Helping Haiti, any way he could

Having been born and raised in Haiti, Mercy Medical Center cardiologist Thierry Duchatellier felt that it was his duty as a physician and a Haitian to aid his homeland after its devastating earthquake on Jan. 12.

He and a group of five friends, all of whom are doctors, made the trip down to Haiti on Jan. 17, less than a week after the earthquake leveled the impoverished nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

“When we got together, we knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant and it wasn’t going to be a vacation and it was basically going to be war medicine that we were going to provide,” said Duchatellier. “I think being from there, being raised there, we knew it was a poor country, so we had seen very bad medical outcomes down there.”

While Duchatellier’s immediate family now lives in America, he still has cousins and other extended family members who live in Haiti. He said that they were fine, but that their homes and been toppled. His high school and medical school were also lost in the earthquake.

On the plane ride to Haiti, Duchatellier’s team met with physicians coming from Florida and Canada to contribute their medical expertise. The three groups decided to work together, and Duchatellier’s small band of six doctors grew to a group of almost 30.

The group also received help when they reached the country. “We had some friends that went to medical school in Haiti and stayed in Haiti and practiced medicine in Haiti,” said Duchatellier, “and we asked them what was the best way to offer our services, and they guided us to where the need was.

“We stayed for six days in a hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince doing some minor orthopedic procedures and wound cleaning and amputations,” Duchatellier continued. “Things like that.”

Duchatellier makes regular medical missions to Haiti. But he had to work tirelessly to keep up with the patient load that he and all of the other doctors had.

“We probably saw about 40-45 patients a day, each of us,” Duchatellier said. Duchatellier, a cardiologist, would often get advice on what to do from an orthopedic surgeon who was part of their group. “The orthopedic surgeon always guided us on what to do and how to clean the wound and how to dress it and antibiotics and things like that.”