By Beth Bromberg The eye team and urology team spent the beginning of our week at Open Door. We saw 185 patients over the two days. The ophthalmology cases seen were extensive, including presbyopia, myopia, glaucoma, severe endstage glaucoma, cataracts, hereditary diseases causing blindness, corneal scarring causing blindness, alternating exotropia, infectious retinopathy, Coats’ disease, pseudotumor cerebri, […]

By Marsha Morton As a new nurse, I did not know what to expect working for a medical mission. I went with the attitude that I would do whatever work got thrown at me, whether it be cleaning an exam room or tending to patients. Our first clinic day in the slums of Shada was […]

By Dr. Jill Ratner Like many of my trips, this trip was incredibly diverse and packed with plans and accomplishments.  Besides myself, the only person who had previously worked on a medical trip to Haiti was Andrea Lotze, a neonatologist. Our other team members were Lauren Blum, a pediatric nurse practitioner, Marsha Morton, a registered […]

It seems hard to believe that our trip to Haiti was almost two months ago. We traveled with a team of two ophthalmologists, one optometrist, and four laypersons. Although as laypeople we did not have any medical knowledge, we were each able to find our niche. As I embark on my premedical studies, I was […]

When I first went to Haiti three years ago, I believed it would be a one- time experience. I had never traveled on a medical mission and I had no experience in global health. But I was profoundly changed by that trip and I resolved to return and try to make a difference for the […]

Our day started with a song. Ten matrones, many quite elderly, had traveled a distance to join us at the Sante Pou Yo Clinic in Bas Limbe, for a training seminar called Helping Babies Breathe. The song they sang was joyous, a chorus celebrating life. For these women have collectively delivered life to generations of […]

By: Dr. Jill Ratner, President, Hands Up for Haiti I opened my New York Times recently and my eye immediately went to a front page story entitled “Fighting a Cancer with Vinegar and Ingenuity”. I smiled, knowing what I was about to read.  I had just returned from a medical mission in Haiti doing just […]

Author: Jayant “Jay” Kairam While core medical skills, triaging and differential diagnosis are very translatable to my professional environment, where we must prioritize in service delivery and amongst finite resources. What needs to be addressed now? What can wait? What can subsist with basic service? Assess the problem and identify solutions. The right recommendations must […]

Author: Jayant “Jay” Kairam “I found the daily visage of the cruise ship a too perfect analogy for the historic barriers the country continues to face. How can a place so close to so much wealth be so far away?” As the sole non-health professional on the team, I had to sort of explain my […]

This was our first educational mission for students and residents and I believe it was a success. The members of our team worked very well with the staff at HVH and our translators. Even Jay, who was non medical volunteer served an important role in helping with logistics and registration, as well as helping to […]