Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
City doctor a veteran of Haiti
Volunteer worries about fate of hosts, friends
‘They’re people who’ve had 200 years of hellish kind of existence... For them, this must be a real slap in the face’ -- Winnipeg doctor Pierre Plourde (JOHN WOODS / CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES)
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A Winnipeg doctor who volunteers in Haiti every February doesn't know if his hosts and friends there are still alive and if their facilities are still standing.
"I spoke to them Monday evening -- my key contact and a physician -- and everything was good to go," said Dr. Pierre Plourde, a medical officer of health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
Since Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake, he hasn't been able to get ahold of either.
"It's heart wrenching," said Plourde, who has been helping out in Haiti since 1982. He was leading a team of nine volunteers on Feb. 5 to Cite Soleil -- the poorest part of the impoverished capital, Port-au-Prince. By then, it still may not be safe enough for the nine doctors, nurses and students including Plourde's son Daniel. The high school student has been to Cite Soleil with his dad four times before and has collected a ton of donated soccer gear for kids in Haiti.
"Not much will stop me but I'm worried about them," the elder Plourde said of the volunteers. "I need my friends to be alive and well and for the buildings to still be standing," said Plourde, who speaks French and the Creole dialect. He said he may be going on his own to help non-governmental organizations with disaster relief.
The 7.0-magnitude quake incapacitated all three Doctors Without Borders medical facilities around the capital of Port-au-Prince, the group said Wednesday, causing one to collapse completely and rendering the other two so unstable that they had to be abandoned.
Workers scrambled to set up temporary shelters, where they are now dealing with an influx of seriously wounded quake victims, Paul McPhun, a member of the organization's emergency management team, told a conference call.
The lack of infrastructure has made it impossible for staff to provide adequate treatment, he said.
"The best we can offer them at the moment is first-aid care and stabilization," McPhun said.
"The reality of what we're facing is severe traumas: head wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt with the level of medical care that we currently have available with no infrastructure, really, to support it."
The organization's first priority is to re-establish facilities that will enable staff to perform surgeries and other more intensive procedures, McPhun said. There may be some relatively undamaged buildings that could be converted into a hospital, he added.
Plourde said Haiti is often battered by political and natural disasters but its people are not beaten.
"They're people who've had 200 years of hellish kind of existence," said Plourde. "This is a resilient people who are already picking up the pieces... What's sad now is how much things had improved in the last couple of years," said Plourde. "Foreign Affairs had lifted warnings not to go to Haiti. The last couple of years have been more stable politically, and kidnapping has stopped. It was a more enjoyable place to be. You could get things done. For them, this must be a real slap in the face."
-- With file from The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2010 A5
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