Scarsdale Pediatrician Spends Spring Break Helping Haitians

Like many spring breakers this year, Dr. Shaila Setty traveled to the Caribbean, but not for a wild time in the Bahamas or St. Maarten.

Instead, Setty, a pediatrician at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx and the Chair of Scarsdale C.H.I.L.D., traveled to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and then by bus to Jacmel, a small city on the southern coast.

When the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck about 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince on January 12, a BBC reporter who was staying in Jacmel Twittered that the city was "destroyed." Jacmel's mayor Zenny Edwin told the AFP on January 20 that he estimated 300 to 500 people dead and about 4,000 others injured out of a total population of 50,000.

Since Port-au-Prince was closer to the epicenter of the earthquake, the damage was more severe there, so aid groups concentrated their efforts in the nation's capital. Aid to Jacmel didn't arrive until days after the quake.

I had the opportunity recently to speak with Dr. Setty about her week caring for those in need in Jacmel:

How did the trip started out?

I've always been interested in medical mission trips and it's always been my dream to go for one of these, and many if I could. I'm from India originally and I did a few there.

My friends, who are the organizers of the Delaware Medical Relief Team, called me a few weeks ago and asked me if I were interested. I was able to go since it was spring break and my friends helped out to take care of my children.

Where did you go in Haiti?

We went from Port-au-Prince and we took a van to Jacmel. It's a smaller town in the southern part of Haiti which was also pretty badly devastated with the earthquake.

When the first team went there, no one had yet reached them about six days after the quake hit. Our organization was the first to go there, even before the Red Cross.

Who did you go with?

We were a total of 11 people. Five were doctors, there were two to three medical personnel people, and three others were logistics people. We were the seventh team from the Delaware Medical Relief Team to go to Jacmel.

What kind of medical maladies did you see?

We saw a lot of depression and anxiety, earthquake related. We didn't see as many acute things. We did see a few patients with crushed fingers and toes, as well as undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes, infectious diseases, a lot of malnourishment, and a fair number of STDs.

Were there other organizations helping out in Jacmel?

Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and Team ORANGE. Of course another big presence was the Christian Coalition for Haiti.

There was a central depot for the medications and since every team took medications with them, we left almost $35,000 in medical equipment behind.

Did you encounter any difficulties in treating patients?

It was pretty chaotic. We could sense there wasn't too much organization. Doctors Without Borders were supposedly the official disaster relief team [as designated by the Haitian government].

Our surgeon didn't get permission to do surgeries until the last day we were there. By the time we got there, there were no surgeries that were earthquake related, but there was a lady with a tumor on her head the size of a large orange. Was it an earthquake related condition? No. But was it a condition that needed immediate attention? Yes.
There were too many people who kind of wanted to run everything. We worked out of the local hospital, but there were a lot of doctors working out of tents. Medications were getting thrown around everywhere without a lot of organization.

What was the highlight of your trip?

We had a couple of patients who came in with heart failure. If it weren't for the internists we had, they wouldn't have made it through the night.

I'm a pediatrician, so the highlight of the trip was seeing the kids being so happy, no matter what. Some of them had lost homes, but you can't supress the spirit of a child.

We had the opportunity to visit some schools and we had a lot of people thanking us. That was the happy side of the whole thing. It was very rewarding to see that.

To help the Delaware Medical Relief Team continue their efforts of providing professional  medical care to the people of Jacmel, donations can be be made via their website, or by sending a check to: Delaware Medical Relief Team Fund 923 Morningdale Drive Wilmington DE 19810.