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Leogane Training Courses

Hospital Bernard Mevs 

Background

In 2010 The WAWLC was the only wound care organization to provide organized wound care in the immediate aftermath of the Haitian earthquake.  Through the tireless work of Dr. John Macdonald, a wound care program was established on the “front lines” of the earthquake treatment sites to assure that timely and appropriate wound care was provided to those injured in the disaster.  

In the Summer of 2010, the WAWLC was invited by the Minister of Health of Haiti to present a wound educational program to selected Haitian physicians, nurses, and physical therapists so that they could better manage the patients with wounds as many of the international volunteers were leaving.  The faculty consisting of Dr. John Macdonald, Ms. Janice Young, RN, Dr. Barbara Bates-Jensen, RN, and Dr. Terry Treadwell conducted a 3 day course in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for approximately 60 wound care providers.  As a result of this program, contacts were established with the Bernard Mevs Hospital and the Hopital de L’Universite D’Etat D’Haiti.  

In 2011 as a result of contacts made during the Summer, 2010, program, surgical residents from the Hopital de L’Universite D’Etat D’Haiti began doing a wound care preceptorship at the Institute for Advanced Wound Care at Baptist Medical Center, in Montgomery, Alabama.  The first preceptor, Dr. Adler Francius, spent six weeks with Dr. Terry Treadwell learning the basics of wound and lymphedema care.  Because of the success of that program, the preceptorship has been extended.  

In July, Dr. Terry Treadwell, Vice-president of the WAWLC, was invited to do a wound care program at the Hopital de L’Universite D’Etat D’Haiti.  The program and workshops were for two days and included hospital personnel and providers.  After that program, Dr. Treadwell represented the WAWLC during presentations at the Notre Dame Medical School and the medical school at the hospital in Port-au-Prince.
As a result of the work of Dr. John Macdonald of the WAWLC, a comprehensive wound and lymphedema treatment center was established at the Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince.  The first graduate of the international preceptorship, Dr. Adler Francius, was chosen to be the medical director of the clinic.  The clinic is very successful now treating around 60 patients per day.

The Bernard Mevs Hospital is developing an association with Neil Donohue and FHADIMAC ( Fondation Haitienne de Diabete et de Maladies Cardio-Vasculaires)  to start a Comprehensive Diabetic Foot Ulcer Clinic at the hospital in association with the WAWLC.  This will be the first such clinic in the region.

For updated information, please read the article about Haiti's health care 3 years after the earthquake on CNN.com, click here. 

To read the article "The Haitian Earthquake, January 2010 - Despair & Hope, The Wound Care Experience" written by John Macdonal click here.