Two Brevard Doctors Travel to Haiti to Provide Relief
BREVARD, N.C., Jan. 25, 2010 – A Brevard pediatrician and a Brevard orthopedic surgeon have traveled to Haiti to provide desperately needed medical care to victims of the recent earthquake.
Dr. Angus Graham left from Miami on Sunday with a 10-person national surgical team to provide treatment to the injured. The team was organized by Compassion International, a Christian relief group that advocates for children living in poverty worldwide. Graham, an orthopedic surgeon, will be in Haiti for eight days treating injured earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince. The surgical team will camp out in tents in the parking lot of a Compassion International warehouse and perform surgeries daily at a nearby medical facility. The charity’s warehouse has been condemned because of damage caused by the Jan. 12 earthquake.
“We have been told to bring our tents and sleeping bags and be prepared to be self-sufficient with rice and beans for food,” Graham said Friday after wrapping up a scheduled surgery at Transylvania Regional Hospital. “There are a lot of crush injuries and broken bones that require proper treatment by a surgeon. In many cases, there are victims with closed fractures to their limbs that have just been in makeshift splints for more than a week.”
Graham and his team were scheduled to fly into the Dominican Republic and travel by truck for 10 hours through the countryside to reach Haiti’s capital. “I just hope I can use my skills as a surgeon to help as many people as possible,” he said.
Dr. Ora Wells arrived in Haiti on Friday. The Brevard pediatrician is part of a medical team of four nurses, two orthopedic surgeons, a family practice doctor and a critical care doctor. Wells and his team planned to work at two clinics and a hospital that are still standing despite being at the epicenter of the recent earthquake. Wells and a local nurse from Asheville left Western North Carolina on Thursday for New York. The entire medical team flew from New York City on Friday to the Dominican Republic, and then traveled by ground to the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
“We will be on the ground for two weeks, returning to JFK airport on Feb. 8,” Wells said by phone from the airport on Thursday. Wells left Western North Carolina with four large check-on bags of medicine and medical supplies provided by Transylvania Regional Hospital and the Transylvania Medical Society. The Brevard hospital’s pharmacy provided antibiotics and other desperately needed medicines. Local physicians and employees of the hospital donated nearly $2,000 to purchase additional medicine and medical supplies for Wells and Graham to take with them to Haiti. TRH employees have also set up a Haiti-relief fund to provide financial assistance to the two local doctors as they need it to purchase additional supplies to treat patients while they are in Haiti.
Wells’ medical team to Haiti was organized by Jodel Charles, a pastor from Denver, Colo. Both of Charles’ parents are Haitian doctors that own and run the local hospital and clinics just outside Port-au-Prince where Wells will work to save lives.
“These local doctors are desperate for supplies and help in providing care to the sick and injured,” Wells said.
Wells is no stranger to Haiti. He has traveled to Haiti six times over the past several years with other local nurses and doctors through Mission Manna, an Asheville faith-based organization that provides medical care for malnourished children in rural Haiti.
“I have fallen in love with the proud and noble people of Haiti that manage to live day-by-day under crushing poverty,” Wells said. “I appreciate everyone’s interest and support in making it possible for me to go to Haiti to help the earthquake victims, especially my wife, my partners at Hendersonville Pediatrics, friends and the medical staff and employees at Transylvania Regional Hospital.”
Graham was also thankful for the opportunity to help those in need in Haiti. “I am so glad that I am able to go and help,” he said. “And I am thankful for the support and encouragement of our local physicians, the staff at TRH and especially my great partner Dr. Mark Lemel who will be taking care of patients here in Brevard while I am away.”
About Transylvania Regional Hospital
Transylvania Regional Hospital is a nationally ranked 5-Star Hospital and a leading provider of quality healthcare services in Transylvania and surrounding counties. Based in Brevard, N.C., it is a not-for-profit hospital founded in 1933 and is the largest employer in Transylvania County.
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