Dear Nobles,
As I am sure you are aware… Haiti received a devastating earthquake on Tuesday of last week. The next day, I had a request from our Philadelphia Hospital’s Chairman of the Board of Governors, (which currently has a clinical presence in the Caribbean), for permission to help the children from Haiti…and of course that was given. We also had one of our Boston surgeons, Dr. Robert Sheridan, down in Haiti doing “Humanitarian Work” when the quake occurred. Here is an excerpt from his message back to us via our Vice President of Medical Affairs…Dr. Peter Armstrong.

Dear Peter:
There is a huge opportunity for SHC to help young Haitians, especially over the long haul. There will be large number of young amputees from this disaster. Most children with head and torso injuries have died. The survivors I'm seeing have devastating extremity injuries, usually isolated, that require amputation. No one in the world provides better care to young amputees than Shriners. Perhaps by creating a program to train Haitians in prosthetic fabrication and amputee training, SHC could make a unique and durable difference.I'd love to be part of such an effort.

Best Regards,
Rob

Don’t we have “Great” people taking care of our children?…Our Shriners Hospitals will be helping the Children of Haiti by following the disaster management procedures as set forth by our Federal, State and local relief agencies, such as the Red Cross.

Our Staff believes it is best that we participate in this relief effort as…“Receiving Hospitals”…for those children requiring…“post acute”… orthopedic pediatric care.

Very soon…we expect our hospitals will start to be asked to accept patients from Haiti… “after their initial care”… either in Haiti or some other primary trauma center… Shriners Hospitals is well prepared to participate in that next level of treatment. We expect these very needy children will come through the “Normal Humanitarian” channels… including via Haitian- American citizens.

I ask all of you to continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time.

Yours in the Faith,

Douglas E. Maxwell
Shriners Hospitals for Children