Decorah, Luther alumnus Dr. Josh White part of team headed to Haiti
Josh White of Minneapolis and a Decorah native is co-director of World Wide Village's Community Health Initiative in Haiti. White had just returned from a medical mission trip to Haiti when he learned of the recent earthquake. This week, he is among a group of highly trained physicians who are returning to the country to administer medical assistance and to help treat the country's water supply. (Submitted photo)
By Lissa Greiner
Decorah native Dr. Josh White has provided medical assistance in Haiti many times.
But he knows his next trip will be his most challenging.
White, a 1997 Luther College graduate and emergency physician in Minneapolis, is part of World Wide Village, a group scrambling to put together a medical team to quickly return to Haiti to try to deal with the effects of last week's earthquake.
"Many who survived the earthquake will not survive the next few weeks without a massive effort," said White.
"Our initial crew will be people with very specific medical skills ... trauma surgeons and those types of specialties," said White.
White said with an estimate of 50,000 dead, the threat of infectious disease among the living is imminent.
"They have no way to dispose of the bodies. They're going to rot and we're going to see a massive outbreak of typhoid and cholera in the next couple of weeks," said White.
In addition, White said the fact the country's population is "significantly malnourished" provides a further challenge.
"In a situation like this, little stuff kills patients. If you get a cut and it gets infected, you die. We're hoping to interrupt some of that and deal with wound infections," he said.
"But we know there are a lot of people we won't be able to do anything for. That's just a reality. In earthquakes, typically about 90 percent of early deaths happen within 72 to 96 hours. By the time we get down there, the people in the rubble will be gone, but there will still be continuing injury, unstable buildings, broken glass and twisted metal," he said.
Logistical nightmare
White said trying to find a way into Haiti is a "logistical nightmare" right now.
"I think we're probably going to get in, but right now there's a massive fuel shortage and the FAA just shut down the Port-au-Prince airport. No non-governmental aircraft are being allowed in," he said, adding the airport's air traffic control tower was also destroyed during the disaster.
"But World Wide Village has a lot of connections and we're looing into possibilities, like maybe catching a ride with the National Guard," he said.
Adding to the challenge is the fact that the country's medical supplies, which were already lacking, were completely destroyed during the quake.
"There were nowhere near enough (medical supplies), but what they had was destroyed," said White.
"Our biggest problem, aside from getting there, is going to be getting the needed supplies. They've run out of everything. What needs to happen is a bunch of C-130s loaded with medical supplies need to get down there."
Tiring work
White said he and his colleagues have been working day and night to figure out how to mobilize medical assistance in a manner that will do the most good.
"Everybody I work with in World Wide Village has seen about three hours of sleep in the last 48," White told Decorah Newspapers in an interview Thursday.
White, and his mother, Ann White of Decorah, had just returned from a medical mission trip to Haiti three days before the quake.
"Last week (before the earthquake), I felt like we had some things figured out, as far as food, shelter and transportation. Now none of it is figured out," he said.
Ann White, who just returned from eight days of volunteering in the Hospital St. Croix in Leogane, said she feels "very fortunate ... But the hospital I worked out of collapsed, and I'm still waiting to hear the fate of some of my friends."
As of Thursday, Josh White said he had been unsuccessful at contacting any of the group's interpreters, who generally assist them during their trips.
White said while dealing with a number of obvious challenges, his group knows they will have to think outside the box in treating the earthquake's survivors.
"The situation might be a little different than a lot of traditional thinking in disaster medicine. Most Haitians don't have regular power or sewage systems," he said.
"One of our major efforts will be to clean water. We have access to a number of devices that run off of battery packs that we can charge with solar panels to turn salt water into bleach. A single one of these devices can create enough bleach to treat enough water for 5,000 people a day. We have access to four of them. If we can get them up and running, we can hopefully interrupt a lot of water issues," he said.
White said his group hopes to provide a continued presence in Haiti for as long as necessary, rotating them in and out every 10 days with some overlap.
How to help
White said whatever happens, it's going to be an, "incredibly expensive effort."
"However we get these teams in and out is not going to be cheap. We may have to charter a plane or commercial airline ... Or, if a ride with the National Guard is possible, that would allow us to get the largest amount of supplies into the country, and if we did that, we might be able to help stock other groups like the Red Cross. Supplies are going to have to include things like diesel fuel, batteries and what not. We'll have to do a needs assessment once we get into the country," he said.
White said any donations would be much appreciated. To donate, visit worldwidevillage.org and click on the "donate" button.
