Armed with 400 lbs of medical supplies from MedShare, an Atlanta medical team spent a week in Haiti performing close to 40 surgeries on earthquake victims. The team was led by plastic surgeon, Dr. Alan Larsen, and with him were an orthopedic surgeon and three nurses. At this stage in the relief efforts, many patients are having to be re-treated because in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, medical resources were extremely limited, and many victims were treated improperly. The team performed multiple surgeries on some patients to clean infected wounds, reset broken limbs and do skin grafts.
There was one patient that particularly stole their hearts. He was an 11-yr-old boy named Roovens Monchil. He suffered from a crush injury to his right femur, and had a large open wound. There was an external fixator that had been placed on his leg incorrectly, and he developed a life-threatening infection. Dr. Larsen and the team performed four surgeries on Roovens, but his injuries were critical and he needed more specialized care. They were able to get him airlifted to the Navy hospital ship, USNS Comfort.
Since returning from Haiti, the team has tried effortlessly to find out what happened to Roovens. Was he alive? Were they able to salvage his leg? Then late Monday night, they found out their most treasured patient had been transferred right here to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. They had a joyous reunion and saw that Roovens was not only alive with his leg in tact, but he was walking! Click here for the full story covered by Atlanta's Fox 5 News.
Here's a video recap of Dr. Larsen's team in the medical trenches at Haitian Community Hospital:
