's office distributed a list of the most useful places to donate at this time. These organizations are reputable, powerful and your money will be put to immediate and efficient use:

The Red Cross (website or text "HAITI" to 90999 to charge $10 to your cell phone)

Yele Haiti (website or text "YELE" to 501501 to charge $5 to your cell phone)

Partners in Health (through their website)

Catholic Relief Services (through their website or during Masses in Boston upcoming weekends)

Additionally, Mayor Menino has established a Haitian Family Relief Fund at Bank of America. You can make donations directly to the fund through Bank of America or through The Fund for Boston Neighborhoods, Inc, at City Hall.

I think that in situations like this it's rare that there's a whole lot we can do. And of course we all want to do something, but it's paralyzing to think that it wouldn't be enough anyway.

However in this case I am convinced that our pocket change will make a remarkable difference in the outcome of this first critical stage for life saving efforts. There are so many people willing to help with search and rescue, and all they need is our financial support to facilitate their aide. So let's do it.