Shortly after the January 12 earthquake struck Haiti, Dr. Nabile Safdar did not hesitate to volunteer to help the country's sick and wounded. A member of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), the Washington-area physician was part of the first medical team from IMANA, which arrived in the Dominican Republic by plane on January 16 and then went overland to Haiti. “The purpose of this team was to establish a clinic (in Haiti) and to confirm logistics and security were good so other teams would be able to follow,” Safdar, a Muslim-American physician, told America.gov shortly after he returned to the United States. IMANA doctors brought with them medical supplies such as pain-control medications, gauze, bandages, antibiotics and antibiotic creams. But the doctors also carried their own food, water purification and sleeping bags, unsure of the situation they would encounter once inside Haiti. The IMANA medical team was met in the Dominican Republic by Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services (CDRS), an organization IMANA had partnered with previously in the aftermath of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. With the help of a local Haitian organization called AIMER Haiti, CDRS is providing IMANA doctors with the logistical support they need to treat patients. Safdar's introduction to the severity of the Haiti crisis came when the IMANA team visited a hospital bordering Haiti in the Dominican Republic. At this small hospital, doctors were providing nonstop assistance to Haitians injured in the earthquake. “Patients essentially were everywhere; in hallways, outside in courtyards, in waiting rooms,” Safdar said. “By American standards the facilities were small, but they were overflowing with patients at that time.” IMANA doctors and CDRS personnel visited the border hospital to arrange for patients too injured for them to treat in Haiti to be brought there. Just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti, AIMER Haiti secured an earthquake-damaged playground for the IMANA team to treat patients. The location was suitable because it provided a secure perimeter as well as a restaurant pavilion that could serve as an ambulatory clinic. As soon as they arrived, the IMANA medical team began work in a challenging environment. “We had to improvise,'” Safdar said. “The air hockey table became a bed, the foosball table became a pediatric bed, folding tables became stretchers. You kind of had to make do with whatever you had.” Most patients the five-member-team treated - up to 100 patients per day - had wounds the doctors anticipated: fractures, crush injuries, infections and dehydration. However, it was one of the unexpected cases that made a lasting impression on Safdar. A woman had given birth the day before the earthquake by cesarean section. She was an earthquake victim herself, having received third-degree burns when a light fell on her. As supplies ran out around her, the young mother fed her newborn with a can of infant formula. When that ran out, she resorted to sugar water and then used animal milk as her baby grew sicker with each passing day. “She was vomiting and had diarrhea and was essentially dehydrated and not getting any nutrition for several days,” Dr. Safdar said about the infant. “It was just a matter of being able to give them some formula and to teach the mother, who was a first-time mother, how to breast-feed effectively. I think that this really made the difference for that child.” IMANA doctors are also reaching beyond the walls of their small clinic. They created a mobile unit to expand their services to local tent cities. While these are short-term services, assistance is needed in other areas for volunteer doctors to better treat patients. Safdar agrees that medical missions to Haiti will be an ongoing effort for IMANA. According to him, there is no shortage of medical volunteers for Haiti, and both of them may return. “I would love to go back,” said Safdar. “I just told my two friends who were able to stay longer that I am so jealous and God bless you because you are essentially doing the Lord's work.”
