Dr. Roger Jurich, a Winchester, Tenn., physician and his wife Sheryl Jurich, a nurse, are in Haiti providing medical care earthquake victims. Dr. Jurich, hospitalist at Southern Tennessee Medical Center, was in Haiti during a medical mission with First United Methodist Church when the Jan. 12 earthquake struck. While there, he cared for some of the earliest victims of the quake in Port-au-Prince. Dr. Jurich returned to Haiti on Monday with a team of doctors and nurses to continue helping with the relief efforts. With only limited access to computers, Mrs. Jurich was able to send this dispatch about the situation around Port-Au-Prince and Ouanaminthe.
Early morning Thursday, she wrote:
“As I sit in the lobby of the school we use for a clinic, I can see the sunrise … a new day in Haiti. Today holds promise as we have an orthopaedic team arriving from Kentucky this weekend.
We had a busy day today, setting up for surgeries and doing some consults. The first patient we saw had an extreme wound infection of her right lower arm, as well as an untreated fracture.
The last patient we saw today, we walked to the government clinic. We examined a 20-year-old who had received a severe lower leg fracture in the quake. The Cuban doctor seeing him wanted to amputate his leg, but we encouraged him to wait until our orthopedic surgery team arrives. The principal of the high school we are associated with (Institution Univers) lost his 20-year- old daughter in the quake. Although he was at the school today, his daughter remains “entombed” under rubble in Port au Prince.”