CURE Team Leaves for Port au Prince

National Palace Jan 2005

Thursday morning a CURE team from the Dominican Republic including our medical and executive directors will be flying to Port au Prince with relief medical supplies, prepared to offer emergency surgery for trauma victims. We will plan to establish a secure base to receive victims, supplies, and collaborate with volunteers. There are still many unknowns about the situation and survival even for our team may be a challenge as even the most basic necessities are not available. We will keep our readers and those who have inquired about ways to help up to date on the situation there as information becomes available.

Trip 19 Cap Haitien, December 2009

Once again we return from another busy week at the Justinien University Hospital in Cap Haitien. As usual we had a busy clinic on Monday evaluating all types of problems many of which are rare and challenging. The following 4 days and nights are filled with operations. We come prepared to treat just about anything in spite of the relatively primitive conditions. Most of the patients we treat have no other options and would often be left to a life of disability. Even after many experiences in Haiti the people and the conditions encountered leave one in awe of the human suffering and motivate each one of us to try and do more.


Due to the regularity of our trips every 3 months we are able to provide relatively reliable follow up care in addition to what the local doctors help us with. It was exciting to see Chantale the 6 year old girl who previously was unable to stand up straight due to severe burns that she suffered after sitting on a kerosene lantern when she was 4 years old. During our last trip she was operated and her hip flexion contractures are resolved. She awaits release of her right shoulder and elbow on our next trip March 8, 2010.

A special thanks to Dr. Wade Faerber (orthopaedic surgeon), Dr. Matt Klima (orthopaedic resident), Dave Tunon (Synthes) and Andy Magan (anesthetist) who came from California to participate in this trip along with Dr. Scott Nelson and the CURE Dominicana team.

Spinal Deformity CURED

In order to provide the state of the art care to our patients who suffer from scoliosis and other spinal deformities an entire team is orchestrated consisting of experienced surgeons and nurses, experts in anesthesia, a neuromonitoring technician, an implant vendor, and pediatric intensive care doctor. Each plays an important role in the overall process and the quality results that are obtained. Thanks to the generosity of Biomet Spine and several people who have donated their time for children in the Dominican Republic we were able to again realize a successful week of spinal deformity surgery. Our goal is to give even the most economically challenged patients the opportunity to have a surgery that is equivalent to what is performed in the best medical centers in the United States. Thank you to Dr. Ray Woo, Dr. Henri Acosta and each of the important team members that helped make these life changing surgeries possible.

Limb Deformity Course CURE Dominicana

Date: 25 January 2010
Time 8am -6pm

Course Directors:
Scott Nelson MD
Medical Director CURE Dominicana
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Shawn Standard MD
Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopaedics
Baltimore, Maryland USA

Sponsored by CURE Dominicana with participation of Dr. Micaias Perez, Dra. Honna Silfa, Dr. Cesar Coradin

Cost: 3000DOP (discounts available for residents)


Preliminary Agenda:
Basic Limb Alignment
Basic Deformity Analysis
Blounts Disease
Bone Transport
Knee Contractures
External Fixation Workshop

Please call 809-682-5022 for more information or email Robbie Jackson at j_robbie@hotmail.com

Trip 18 Cap Haitien 21-26 Sept 2009

Chantale is a 6 year old girl who was badly burned last year when she sat on a kerosene lantern. Our hearts were saddened when we saw her for the first time last February. Due to the scarring she was unable to stand up, separate her legs or move her right shoulder and elbow. Her caring mother brought her again in June I promised that I would do something when I returned in September, not knowing if I would have the help I needed to do the case. Fortunately we were joined by Dr. Duncan Miles a plastic surgeon from Loma Linda University. After 5 hours of surgery we were able to excise the scars around the hip joints and rotate some normal tissue into place allowing her once again the freedom to stand up. The following morning I asked her how she felt and from under her mosquito net she replied “Sa va bien et toi monsieur?” In one of our future trips we will plan to release her shoulder and elbow contractures allowing her the use of her right hand.

We were joined on this trip by Dr. Brian Yost one of my orthopaedic surgery partners from Riverside County Regional Medical Center. He also brought with him Louise O’Rourke RN director of operative services and “Dr. Sagoo 2” one of our excellent ortho residents training at RCRMC. Their expertise, help and donations greatly added to our efficiency, quality of care, and international comraderie. As usual our Dominican anesthesiologist and 2 nurses were on fire from early in the morning until the late hours of the night.

We are progressing with plans to transition our quarterly trips into a more sustainable program that will involve several surgeons who are committed to making regular trips to Cap Haitien which will continue with the same frequency. We are planning the construction of some extra operating and storage space which will facilitate volunteers to provide services independent of our Dominican team and the armamentarium of equipment that we haul back and forth from Santo Domingo for each of these trips.

Our next trip will be Nov 29-Dec 12, 2009.