Los Angeles Medical Equipment

Posts Tagged ‘Surgery’

United Nations, New York, 22 January 2010 – As the humanitarian response to Haiti’s earthquake intensifies, the main concerns for health care providers have become emergency surgery, treatment of wounds and tetanus prevention. Dr. Clemens Schelling from the International Medical Corps who is currently working at the University Hospital in Port au Prince, said that many patients are coming into the hospital with infected wounds that are a week old. The hospital treated 1500 people on the first day after the quake and have so far performed 100 amputations. Many medical teams, both Haitian and international, are working around the clock to treat the steady stream of patients coming in with infected wounds and open fractures. Relief workers warn that the death toll could increase from untreated severe injuries refereed to as crushed syndrome. Medical clinics have 12-day patient backlogs and experts say that untreated injuries are festering and makeshift camps housing thousands of survivors could foster disease. Crushed syndrome refers to a body part being subjected to a high degree of force or pressure, usually after being squeezed between two heavy objects, a common occurrence in an earthquake such as Haitis. Untreated major fractures and open wounds in dismal hygienic conditions, and the lack of food and water are creating the conditions for a sanitary catastrophe, with thousands of patients at risk. The lack of medical supplies is making doctors in many cases having to …