Day 7 - The Incident Commander Has Left The Building

After arriving January 19, the Interim Hospital Adminstrator, Andrew Haglund, left Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti early this morning and is returning home.  Andrew drove with the Nelson family to Santa Domingo and will be catching a flight back to Southern California later this week.  The Nelsons will be packing up all of their belongings in the Dominican Republic and ultimately re-establishing their home in Southern California as well.  Dr Nelson will be returning back to HAH early next  Monday for a few more weeks before he assumes his new role as a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Loma Linda University.

Pictured above from L to R are Scott Nelson (Medical Director), Christa Chandy (Chief Medical Officer), Ashleigh Cohen (Social Services), Andrew Haglund (Relief Administrator), and Brooke Beck (Nursing Director).  Collectively, this group and others, have faced an unprecedented set of challenges and have skillfully guided this institution figuratively and literally across shaky ground.

Our newly arrived, transient group of Metro Volunteers have been amazed at the efficiency  and accomplishments of the on-site core team that have been working side by side over the past couple of months.  Pictured below from L to R are Dan Patchin (Central Supply), Bob Chase  (Central  Supply) and Jerry Northrup (Facilities Manager).  Jerry's wife, Lanelle also works as a nurse on the wards and has been helping to take excellent care of our patients.

From a staffing standpoint, this place is in a constant state of transition with ever changing  personnel.  It was nice to recognize a new but familiar face when future LLU Ortho Resident Corey Fuller walked through the door to the operating room.  We promptly celebrated his arrival by loaning him to General Surgeon Tom to help with a hernia repair. 

At the end of the day we all packed into the CURE vehicle and drove over to the Hotel Auberge du Quebec for a change of pace including pizza, Haitian style.

In spite of the loss of Andrew and other members of his team, life will move on as exemplified by this little one born prematurely earlier this weekend.  Hopefully, both this little fella and Hopital Adventiste d'Haiti will continue to thrive and grow over the years to come.