Medical professionals from the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center return home from Haiti today after performing about 100 surgeries in a makeshift operating room during their two-week visit to the ravaged country.
The ten medical professionals from Hershey Medical Center who traveled to Haiti with Operation Smile flew into Norfolk, Virginia on Thursday and began the six-hour drive home, said Megan Manlove, spokeswoman for Hershey Medical Center.
Team members told Manlove while they wanted to stay and see their patients heal, they knew it would have taken months.
The medical team could not be reached for comment Thursday, but some Penn State students said they appreciated the work the doctors provided.
"I think it's great that any medical professional is willing to go down there and sacrifice their time and help out when it is so urgently needed," said Sarah Dorward (graduate-communications and sciences disorders), a GlobeMed representative in Penn State United for Haiti.
Led by orthopedic surgeon J. Spence Reid, the team of orthopedic specialists, plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses spent two weeks in the Love a Child Village Orphanage, dealing mostly with crush injuries and infections, Manlove said.
While the operating conditions the team worked in where a far cry from the setup at Hershey Medical Center, the team was able to complete its main goal -- starting a field hospital for future teams to use, Manlove said.
During their stay, the medical team members transformed a classroom in the orphanage into its operating room. The room lacked proper floors and ventilation, and wooden tables doubled as operating tables.
During the second week, the team set up a hospital tent with plastic flooring and a generator-powered air circulation system, Manlove said, adding that surgeries could only be preformed in the daytime because of limited electricity.
The team performed about 15 surgeries each day during the trip. Some of the patients had been treated immediately after earthquake and developed subsequent infections, forcing the team to reopen wounds, Manlove said.
The doctors tried to reconstruct limbs rather than amputate them, Manlove said. Because of the poverty in Haiti, an amputee would not be able to receive the care and physical therapy needed.
Aside from surgeries, the team also worked to set a medical record system in place to make it easier for future teams to continue providing care, she said.
While the first team returns, a second team with three medical professionals from Hershey headed out to the orphanage on Wednesday, Manlove said.
The community and student response has been great, university spokeswomen Lisa Powers said.
"I think it's fantastic," she said. "Any assistance that can be given to Haiti is a fantastic human effort."
