Hospital for Special Surgery Orthopedic Trauma Team On the Ground in Haiti
New York, NY—January 18, 2010
Led by David L. Helfet, M.D., and Dean G. Lorich, M.D., and including physicians from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the team has been working round the clock at Hopital de la Communaute Haitienne in Port-au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville and have already performed more than 50 surgical procedures. With air transport provided by global medical device company Synthes and surgical supplies donated by Synthes, Hospital for Special Surgery and NewYork-Presbyterian, the team is working under extremely rudimentary conditions with limited security.
The medical team currently in Haiti will be relieved tomorrow evening when a new team from Hospital for Special Surgery will take their place. “This is an important humanitarian effort that requires our team to perform hands-on medicine on people who have been suffering since the earthquake last week,” said Dr. Helfet. “We had to quickly adjust from the high tech Hospital for Special Surgery environment with the most state-of-the-art radiologic and surgical equipment, to a makeshift hospital where we are trying to save lives and limbs.”
According to Louis Shapiro, President and CEO of Hospital for Special Surgery, “It’s in times like these that we need to act with skill and compassion. We are extremely proud of our team and the contributions they are making to help the people of Haiti. We will continue to contribute to these efforts as best we can in the coming days and weeks.”
About HSS | Hospital for Special Surgery
HSS is the world’s leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics for 14 years in a row and No. 2 in rheumatology by U.S.News & World Report (2023-2024). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has one of the lowest infection rates in the country and was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center four consecutive times. The global standard total knee replacement was developed at HSS in 1969. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State. In addition, HSS opened a new facility in Florida in early 2020. In 2019, HSS provided care to 151,000 patients and performed more than 35,000 surgical procedures, and people from all 50 U.S. states and 89 countries travelled to receive care at HSS. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 translational research laboratories, 33 scientists, 10 clinician-scientists, 55 clinical investigators and 245 scientific support staff that drive the HSS research enterprise in the musculoskeletal “ecosystem,” neurology, pain management and rheumatic diseases. The HSS Innovation Institute was formed in 2016 to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is the world’s leading provider of education on musculoskeletal health, with its online learning platform offering more than 300 courses to more than 30,000 medical professional members worldwide. Through HSS Global Ventures, the institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally.
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