Helping out those in Haiti
Baptist Hospital East employees, volunteers and physicians have pooled their resources and volunteered to help bring much-needed medical supplies and personnel to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Baptist East donated $12,000 to the Supplies Over Seas (SOS) effort, underwriting the cost of sending one large tractor-trailer size container of supplies. The hospital’s Medical Staff also donated $12,000 for a second container. Supplies Over Seas is a program of Hand in Hand Ministries and the Greater Louisville Medical Society Foundation.
Employees, volunteers and other physicians donated $2,644.82 (including $34.82 from the Gift Shop piggybank) to SOS. In addition, volunteers from Baptist East and Baptist Hospital Northeast spent hours sorting and loading donated medical supplies at the program’s Butchertown warehouse.
Both hospitals donated medical supplies to the Haiti relief effort, including a large box of medical instruments, diapers, dressings, infant formula, orthopedic dressings and materials to make casts for broken bones.
“We are proud to support Supplies Over Seas in its efforts to provide the people of Haiti with much-needed medical supplies,” said Baptist East President Sue Stout Tamme. “This is just one small way we can show our support for both the local volunteer effort and the Haitian people.”
In addition, three physicians affiliated with Baptist East have gone – or will go to – Haiti to treat victims.
Richard Hefner, DO, of Baptist Medical Associates Crestwood, and his wife, Linda, a nurse, left Jan. 22 to work for a week at Good Samaritan Hospital, just one mile over the Haitian border in the Dominican Republic.
The Hefners, veterans of medical mission work in other countries, took supplies donated by Baptist Northeast and Baptist East. The pair have since returned. “I was just overwhelmed with the generosity of the hospital employees,” Dr. Hefner said. Mrs. Hefner added, “The people of Haiti are a beautiful people. They are just so grateful.”
Orthopedic surgeons Scott Kuiper, MD, and J. Steve Smith, MD, spent much of their Valentine's Day en route to Haiti with a 14-member team supported by the Haitian Christian Outreach organization.
“This was an opportunity we couldn’t turn away from,” said Dr. Smith, just a few days before the group left. “It’s an honor to use our training and background to share with those in underprivileged areas in times of need.”