One Man, One Hospital, One Haiti

Above: A snapshot of Ian Rawson's blog accounting the care at Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti.

When I was watching ABC News coverage of the Haiti earthquake, I saw someone from Haiti that I recognized from years back.

Ian Rawson is a very humble, cheerful man I met several years ago at a conference my mom went to in 2002 or 2003. I think my mom introduced me to him because he was a man who knew how things worked in the medical circuit (I had been interested in working in medicine since high school). He also was a former hospital administrator. I remember during breakfast, over some chopped fruits and a danish in a large ballroom, we were talking about how it was to get into medical school. He gave me some good encouragement and wished me the best with a smile before we had to leave. I had to take a picture with him, and it was so good it landed in one of our family albums.

A few days ago, however, there his face was on TV, and this time, not smiling... crying. As he talked to the reporter, he looked like he was in pain, as a country who he has dedicated his life to has been struck with disaster. Mr. Rawson serves on the board of directors for the hospital, a hospital that he showed that he clearly cares about. According to the accounts on ABC news, people are making a 50 mile, 3 hour trip out to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, which was not damaged by the earthquake, to get medical care not currently present in the capital.

Mr. Rawson started a blog covering day-to-day accounts at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. And at present he seems to be getting a hold of the situation, with surgical teams and doctors coming from the United States to take care of the increased load. With the hard work of the staff that is evident in the blog, along with the heart that Mr. Rawson has, I can see them reaching to as many people in Haiti that they possibly can. I send Mr. Rawson, the doctors, and the patients my prayers.

• For those of you interested keeping up with the day-to-day accounts with Mr. Rawson,
  Visit: http://hashaiti.blogspot.com/.
• For more information on the hospital and Mr. Rawson,
  Visit http://www.hashaiti.org/.
• To donate directly to the hospital,
  Please follow the link on his blog or the website.
  

Pass or Play?

PLAY.

We're pretty aware of what has been going on in Haiti. It's not pretty. A lot of images and stories that we're getting are coming from the truckloads of reporters (that come with the truckloads of supplies) making the trip to the hit country.

I was reading an article on Sphere, covering how reporters are doing "double duty" acting as both reporters and humanitarians in Haiti. However, this goes much against the journalistic rule of not getting personally involved in the stories they are covering. I've posted the most dramatic video footage from the article above, which features Anderson Cooper (when it says viewer discretion is advised... CNN means it) pulling a injured boy to safety. Also according to the article, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was criticized for getting into the action too often.

However, I see the journalists also as people who have human common sense. Unless the danger is too much, how can someone just watch people struggle when their two hands can make the difference between life and death? If I was in that situation down there, I'd try to give my hand where help was needed. I think many of the journalism doctors (Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, Dr. Jennifer Ashton of CBS, and Dr. Richard Besser of ABC, and others) are doing right for helping out. Any doctor to help out with traumatic surgeries and to aid the hundreds looking for medical attention, is helpful. Their health care infrastructure is truly non-existent right now.

In Halti, safety is a gamble, but when the opportunity calls, (its kinda like a game show), like in Port-au-Prince, I think its worth it to take a risk.

I wish I could go down there, and from what I've heard, a lot of us medical students want to do so too. However, we are always willing to offer our thoughts, prayers, and donations to the people of Haiti.