Last weekend a serious storm hit Haiti. It knocked down trees & signposts but what was worse is that it ripped through tent-camps and hospitals. One of the facilities damaged was the one at the general hospital in Port au Prince where Megan Coffee works. Megan has been in Haiti fairly much since right after the earthquake working with all sort of patients and going beyond the call of duty in an attempt to alleviate the suffering and to treat people who would otherwise quite likely have died. She’s very active on Twitter as @doktecoffee and I can strongly recommend that people read her tweets as they give a frank and realistic insight in the current situation in Haiti.

Anyway, one of the urgent issues for Dr. Coffee was that she constantly need to refill oxygen bottles for her TB (and other) patients. This requires a power supply Apparently the storm had knocked out their power supply (see below).

As it happened we had a 60KW diesel generator in storage in Port au Prince that had been donated to us by Fidelity Power systems. A quick exchange via Twitter with Dr. Coffee proved that this suited their requirements and we were delighted to offer this generator to them.

I also engaged in a bit more extensive exchange with Dr. Coffee to establish what the other needs at the hospital were and by god there were many! The hospital has a running shortage of all kinds of medicine and medical supplies. They treat hundreds of patients daily and the need to purchase all these items far exceeds their budget. As Haiti Connect does not have the expertise or direct contacts to source all this I asked Megan for a list of what she needed so I could post it here.

The list is below and I am appealing to medical suppliers, doctors, GP’s hospital staff and/or management to contact me if you can donate any of these items. If you have even one item on the list let us know. If you can ship it to Haiti it would be fantastic but if you can’t we will make sure it gets to Dr. Coffee safely. Our contact details are here.

THE LIST:

  • Fluconazole 100 mg po tablets  x 20 a day
  • levaquin IV or po
  • avelox IV or po
  • azithromycin
  • ceftriaxone – 1 gm x10 a day
  • furosemide – 800 mg a day
  • percocet – 15 a day
  • prednisone – 300 mg  day
  • dexamethoasone (or solumedrol)
  • albuterol liquid
  • albuterol inhalers
  • bactrim
  • omperazole
  • ranitidine
  • benadryl
  • iron pills -200 a day
  • b6 vitamins –500 a day

Medical supplies:

  • Oxygen nasal cannulas
  • non rebreathers
  • Oxygen regulators for large tanks
  • Oxygen concetrators
  • Thoracentesis kits – 4 a day
  • pneumothorax kits – 1 a day
  • nebulizer machine
  • 14 gauge needles, catheters for thoracenteses
  • stopcocks for I
  • dressing
  • silk tapeVs (for thoracenteses)
  • surgical masks (without eye protection)
  • n95 masks
  • sterile cups for sputum collection
  • iv tubing
  • 20 gauge catheters for IVs

General Supplies:

  • pens
  • extension cords
  • surge protectors
  • refrigerator, small
  • clothing (t shirts, pants)
  • sheets