A team from Sinai Hospital’s Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics recently arrived in the Dominican Republic to treat Haitians injured in the earthquake. Team members include Shawn Standard, M.D., a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Marie Gdalevitch, M.D., an orthopedic fellow and James Pepple, M.D., an anesthesiologist. This team is treating severely injured Haitians who have been transported out of field hospitals in Haiti to the more sophisticated CURE International Hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The Sinai team has already operated on a 22-year-old woman who has pelvic and foot fractures and is battling infection in her amputated fingers.
“Bernadine is the lone survivor of a school that had 85 students,” said Standard. “After the building collapsed, she was able to crawl out through a window.” The team will also operate on a Haitian orphan who underwent a leg amputation and now has an infection.
Several doctors from the CURE International hospital have been in Port-au-Prince since the early days of the disaster, which has forced surgery to be delayed for Dominican children with dislocated hips and other complicated orthopedic problems.
“The ward is full of children who were scheduled to have surgery and are now waiting for treatment,” said Standard. The Sinai team is filling in for the CURE Dominican team by providing care to these children as well as the Haitians who are transported to Santo Domingo for treatment.
Several months from now, the region will still need orthopedic surgeons who can treat bone infections, broken bones that failed to heal, and broken bones that healed incorrectly. Dr. Standard plans to return in March to help Haitians with these orthopedic problems.
This mission trip is funded in part by the Save-A-Limb Fund, a program of Sinai Hospital. The Save-A-Limb Fund fights to save limbs from amputation and provide hip and knee replacements to patients in need both domestically and abroad.
For more information on the Save-A-Limb Fund, click here.
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