N.L. doctors treat burns, stabbings and newborns in Haiti

Doctors from Newfoundland and Labrador were put straight to work when they arrived in Haiti over the weekend.

Less than 24 hours after setting foot in downtown Port-au-Prince on Saturday, Dr. Jim Rourke was holding a brand-new baby. It was the first delivery Memorial University of Newfoundland's dean of medicine had made in a decade.

"He didn't miss a beat," said Dr. Andrew Furey, who is working with Rourke as part of a volunteer medical team in the Caribbean country that is still recovering from a deadly 2010 earthquake.

"This hospital doesn't do obstetrics but the patient was delivering as she arrived. Dr. Rourke did a fabulous job – you would never say he hasn't delivered a baby in 10 years," Furey told CBC News by phone from the hospital where he is working in Port-au-Prince.

"We hit the ground running and literally haven't stopped," said Furey.

"Within an hour of getting here and getting oriented it was quite busy we had several traumas, and several surgical cases showed up," he said.

One of his tweets from Haiti Sunday said the team had "already treated a burn, a ruptured bowel, stabbing and three really sick neonates."

Furey and Rourke are with Team Broken Earth, a group of 27 doctors, nurses and health care providers from Newfoundland that is on its fourth mission to Haiti. It's the first collective of Eastern Health workers on a foreign medical relief mission.

They're trying to help Haitian residents as they struggle to rebuild from the earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left another million people homeless.

Haiti recovering

Furey, an orthopedic surgeon and Team Broken Earth's leader, believes Haiti is recovering.

"It's improved quite a bit in the two years that I have been coming here," he said.  

"However it's still quite poor, the resources and infrastructure are quite limited and frankly security, outside secure compounds, is still highly questionable. We are seeing a lot of motor vehicle collisions and violence."

Furey explained that it's very different from the work he and his colleagues do in Canada.

"It pushes you to your professional limits. We work with equipment at home that is just not available here. There are often times when people die here, people who wouldn't have died at home. So, that can be very taxing. It pushes you to your emotional limits," he said.

Furey said it can also be very satisfying work.

"I don't want to leave you with the impression that we aren't helping people here. We've helped a ton of people …many people who wouldn't have received treatment if we weren't here. It's extremely rewarding and the patients are exceptionally grateful."

The team expects to see 500 patients in Haiti before leaving at the end of this week and Furey said they plan to return.

Providing care for people in Haiti is part of the team's mission. Furey said its other goal is to educate local health care providers to be even more self-sufficient.

He said one of the project's long-term goals is to bring health care professionals – nurses, doctors and physiotherapists –from Haiti to train in St. John's and then return to work at home.