I know that the immediate need in Haiti for the past week has been just food and water. The medical need was urgent, but you had to keep the injured alive long enough for medical treatment to arrive.
But there is a long term need that will need to be addressed as a result of the past week.
Injuries that could have been treated rapidly and successfully with an intact, medical infrastructure have gone days without treatment. The injuries became infected. By the time medical help arrived, the only way to control the infection was by amputation.
According to a news story I saw tonight, doctors have been performing an average of about 70 amputations a day.
I have no idea how the numbers play out, but I can easily imagine that in addition to being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti could also wind up with the highest number of amputees per capita in the world.
Prosthetics are expensive. Each one is custom made to fit the patient. The patients need to be trained to use the prosthetics.
There will need to be a huge humanitarian effort to provide prosthetics and physical therapy to the quake victims.
I don't know how to set up a fundraising effort like that and I'm not responsible enough to lead it even if I did.
But if any of you can suggest the best venue for channeling funds to this very specific cause, I would support it and promote it in every way possible.
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