T minus 3

When my wife and I met as physiology lab partners 6 years ago one of the first things we discovered that we had in common was a strong desire to do international medical missions. In just three days we will be landing in the heart of one of the poorest countries in the world and beginning what we hope to be a lifetime of medical missions. We are traveling with International Medical Missions, a nonprofit based out of Denver. http://www.imrhq.org/
Haiti itself has seen many years of poverty, government corruption, and struggles that we can barely imagine and on Jan. 12th, 2010 they experienced an event that they, and the rest of the world, will not soon forget. Nearly 8 weeks have passed since the 7.0 earthquake shook the tiny country and toppled most structures, killing hundreds of thousands and leaving many more injured. As we travel to Haiti with 30 other volunteers, ranging from doctors to nurses to EMT's and interpreters, we will undoubtedly see the effects of this recent event. I anticipate, however, that we will see many problems that are not new to the people of Haiti. Before the earthquake many people were eating mud for food, not for nutritional value, but simply to kill the pain of hunger. Malnutrition, as you can imagine is a huge problem along with many of the health issues that come with it. Most babies are breastfed but most mothers are too malnurished to provide a proper milk supply. I have listed below the main health problems that the team we will be replacing has seen over the past few weeks as well as a list of what types of people comprise our team. This team is about half the size of our teams with just two docs while our team has 37 people and about ten docs. They have been seeing about 500 patients a day so I can only imagine what numbers we will be treating.
Professionally, I look forward to the experience of working with many new people, doctors, and nurses from around the country, in an environment that will be stressfull, tiresome, and emotionally draining. I know that I will remember this experience for the rest of my life and believe that it will play a role in shaping who I am as a medical professional. Emotionally, I have no idea what to expect and have tried at this point to expect the unexpected. I will be trying to blog daily and use that not only as a way to let everyone know how things are going but as an emotional outlet as well. Please feel free to join in a keep up. I will do my best to post pics but that may or may not be possible. They will definitely be posted once we return on March 17th. Thanks everyone for your overwhelming supports both with supplies and by being encouraging to us!

Bert Davis

80%: GERD, Peptic ulcer disease, stomach pain
70% of the women: vaginitis
50%: Musckuloskeletal (back/neck/shoulder pain/headache
50% (especially children): diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration
40%: UTI
40% scabies
30% (by report) "anemia"
30% febrile illness
30% Hypertension
20% Tinea infections
15% Ear infections
10-15%: Viral URIs and bronchiolitis
10%: Poorly healed or infected wounds
10%: Improperly healed or poorly casted fractures
5-10% Diabetes

Medical Doctors 11 (from a variety of specialties)
Nurse Practitioner 1
Nurses 8
EMTs 2
Interpreters 6
Dentists 2
Psychiatrist 1
Dental Assistant 1
Non-medical Staff 5