Sunday, January 17, 2010

Boston --> Haiti play-by-play

Here's an example of the play-by-play over a few hours showing the coordination to get supplies to Haiti. We are mainly working with Partners in Health, but as you can see, there are also some individual efforts. I know the same thing is going on all over Boston and lots of other cities. It really shows people at their best.

From: Kelly,Sean P. (BIDMC - Medical Education)
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 12:06 PM
To: Cherry,Robert (BIDMC Vice President - Support Services)
Cc: Pyne,William (BIDMC - Support Services); Wolfe,Richard E.
(Chief, BIDMC Emergency Medicine); Callaway,David W. (BIDMC -
Emergency Medicine)
Subject: Medical supplies for Haiti

Bob,
I am one of the ER docs going to Haiti tomorrow am with Dave Callaway.

Can you give me a call on my cell at 617 ***-**** to talk about
supplies for us to take with us? Here is a preliminary list of items
and we can go through quantities in greater detail on phone. As you
know our major mission this time out is not deliver of goods or care
on a large scale but we would still like to bring highest impact
stuff that we can carry and load into a car or van.

Gloves 20 boxes mostly medium-sized some large and two small
Sterile gloves various sizes mostly 7.0, 7.5, 6.5 and 8 Gowns
Sterile drapes Betadine 4 bottles Scrubs 20 Some saline Alcohol
wipes (500 cc or 1000cc bags NS for iv fluid - a couple boxes) IV
tubing, setup, supplies ( enought for 100-200 setups?) Angiocaths
(sizes 16,18, 20, and 22) approx 250?
Dermabond (how many could we take of the smallest kind?) Wound care
supplies like sterile bandages Some wound closure materials like
sutures (4-0, 5-0, and 6-0 nylons and something absorbable)
Irrigation supplies (xirowet caps and bowls) Bandaids (bunch of
boxes) Other bandages like tegaderm and xeroform etc.

Sean

---
From: Cherry,Robert (BIDMC Vice President - Support Services)
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 1:04 PM
To: Hopkins,John J. (BIDMC - Material Logistics)
Subject: FW: Medical supplies for Haiti

John,
This is the list requested by Dr Kelly. Can you review this, and
send me the list of what you are sending [through PIH]. Of course, if we can add
these items that would be great, but we can not short the hospital.
---
Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:17 PM

Hi Bob,
The courier is here now. I am going to load the van with him and
then go to the east to load some more.

After that Dr Sean Kelly will be arriving here in his own car. I
will try and supply him with goods also. When he is gone I will
begin to put a list together of the inventory of items taken based
on handwritten list of item numbers I have here.
It will take a while to do this.
John.

---
Sunday, January 17, 2010 3:12 PM

John,
Thanks for doing this on a Sunday afternoon. I assume Dr. Kelly is
going to get goods for the others docs flying out tomorrow as well.

Let me know if you run into any complications.
Thanks,
Bob

---
Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:38 PM

Hi Bob,
Dr Kelly was here and I believe he was very pleased with the
supplies we got for him. We checked off nearly all of what he needed
and he couldn't carry anymore. We also filled the PIH van until
there was no more space, again with very relevant supplies of the
same kind. I will convert my handwritten list of item numbers
dontated to the Haitian project into a proper list of what we issued
today and will email it to you but I will leave that until tomorrow
afternoon as it will take quite a while in itself to do this.

Have a good weekend.
John

---
Sunday, Jan 17, 2010, at 6:18 PM

John,
That is fantastic. i appreciate you taking care of this on your day
off. You should feel great about helping our docs and the people of
Haiti. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Bob
---
Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:08 PM

I agree. Thanks to all. You rose above and beyond the call of duty.
Thank you for giving us these life saving supplies.

John and Carl did a fantastic job of getting us what we needed on
short notice on a holiday weekend.

We will do our best to put this stuff to good use.
Sean

1 comment:

e-Patient Dave said...

It's inspiring to see what happens when all obstacles become unimportant and people just get to be what they "always wanted to be when they grow up."

Great example - thanks for sharing.