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Local doctor heads for Haiti to provide desperately needed care for earthquake victims Date published: 1/29/2010
By JIM HALL This week, Dr. Clifton Sheets heard from a colleague who had just arrived in Haiti. The message from Dr. Michael Goeden was that conditions there were worse than he had imagined. Goeden said he and others in a medical mission group were treating people with open wounds and fractures from the Jan. 12 earthquake. "Can you imagine going two weeks with no fracture care?" Sheets asked. Sheets said Wednesday that he expects to be providing the same type of care, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. He and others in an International Allied Missions-sponsored group leave tonight for a week-long stay in Haiti. The group is headed for the area near Kenscoff, south of where Goeden is working. Both men are former emergency room doctors at Mary Washington Hospital and now own a pair of urgent care centers in Spotsylvania County. Goeden is with Dr. Timothy Powell, a local internist/pediatrician, and other volunteers from Christ Church of Fredericksburg. Sheets will be joined by Dr. Claudia Sussdorf, a Fredericksburg pediatrician; Dr. Christopher Huesgen, an emergency room doctor at Mary Washington Hospital; and 24 others from Tennessee, Illinois and Georgia. Their trip was long planned, and they had sent ahead medicines and other supplies to await them. Then the earthquake hit. Sheets said the group despaired of ever reaching Haiti, or of having any supplies to work with if they did get there. They had given away their medicines to those treating earthquake victims. But the group was allowed to board a United Airlines humanitarian flight, leaving from Chicago tomorrow morning for Port-au-Prince. And when word spread that they needed replacement supplies, donations poured in from Fredericksburg residents and others. Sheets said the group was able to buy 30 boxes of medicines and bandages that will be placed aboard their Chicago plane. They also will take donated cartons of packaged "meals ready to eat" so they do not have to eat food that might better go to the Haitians. "The response from Fredericksburg has been overwhelming," Sheets said. "Adversity doesn't develop character. It reveals it. This has revealed how generous the people around here really are." Jim Hall: 504/374-5433
Date published: 1/29/2010
that there are those whose mission in life is helping others. God Bless all of these folks from our area and elsewhere who have answered the call to come and try to help heal the sick and wounded in Haiti as well as around the world. Remember these folks in your prayers also.
It appears from my reading that doctors, especially those from the US, have been hampered in providing care in Haiti by the lack of diagnostic equipment. On the other hand, Cuban doctors have developed expertise in providing medical care in Third World settings where expensive diagnostic equipment is not available. Hopefully, there may be some Cuban doctors around who will be willing to share their expertise.
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