KOMPA! MAGAZINE

[DJ REY]

Dr James Wilentz writes about his trip to Haiti with the Haiti Heart Care Foundation this past June.



The rubble of the nursing school building where the entire graduating class died during the “katastwofe,” the earthquake, last January, has been largely moved away, but our visit to the General Hospital (Hopital Universitaire de L’Etat d'Haiti) in Port-Au-Prince was a bold reminder of the stagnation that has characterized Haitian governmental structures and health care since a long time ago. Even though there was a new President, Michel Martelly, there was no Minister of Health for us to talk with, and there was little evidence of rebuilding at the HUEH.



Eighteen months earlier, I had spent 10 days in the wards of the hospital doing general cardiology, walking around with portable echo and ECG machines not available there, and diagnosing heart failure, valvular and congenital heart disease. With the help of Dr. Alix Lessegue, the HUEH Medical Director, I was able to recruit a few cardiologists from Port-au-Prince to come in and perform echos on the ward patients and to help in our teaching rounds for the residents, who had been in some form or another on strike for many months even before the earthquake due to lack of pay. Here’s what’s amazing: those residents came in for the teaching rounds despite their lack of pay, and what does that mean? It signals a tremendous yearning for instruction, a determination to get training and deliver quality care to the people of Haiti.



So why a heart foundation in Haiti? Why should we mount an effort to deliver high-level cardiac care in a nation still reeling with the effects of traumatic injuries, amputations, cholera, high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, rampant tuberculosis, HIV disease and other infections, poor or no sanitary facilities, absent national clean water provisions – I could go on? Isn’t it just a luxury item to provide cardiac care in such a situation where the elementary health needs are not yet met? The answer is emphatically NO! It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. If people are to look at themselves and believe that they are worthy of respect, of dignified treatment, of the approach that any of us would want for our brothers and sisters, our wives and husbands, they should have care at a level that would be expected in any western hemisphere country, indeed anywhere in the world where medicine is taught and practiced. Haiti should be no different, and that means not backing away from providing excellent specialty care especially in underdiagnosed and undertreated chronic disease states such as hypertensive heart disease, valvular heart disease, and heart failure due to cardiomyopathy or pulmonary heart disease. Even coronary artery disease will be an issue as the Haitian diet changes due to the seduction of the American diet.



So when I came down to Haiti this June with Rey Dorsainvil and Dr. Junot Felix to explore plans for a heart care foundation in Haiti, I had hopes but realistic worries that the project could not succeed, might be a folly etc. After having spent the time with them and in talking with other Haitians, I am convinced more than ever that this must be done, hopefully with buy-in from the Ministry of Health, but done no matter what. The Haitian people need the same level of care that we would expect in our home countries. Let’s have the courage to try to help achieve that.
www.haitiheartcarefoundation.org