Surgeons at Finnish-German field hospital cure abdominal pain of Haitian boy

Hospital to be needed in earthquake aftermath for a long time

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By Mikko Paakkanen
     
      Finnish surgeon Olli Kruuna tosses thin white worms into a bowl, where they writhe around. Lying on the operating table is eight-year-old Justin.
      The location is a white tent in midfield at the Carrefour football stadium in Haiti.
      The tent is an operating room flown in from Finland. It is part of a field hospital set up by the German and Finnish Red Crosses in the aftermath of the earthquake in January.
     
Since then, about 20,000 patients have been cared for at the stadium. Nearly 900 surgeries have been performed.
      In the early stages, the field hospital handled acute injuries. Now the hospital has dealt with earthquake injuries that it has been able to, but the hospital will be needed for a long time.
      “Sometimes guards have trouble controlling the numbers of people trying to get in”, says hospital director Johannes Schad. There is much demand for the services of the field hospital, as Haiti’s health care system, which was weak to begin with, suffered badly in the earthquake. “The local system needs support”, Schad says.
     
Four months after the earthquake the field hospital largely deals with the same kinds of complaints as a Finnish regional hospital - for instance, injuries caused by accidents, appendicitis, and tumours. “There are plenty of diseases that have been left untreated for a long time”, Kruuna says.
      About ten babies are born in the hospital each day. One premature baby born a month ago, who weighs less than a kilo, lies in the intensive care unit.
      Lying on another bed is an 18-year-old woman who has undergone surgery for advanced ovarian cancer. Her prognosis is not good, as chemotherapy drugs are available only at private hospitals for a high price.
     
In the children’s ward a boy is sitting with serious burns that he sustained when a tent in a camp for the homeless caught fire. He would also need follow-up treatment elsewhere, because skin transplants for children are too demanding for the field hospital to handle.
      However, in Haiti, there is an advantage to having a hospital in a tent; those who have experienced an eartquake do not feel safe inside a house. Kruuna says that many patients suffer from post-earthquake stress.
      “Women have come from the local maternity hospital here to give birth. They were afraid to stay there because it is a building”, says gynaecologist Katriina Mulari.
     
The field hospital is expected to continue operations at the stadium until the end of the year, even though hospitals usually operate in disaster areas for only a few months. Even after that, the equipment of the hospital is to be left in Haiti.
      The hospital is increasingly being moved under the control of local staff. Already now, most of the treatment work is in the hands of Haitian doctors and nurses. Foreigners from the Red Cross organisations of various countries are there primarily in training and supervisory roles.
     
After the surgery, Justin is moved to intensive care - a ward equipped at about the level of an ordinary ward at an ordinary Finnish hospital.
      Kruuna removed white worms from the boy’s abdominal cavities, where they had entered from a perforated small intestine. The worms are a common complaint developing countries with warm climates.
      The hospital reported on the next day that Justin was recovering well.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.5.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish aid organisations join international effort to help Haiti after massive earthquake (14.1.2010)
  Finnish aid worker travels in convoy to chaotic Haiti (15.1.2010)

MIKKO PAAKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mikko.paakkanen@hs.fi