UCLA's Haitian Relief Efforts

Apr 8, 2010: Haitian ambassador visits UCLA to thank nurses, others for earthquake relief efforts

On Thursday, April 8, Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, visited UCLA to express his gratitude to the Operation Haiti team and other UCLA medical personnel who volunteered for relief efforts and raised money in the wake of the devastation.  (read more)

Mar 23, 2010: Operation Haiti team members share their experiences

Feb 26, 2010: Coming home

UCLA's seven-member Operation Haiti team gets home tonight after two weeks volunteering their medical expertise in Port-au-Prince. Volunteer Patti Taylor reports that they are all well and excited to be coming home to their friends and loved ones.  (visit our blog for more)

Feb 25, 2010: USNS Comfort ships out

Operation UCLA's whirlwind tour of duty in Haiti is drawing to a close faster than expected, reports UCLA Health's Shannon O'Kelley, associate director of operations in clinical services and Operation Haiti organizer:
 
"The second and third UCLA teams are no longer required. The patient census on board the Comfort has been steadily declining. A number of Haitian hospitals have re-opened and many of the initial earthquake victims have been treated. The focus is now shifting away from acute-care kinds of patient management and more toward the primary care needs of the island. The Navy's charter was to support earthquake victims and not health care issues unrelated to the disaster. The Comfort will be pulling up anchor within the next few days, if it hasn't already." (read more) 

Feb 14, 2010: Relief team sent to aid Haiti

One doctor and six nurses have taken leave of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for a two-week relief mission to Haiti, where they will treat victims of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck the island nation on Jan. 12. (read more)

This video is also available in windows media at http://streaming.uclahealth.org/operation-haiti

Visit our BLOG for updates from the UCLA Operation Haiti Team

Feb 11, 2010: UCLA Operation Haiti team to be deployed to Haiti Feb 14th 

Priscilla Taylor, RN - Team Leader
Kathleen Weinstein, RN - Med/Surg
Shannon McCarville, RN - ICU
Holly Phelan, RN - ICU
Bethany Fontenot, RN - ICU
Jessica Kubish, RN - Pediatrics
Bita Zadeh, MD - Anesthesiology

Feb 10, 2010: Haiti relief plans move from shore to ship

A partnership with the U.S. Navy to send a dozen UCLA nurses and doctors to help in Haiti has transformed into plans to send rotating teams of eight UCLA medical staff, after the Navy revised its plans.
 
To help Haiti recover from the devastating 7.0 quake it suffered on Jan. 12, UCLA originally expected to staff a 150-bed mobile hospital the Navy intended to build, but the military recently determined it will not build the mobile hospital. UCLA is now organizing in response to requests from the Navy to send medical professionals with a variety of specialties to staff its hospital ship, the USNS Comfort. After getting word of the new plans on Tuesday, Feb. 9, medical volunteers are currently being asked to deploy from Florida on Sunday, Valentine's Day, for a two-week mission to Haiti.
 
"We are feverishly putting together the new team, and it looks like it will be pretty significant," said Shannon O'Kelley, associate director of operations in clinical services and the primary organizer of UCLA's Operation Haiti. "We're still finalizing numbers, but it looks like we'll be sending at least a team of eight on Sunday and then an additional group of eight every two weeks for a total of six weeks."
 
In January, the UCLA Health sent a half-ton of medical and surgical supplies to Haiti via Operation USA. Anonymous donors paid for the supplies, including a $25,000 emergency-room pack.

By Alison Hewitt (UCLA Today) 

Jan 29, 2010: UCLA Health sends surgical team, medical supplies to Haiti

The eight nurses and three doctors already assigned to the UCLA Operation Haiti team are divided into two groups - half operating-room nurses and surgeons, and half emergency-room nurses and doctors - who will staff a new U.S. Navy field hospital in Port-au-Prince for two weeks. The UCLA Health sent a half-ton of medical and surgical supplies this week to Haiti via Operation USA. The medical system has also reactivated a leave program created to respond to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which allows hospital employees to donate their vacation time to the employees who volunteer in Haiti through UCLA. (read more)  

Jan 21, 2010: UCLA Health has put together a response team in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake.

We are carefully coordinating our efforts with governmental and non-governmental agencies that are able to offer the infrastructure, operations support, and security that will enable our clinicians to provide safe, quality care for those affected by this catastrophe. Pending specific requests from the relief agencies, we are in the process of identifying staff to participate in this effort.

Because of the devastating loss of Haiti's medical infrastructure, physicians and nurses in the areas of primary care, OB/GYN, orthopaedics, general surgery, and general internal medicine will be needed for many months to come. UCLA Health is also sending emergency medical supplies through a partnership with Operation USA, a non-governmental agency that is directly involved with the Haitian relief effort.

To make a gift in support of the Partnership for Care Haitian Relief Fund, go to https://giving.ucla.edu/pfc.  Please select "Partnership for Care Haitian Relief Fund" from the drop down box.

Thanks again for being part of such a caring community and supporting Haitian relief efforts.  Your generosity is greatly appreciated.     

Jan 14, 2010: Campus community scrambles to respond to crisis in Haiti

As the catastrophic dimensions of the earthquake's aftermath in Haiti unfolds, deep empathy for the unimaginable suffering taking place there has energized students, staff and faculty to raise awareness of the devastation and raise funds for relief agencies.

Kimberly Adams, a registered nurse and graduate student in UCLA's Family Nurse Practitioner Program in the School of Nursing, is one such Bruin. She is trying to get back to a Port-au-Prince orphanage where she, as a volunteer, has fed hungry children and cared for malaria-stricken orphans several times over the last year. (read more)

Related Links

Crisis in Haiti: How Families Can Help (UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital)

UC Haiti Relief FACEBOOK Page

UCLA history professor witnesses devastation of Haitian earthquake (UCLA Today)

Relief team sent to aid Haiti (Daily Bruin)

Chancellor Block urges UCLA community to assist Haiti relief efforts (UCLA Newsroom)