I am Dr Lionel Malebranche from Christiana Care in Delaware. I am originally from Haiti and recently had the opportunity to go back to Haiti and help in the relief efforts. The situation was very critical for the capital Port au Prince. At the small hospital where I worked in Santo, we saw about 80 cases a day and were overwhelmed with all the trauma cases we received on a daily basis. The country didn't have any structure to welcome such mass casualties. The people were grateful for every little gesture of love done on their behalf and didn't expect any relief from the current medical system. I was really touched to see hundreds of people sleeping on the ground or under tents. People were scared to go home. Many youngsters would come and ask me if it was ok for them to have palpitations. I saw hundreds of people coming with PTSD, depression and anxiety. Many more lost their hands, feet or part of their limbs. I saw a dozen people who were paraplegic and an unfortunate boy who was tetraplegic and died in respiratory distress since we couldn't ventilate him. This is a very sad situation and everybody's help is more than welcome as the Haitian people are in dire need of assistance especially today.
Lionel J. Malebranche, MD evaluating a patient with an open fracture of her left foot
Lionel Malebranche and 2 Dominican Physicians dressing an open
tibial/fibular fracture prior transferring him to Dominican Republic.
Lionel Malebranche consulting patients at a Jehovah's Witness
Kingdom hall in Port au Prince 6 days after the earthquake.
Total building collapse in the capital Port au Prince
Dr. Lionel J. Malebranche
Resident in Internal Medicine
Christiana Care, Delaware
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