From Freezer to Frying Pan The Haiti Earthquake Response By John B . Nase , DDS , FAGD , FICD
Thoughts of having to prevent sunburn and heatstroke , while dealing with mosquito nets and the adverse effects of DEET and anti-malarial drugs were the furthest things from my mind during the record-setting blizzards in mid-January of this year . I was much more concerned with making sure that my snow plowing contractor didn ’ t forget about clearing my dental office parking lot because he was too exhausted from the marathon all-night work sessions that he endured to satisfy his larger corporate customers .
A humanitarian aid directive from President Obama following the earthquake in Haiti on January 12 , 2010 , changed my focus from the freezer that was winter in Pennsylvania , to the frying pan that still to this day is that devastated Caribbean nation . Merely days after the quake , the first responders , composed of search and rescue teams , medical and surgical teams , logistical teams ( to distribute food , water and shelter ) and military experts , were dispatched . As the crisis unfolded , the need to address American fatalities in Haiti was recognized . As part of the U . S . National Response Framework , the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team ( DMORT ) is responsible for domestic mass fatality response .
The U . S . State Department estimated that there were 45,000 Americans in Haiti at the time of the earthquake . One hundred and twenty-two of these American citizens were known to have perished , and they were recovered , evaluated and positively identified by the DMORT team , with all but two cases resolved ( pending DNA analysis as of March 31 , 2010 ). DMORT utilizes several forensic specialists to carry out its mission to identify the dead , including pathologists , radiologists , anthropologists , dentists , fingerprint specialists , medical legal investigators and mortuary / funeral personnel .
In this case , we were deployed internationally as part of an unprecedented response , resulting from the call to action by President Obama . During the last week of January , DMORT began staging to deploy teams in what would be four two-week rotations to the island nation of Haiti . Rotations were strictly limited to two weeks due to extremely hazardous conditions that our Chief Medical Officer likened to “ a war zone .” An elite group of dental personnel from Pennsylvania selected for deployment included Dr . Robert Absalom from Pittsburgh , Dr . Rebecca Parker from Lititz , Dr . Michael Cerveris from Chambersburg , Dr . Norman Goodman from Langhorne , Suzanne Flannery ( dental assistant ) from Forty Fort and the author from Harleysville .
Atlanta , Ga . was chosen as the staging area for all of the medical disaster management assets en route to Haiti . It had snowed in Atlanta the day I was to arrive , making the shuttle ride from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at midnight an icy , treacherous adventure . This rare weather , which also dumped record snowfall in Pennsylvania , was an unusual circumstance of a freak weather pattern that had been pummeling the entire Eastern U . S . for 10 days . This staging of the National Disaster Management System ( NDMS ) was a huge operation in itself . Several hundred Disaster Medical Assistance Team ( DMAT ) and DMORT members from all corners of the United States were assembled there to receive orders , get medical and OSHA clearances , and to ship out as cohesive units to hit the ground in Haiti with all of the logistical red tape of a Federal international mission completed in advance . Once we arrived in Haiti , there was no time for paperwork . As our DMAT counterparts headed for to several field hospitals and other tactical positions in order to lead the
November / December 2010 • Pennsylvania Dental Journal
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