‘Just heartbreaking:’ Akron Children’s doctors work to send aid to Haiti after earthquake – Akron Beacon Journal
Doctors and other health professionals at Akron Children’s Hospitals with strong ties to colleagues and patients in Haiti are scrambling to find a way to help in the wake of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake over the weekend.
Akron Children’s doctors and other healthcare professionals have been collaborating with professionals in Haiti at St. Damien Hospital outside of Port Au Prince for more than a decade.
Teams of health professionals from Akron have made several medical mission trips to Haiti, and medical workers from Haiti have come to Akron to be trained. Akron Children’s also has provided lifesaving heart surgeries for young Haitian patients.
Dr. Jeff Kempf, who retired as a Children’s emergency medicine doctor and head of the hospital’s Office of Pediatric Global Health in 2019, spoke to the head of St. Damien on Saturday after the earthquake.
“The good news is the hospital is unscathed and although there were rumblings, there was no damage,” Kempf said. The hospital was much closer to the epicenter of the earthquake in 2010, which was in Port au Prince. The epicenter of Saturday’s earthquake was about four hours away.
But still, so much has happened to the country, which is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, he said. The country has been dealing with massive unrest for several years. A Children’s team on a medical mission in 2019 had to leave the country in the middle of the trip and has not been able to return since.
In July, the country’s president was assassinated.
“The fear is palpable. The fear is gripping.” said Kempf, who has been involved in medical missions with his wife, Dr. Ellen Kempf, for nearly 40 years. “You can imagine, they shot the president, cholera is now rampant in Haiti, they do have available (COVID-19) vaccines, but it’s critically limited, so people are dying from COVID and the gangs surround everything.”
Kempf and other Children’s physicians were featured in a documentary film released in April following one of the trips to Haiti. The film, “Open Hearts,” will be available for purchase by the end of the month on iTunes, AppleTV and potentially other streaming services, co-director Travis Pollert said.
More:Documentary features life-saving heart surgeries by Akron Children’s doctors
Kempf said he worries about people in Haiti.
“This earthquake happens, the country is in turmoil. The whole thing is a mess. And before this all happened, there was a scarcity of food and scarcity of medical supplies. It’s only going to get worse. None of this is going to get better. It’s just, my my my. The rains are coming tonight,” he said Monday of a tropical storm heading to the island.
“When the earthquakes happened before, no one went inside for months, they just wouldn’t go into the buildings. So they’ll be sleeping tonight in pouring rain. It’s going to be horrific for people.”
Kempf and other physicians, including Dr. John Pope, who took over as the director of the hospital’s global health division after Kempf retired, now are working to get more medical donations to Haiti.
Pope, who has been on two medical missions to Haiti twice a year since 2010, was already working on getting a large shipping container of medical equipment and supplies to Haiti in the fall.
Now, he is going to see if those donations can be gathered around the country quicker. But a more immediate need could be quicker shipments of medications, Pope said.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” Pope said of seeing the earthquake in Haiti on top of other issues.
Haitian girl treated in Akron survives earthquake
This weekend, Pope also made contact with a Haitian social worker who accompanied Stephanie, an 8-year-old girl with severe heart issues, to Akron in April for lifesaving surgery.
Pope was worried about Stephanie and her family since they were in one of the towns hit by the earthquake. The social worker found out she and her family are OK, Pope said.
Stephanie was the last patient who has been able to come to Akron since there are complications with COVID restrictions and the political unrest in Haiti.
“It was remarkable,” Pope said. “This girl could not walk two steps because she was so blue and her mother sent us a video when she got back to Port au Prince of Stephanie running.”
‘We really need help’
Also safe from the earthquake is Denso Gay, who started as an interpreter at St. Damien and made several trips to Akron accompanying patients.
Gay, who spoke by phone on Monday, said while this earthquake was further away than the 2010 one, it felt like it lasted longer. He and his family and those at the hospital are all safe, he said.
The hospital is preparing to take care of other Haitians who may not be able to get care in areas hit by the earthquake, said Gay, who is interim director of operations at the hospital.
Kempf said it is unknown if the roads are safe to travel long distances to get to the hospital after the earthquake and with the political unrest.
Gay said the hospital staff has been very thankful for the Akron community’s support.
“When we have foreigners coming down here, it is a huge help. We already have a lack of professional staff… so when we have like this tragedy happen, it increases the problem. We really need help. We need people to help,” Gay said.
The help and training that doctors and others from Akron have provided at St. Damien has been immeasurable, said Gay.
“We say so much thank you to the professional people and to the donors. Without this… I’m sure many kids will still die with disease here and (there was) also help to the hospital by training our staff and providing materials,” he said.
How to help
Monetary donations can be made to Akron Children’s Office of Pediatric Global Health for supplies and medicine for Haiti. Go to giving.akronchildrens.org/globalhealth or contact Tim DuFore at 330-810-5826 or tdufore@akronchildrens.org
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher