Haiti (MNN) ― Medical teams continue to stream into Haiti, but at this point in the relief effort, the need for emergency trauma and surgical care is not what it was.
Erin Card with CURE International says they're also moving into the next phase. "We're transitioning toward post-operative care. CURE continues to mobilize teams of doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses, in particular, to go in on a weekly basis." One of the challenges in providing post-operative care for more than 100 patients a day is the lack of nurses.
The ministry has already sent in 90 medical personnel to meet the emergency. CURE helped Haitian Community Hospital in Petionville re-establish and restore basic management systems. After that, the medical team set up six operating rooms and has performed approximately 500 surgeries and set 3,000 fractures as of January 27, 2010.
According to a United Nations assessment team, the CURE site has the best run operating rooms of all the hospitals in Port-au-Prince.
To keep that momentum moving forward, Card says they're coordinating the arrival of medical supplies and will continue to bring in additional surgical teams in the days to come. "We have teams lined up for the immediate three weeks and are working to continue to have at least a team a week, if not two teams a week, through April."
CURE also mobilized teams of chaplains and pastors to help with the spiritual trauma of this crisis. "We do encourage them, in the name of Jesus, to know that God is with them. He has not abandoned them."
The spiritual director of the Dominican Republic CURE Hospital, Pastor Samuel Reyes, says, "We visited most of the patients at the hospital, and everyone was happy to receive prayers and the message of hope from the Bible. I felt God's presence at all times; the people were showing tears, smiles and thanks for the time we spent with them."
Pastor Reyes' next steps include meeting with a group of Haitian pastors and believers in the D.R. who are able and willing to spend days in Haiti doing spiritual ministry.
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