By Mary Ann LoFrumento MD We all wish for happy endings in our stories and in our lives. But life in a slum like Shada is as far from a fairy tale as possible. Returning to our clinic in the midst of Cap Haitien’s worst slum, I found myself feeling cautiously optimistic. I was immediately […]

By Mary Ann LoFrumento This was not my first time in Shada. For the past three years, I visited every six months. This trip, we came to hold classes on breastfeeding, childbirth and nutrition. We hadn’t planned to see patients until the next day. The Clinic de Communitaire de Shada, supported by donations from Hands Up […]

By Katie Lynn RN. With contributions by Barbara Rome RN, Andrea Feddes, RN, and Kristen Ward RN, editorial assistance by Mary Ann LoFrumento MD. My name is Katie Lynn and I’m an ICU nurse in Mount Kisco, NY. Working in a resource limited country was something I had wanted to do from the time I […]

I have just returned from my 7th trip to Northern Haiti in the last 3 ½ years and it was, once again, an amazing experience. My name is Judy McAvoy and I am a registered nurse and certified lactation consultant and childbirth educator.  I am also one of the original members of Hands Up For […]

By Erica Bromberg I returned from my second mission to Haiti this past weekend and it was just as good as the first trip, if not better. This trip was very different for a few reasons. First, there were twelve of us, making the group a lot larger than the December mission. We also had […]

By Warren Bromberg   The urology team is pleased to report a successful inaugural HUFH mission.  Warren Bromberg, MD and Joanne Hall, RN saw 55 patients in two days at Open Door, several of whom required urgent critical intervention.  Men were seen with urinary retention and obstructive uropathy, massive hydroceles, kidney stones, testicular cancer, hematuria, […]

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 […]