By Kirsten Salyer
Northwestern began sending doctors and health care workers to provide medical relief to earthquake victims in Haiti Monday.
NU medical workers from the Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital will volunteer in collaboration with the University of Chicago Medical Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine and Rush Medical College.
Dr. Martin Lucenti, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial, was the first of the group of 45 volunteers to leave for Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
After the earthquake, there was an “incredible” outpouring of support by the NU medical staff and faculty, said Dr. Robert Murphy, director of the NU Center for Global Health.
“Although Northwestern doesn’t have any programs going on the ground in Haiti, we have a lot in developing countries,” he said.
Physicians are selected for two-week trips, said Carolyn Baer, deputy director of the NU Center for Global Health. She said the center is evaluating volunteers’ skill sets and their proficiency in Creole and French.
The first wave of medical workers includes people with experience in orthopedics, trauma, anesthesia and technical support, and a second wave of more specialized support will follow, Murphy said.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” he said. “We have a list of people ready to go, and we’re sending them as the opportunity rises.”
Dr. Joseph Weistroffer, a Feinberg assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery, will leave for Haiti Friday.
“It’s hard for anyone who’s watched what’s unfolded in the last weeks not to be devastated by this act of Mother Nature,” he said. “I felt compelled to help in any way. I was lucky that I have skills that are really needed down there.”
A graduate of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Weistroffer has been trained to work with disasters, he said. Before coming to NU, he served in the military as a medical officer for sailors based in the Pacific Ocean and as a physician for refugees in Djibouti.
Weistroffer said he hopes he can apply his skills as an orthopaedic surgeon and his experience with public health.
“I hope I can work as a surgeon,” he said. “But if they put me in some place to work as a general practitioner, I will. I’ll do whatever they need me to do.”
Six more medical workers will leave for Haiti next Wednesday, Murphy said.
“This isn’t going to end tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll be there at least a couple of months in a very substantial way.”
In addition to sending doctors, NU will also begin receiving patients from Haiti who have bad spinal injuries, Murphy said. The first spinal injury patient will arrive in Chicago Wednesday, he said.
As he prepares to travel in Port-au-Prince, Weistroffer said he has to be ready for anything. He said his years in the military have taught him one thing: “Man plans and God laughs.”
“We can only plan so much,” he said. “Then you go and see what you’ve got and deal with the situation that we have there.”
Source: Daily Northwestern
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