January 2010 »»» MIST Therapy® The Haiti Health Care Crisis

It is a cruel twist but a fact of life in Port-au-Prince that after the Jan. 12 earthquake the people are now dying from broken arms and legs due to untreated wounds that have become infected.

"About 20,000 will die awaiting treatment for fractures, crush injuries, gangrene or other infections," said JoiaMukherjee, the medical director for Partners-in-Health, a Boston-based organization that is running Port-au-Prince's University Hospital. The figure is based on the number of people waiting for treatment and an assessment of the number of injured elsewhere in the country, the organization said in a statement.

In response to this great need, Celleration shipped MIST Therapy systems and applicators to Haiti for use by the medical delegation from the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC).

Dr. William Ennis, a vascular surgeon from the Chicago area and his team have been in Haiti for the past week and has reported the following:

"First there are hundreds of wounds of both acute and chronic nature. All are infected. They have no cultures, no surgical equipment to stop bleeding and little supplies. Most outpatients (a term that should be used loosely) as all people live in tents, generally cannot be seen more than weekly due to available medical staff."

"…(because) they have no surgical equipment to stop bleeding, they cannot surgically debride to healthy bleeding tissue. MIST Therapy has been paramount to getting these wounds clean and ready for the next procedure."

Dr. Ennis believes the MIST Therapy is really the only effective intervention they have right now. He feels he has "for sure saved 2 feet this past week due to MIST Therapy."

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