Seems that several doctors from Puerto Rico are chugging down big mugs of regret after posing for some objectionable pictures taken during a mission trip to Haiti.  CNN dug up pictures of the group on Facebook, posing with Haitian military, holding guns and smiling for the camera.

CNN reports, as can be read in an online article, that several doctors were sent to Haiti by the government of Puerto Rico just days after the earthquake in order to set up a field hospital to assist in addressing health care needs.  Although the intentions and work of the group were honest and admirable, several members of the team of doctors took pictures with Haitian military, holding machine guns and smiling.  This picture, shown above, as well as others were posted on Facebook.  Other pictures showed the doctors drinking beer and scotch inside the field clinic, dressed in surgical gear, with patients in the pictures as well.  The Puerto Rican government is quite ashamed of the situation, and has said that these photos may compromise the careers of the individuals involved.

I have to say that I too am embarrassed that these pictures surfaced.  I am sad for the doctors, who must have been under great stress to perform in those conditions, but whose actions are inexcusable.  I am sad that this has tarnished the public opinion of medical missions.  But it also illustrates a predicament that most doctors have to face at some point.  This job is so much more than a job.  The public holds doctors at such a high moral standard that something that would otherwise seem a minor indescretion to another profession becomes an unforgiveable grievance for a medical professional.

So I was on call for the operating room this weekend at my hospital in NYC, where I did a crush injury case – coincidence!  The patient was an 18-year-old who got his hand crushed in a piece of machinery at his job.  He had a complicated pinky finger fracture as well as nerve and blood vessel rupture to that finger.   A special orthopedic hand specialist was called in to perform the surgery to reconstruct the finger, including repairing the nerves, arteries, and veins in order for the patient to keep his pinky finger.  It was about a 3 hour case in a sophisticated operating room, with an infinitely expensive microscope used to repair the tiny nerves and vessels in the finger.

Compare and contrast that to the videos I watched of the surgeries taking place in Haiti.   Watch this piece below.

Pretty amazing to see that patients in Haiti are being anesthetized without the use of modern monitors. The surgeries are being performed on modular tables, open to the dust and debris carried in the air, with only ambient light – no high-intensity OR lighting to be found.  They are using garden hoses for tourniquets and Black-and-Decker drills intended for home use to perform the procedures, much less a 100K-dollar microscope.  And the goal is not to repair the limb, but to stabilize the patient to prevent further health risk, such as infection.

Just some food for thought…..

Hopefully the surgeons will come back to the US a little humbled by the experience, and maybe a little easier to get along with!!

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