The cholera epidemic deyhydrates people quickly. Sometimes medical personnel are not able to find a vein to start an iv and the patient dies. Below is a video about a doctor who has invented a device to deliver life-saving fluids. To see the video follow the link to:
http://www.kens5.com/home/SA-doctor-returns-from-life-saving-mission-to-Haiti-112959464.html
S.A. DOC USES OWN INVENTION TO SAVE LIVES IN HAITI
SAN ANTONIO -- A San Antonio doctor has just returned from a trip to Haiti. His mission: to help save the lives of thousands of people suffering and dying from cholera.
The cholera epidemic that started in Haiti in October rages on. The outbreak has now claimed the lives of 3,000 people.
Dr. Larry Miller, an emergency medicine specialist from San Antonio, is trying to help.
For 11 days in December, Miller left the comfort of his San Antonio business, Vidacare, and headed to disease-ridden Haiti. He took a device he helped create called the EZIO. It delivers direct, rapid IV access into the bone for patients whose veins have collapsed. Dehydration can cause death in hours.
“What I hope will be done is that it will decrease the death rate,” Miller said, “because almost all the deaths occur because people cannot start IVs. So this won’t stop the cholera epidemic, but it should stem the number of people who are dying from it.”
Miller visited 15 major cholera treatment centers. He delivered 1,300 needles and 60 drivers to doctors treating the sick and dying.
He also taught them how to use the device.
He even used his invention on a two-year-old girl at death’s door. Fluids helped her survive.
“This was a wonderful part of the trip that I was able to actually go in and help save the life of a little child with cholera,” he commented.
One year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, rubble is everywhere. Miller says it looks like it happened yesterday.The poverty-stricken nation is still crying for international help.
“The continued problems from the government, from the hurricane, from the earthquake are devastating these people,” Miller emphasized. “It’s an island that’s just a short ways from our shores. It’s closer than Puerto Rico. It’s one of our close neighbors. I think they need some help.”
The Haitian government is estimating there will be at least 400,000 cholera cases in the first 12 months of the epidemic, a period ending in October.
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