29296: potemaksonje (news) Daily Challenges of Cuban Doctors in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

potemaksonje@yahoo.com


Here, I just found an article written by some of those
evil reds, about those evil Cuban Doctors in Haiti.
Some may be forced to turn away from the screen, you
may not agree with what you read.   I wonder if poor
Haitians have the same luxury?




Mon Oct 2, 2006 9:15 am (PST)

GRANMA
October 2, 2006

Daily Challenges of Cuban Doctors in Haiti

MARIA JULIA MAYORAL

GONAIVES, Haiti.-Immersed in its daily routine, the
city has erased
almost all traces of the severe floods that struck two
years ago
killing thousands of its inhabitants, destroying
buildings and
blocking roads. Now it is back to "normality," in the
poorest country
of the western hemisphere.

At the operating room of the Roboteu Hospital the
workload is heavy

Nevertheless, neither the people that live in
Gonaives, the capital
of the department of Artibonite, nor the Cuban health
workers who
were there during the tragedy, forget the difficult
moments shared.
Both are also aware of the benefits that a
relationship underscored
by goodwill continues to provide.

While an important part of the Cuban medical brigade
is based in the
departmental capital, it provides healthcare services
in virtually
the entire province of Artibonite.

There are Cuban healthcare workers at the hospital
units of Ennery,
Dessalines, and San Marcos and in the healthcare
centers or
dispensaries of Marmelade, San Michel, Anse Rouge,
Terre Neuvre, L'
Estere, Petite-Riviere de L' Artibonite, Verrettes and
Grande Saline,
among other zones.

For brigade members it is a matter of pride having
been the ones who
started the Operation Miracle eye surgery program in
Haiti.

At La Providencia Hospital they worked very hard to
prepare the
ophthalmology area, and install the new high-tech
equipment. They
began doing eye surgeries on August 8, benefiting a
large number of
low-income persons, who for the first time ever have
access to
healthcare services thanks to the fact that it is
offered free of
charge.

Despite the heavy work load at the healthcare centers
and house
calls, in Artibonite, as in the rest of Haiti, the
Cubans find time
for the development of their professional training. In
this
department 95 percent of the Cuban health care workers
are studying,
says Rafael Rodriguez Treto, who heads the Brigade.

Treto, who is a specialist is gynecology and
obstetrics, said the
doctors are participating in different Masters
Programs and medical
research projects, centered in the different types of
pathologies
existing among the Haitian population.

FLAGSHIP

The work of the Cuban physicians in Gonaives during
the severe
flooding of 2004 and the hospital at Roboteau,
continues to be the
"flagship" of the Cuban cooperation. There, all the
medicals services
-surgery, pediatrics, anesthesiology, gynecology,
orthopedics- are in
the hands of the brigade.

Nurse Maximo Garcia says it is a great joy that a many
patients come
in to receive the benefits of acupuncture.

Although the installation was remodeled and equipped
with the
participation of the Cuban doctors, technicians, and
nurses, the
demands on them are extremely high because the
hospital has only 19
beds and many patients, including small children that
are brought in
to the facility when they are in critical condition.

Before leaving for Haiti, Maria del Carmen Valdes,
from the province
of Pinar del Rio, was the head of the intensive care
unit of the
Epifanio Roa Clinic of the San Luis municipality. She
is a specialist
in internal medicine with 32 years of experience, 16
of which she has
devoted to intensive care. She noted that the Roboteau
facility lacks
optimum conditions to care for gravely ill patients,
and that
"constantly puts to a test the skills we have learned
along these
years saving lives."

There are no days without tensions and some of them
are "a real
headache," explain the doctors. I could barely speak
with Drs.
Sotolongo and Augusto, two orthopedics specialists. I
remember their
tired faces and the brief welcome salute that they
gave us from a
distance. Dressed in the operating room garb, they
were taking a few
short minutes break before returning to surgery.

They had began working early in the morning, and in
the early hours
of the afternoon still had several operations to do
that could not be
delayed.

The Cubans began a new service in recent days in
Roboteau, natural
and traditional medicine. Nurse Maximo Garcia and
physician Walfrido
Roque are in charge of that service and the demand it
has garnered is
surprising. They said they are nearly always met with
a long waiting
line, above all the senior citizens, who have learned
about the
benefits of exercise, acupuncture and other treatments
that don't
make use of pharmaceuticals.

Right next to the area of the doctors' offices is the
area devoted to
physical therapy, and one can see several instruments
made by the
Cuban cooperation team. If it were not for these
innovations the
rehabilitation services could not have started there.

According to Maxime, the herbal therapy is also
winning followers.
"Before we began the service, we presented the
different types of
medicinal teas, and explained their healing
properties, in a mutual
learning process, because the patients have started to
bring in
medicinal plants that are plentiful in the places were
they live.
Thanks to this we are enriching the coverage of our
treatments."

MARMELADE

For the last seven years the municipality of Marmelade
has had the
continuous service of members of the Cuban medical
brigade with
doctors coming on a rotating basis. Located in the
northern mountains
of Artibonite, it was one of the first zones to
receive the Cubans.
Today its health post is attended by Dr. Luis Gomez
Baez, who has
been there for a little over two months, and Elba
Avila, a nurse who
arrived in the zone in November 2004.

One of Elba's projects was the forming of an elderly
club that meets
each Wednesday and Friday for morning exercises. The
Cubans have also
established a relationship with the midwives who are
receiving
additional knowledge from the Cuban professionals to
improve their
assistance to pregnant women.

The people of Marmelade have grown accustomed to the
Cubans in our
country, said local residents like Martha Preval, a
relative of the
current Haitian President Rene Preval.

"Without them many people would have died. We are in a
mountainous
area far from the hospitals and the health post
doesn't have an
ambulance. If it is necessary to transport a patient
it must be done
in police vehicles or private cars, but sometimes the
people don't
have money to buy the necessary gasoline."


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