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Elk River Star News

The devastation and destruction in Haiti is hard for most to actually put into words.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake left between 217,000 and 350,000 people dead and another estimated 300,000 injured.

Dr. Kurt Anderson, an orthopedic surgeon with Twin Cities Orthopedics who works out of Elk River and Coon Rapids offices, recently went to Haiti to help treat some of the crushing injuries that have resulted in multiple broken bones and fractures.

It’s estimated that 200,000 Haitians have suffered from some form of orthopedic injury, with half of those injuries inflicted on children, he said.

Anderson was in Haiti just two weeks after the Jan. 12 initial earthquake. His stay was from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2.

Anderson went with a group of about 25 doctors, nurses, anesthesiologist and one other orthopedic surgeon with St. Paul-based No Time for Poverty, which was started by Michele and Jeff Boston.

As the Bostons had worked in the region before the earthquake hit, the couple had connections with Partners in Health, which was able to hook the doctors up with the St. Damien Hospital, where there are two functioning operating rooms, with power, and a specialized X-ray machine called a C-arm, which is crucial in working with bone, joints and spinal injuries.

The need for surgeons, like Anderson and the group he went with, is huge as before the earthquake hit there were only about 20 orthopedic surgeons in the country.

“The scope was so huge that it did require and will continue to require a lot of orthopedic work,” Anderson said.

Every hour there’s between 200 and 300 people in the waiting room, he said. Some are waiting with fractured legs, while others have broken bones penetrating the skin. Many also suffer from infection.

For Anderson the average was 10 surgeries a day working literally all day starting at 7 or 8 a.m. and going until 9 or 10 at night.

One woman in particular really touched Anderson.

She came in to the hospital shortly after he arrived with a severe elbow fracture and tissue loss.

At the time she was also eight months pregnant.

Anderson was able to put an external fixator on the woman’s arm.

However, that same night he was able to help her, she went into labor delivering Antonio, a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Her story is just one of the dozens of resilient Haitians Anderson said he met while on his trip.

These are people in severe pain, but they are not screaming and crying but rather calmly waiting their turn, he said.

Haitians, especially the women, tended to deal with the pain in a whole new way: singing.

For example, reapplying bandages can be somewhat painful as the wound is snagged but instead of crying out, they would just start singing religious gospel songs, Anderson said.

It was even singing that let Anderson know the woman he treated earlier that same day with the severely fractured elbow was going into labor.

He said he walked by her room where she was resting after surgery and could hear her singing. Baby Antonio was on the way.

“You still have all that other stuff (labor, illness, etc)...it doesn’t change because you have an earthquake,” Anderson said.

And the need is still so great, he said. For example, outside of St. Damien there’s huge Army tents where more than 300 people are staying while they heal after leaving the hospital.

Since there’s not enough rooms in the hospital and many Haitians are now homeless, sleeping in a tent to recover is the only option they have.

Anderson was also no different. At night the group he was with slept in regular sized camping tents in the courtyard of the hospital being awoken in the mornings at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of children crying who are staying in a facility for those with chronic physical and mental disabilities.

Haitian patience and determination

Going down to Haiti to help was something Anderson did because the need was, and still is, so great.

However, he said the real heros through the entire earthquake aftermath have been the Haitians who he witnessed first hand to have incredible resolve, composure, patience, acceptance, determination.

Please don’t forget

For Anderson, it’s always been a desire for him, and his wife, to do some medical relief work.

Even before the earthquake hit Haiti he had plans to go to Tanzania in mid-May to help with orthopedic surgeries.

He still plans on going and hopes he’ll also be able to return to Haiti.

But his No. 1 wish is for people not to forget the desperate need in Haiti.

Just because it’s not on the news as much, doesn’t mean the need isn’t still there, he said.

“There will be months and months of work to do,” Anderson said. “The infastructure of Haiti. The homelessness...poverty, all of that stuff is going to be going on for a long time.”

Looking back at his trip, Anderson said it was both wonderful and horrific at the same time.

Yes, he was able to help people, but horrific because it was so little compared with all that is still needed and will be needed for a long time to come.

In a letter he sent to Michele Boston, the executive director of No Time for Poverty, Anderson reflected on the idea that there will now be an entire generation that will grow up thinking missing an arm or leg is a normal part of Haitian life.

“There are large rooms of 15 (to) 20 kids in St. Damien where you walk in and look around and then after a few minutes realize that not a single one has all four extremities left, and it is like that in every hospital in the country,” he wrote.

“Part of my heart and soul is now in Haiti and that part feels broken. I am unsure I can ever heal this broken part of my heart unless I return to do more work and I believe that someday I will. As I sit here in the luxury of my home...my physical body is rested and restored but my emotional, spiritual and psychological self is still in pain as I have seen with my own eyes the suffering of the Haitian people with injuries, sickness, no where to live and little to eat.

“Having said that, I can also say that my short time in Haiti was the most intense and rewarding experience of my life as an orthopedic surgeon.”