ARTICLE - MISSION TO SERVE

After the earthquake I got the opportunity to meet a lot of foreigners who came to Haiti to help, especially in the medical field. I met this couple mentioned in the article once and they explained to me the work that they were doing. Pray for the work of this mission. I know of people who use their services and excellent care is provided. We have referred people as well to them. It is good to see people making a commitment to improving the medical system in Haiti. The earthquake brought much needed medical care but the country has always been in need of medical care. Pray people continue to support and pray for the work of missions in Haiti. The article follows below.

MISSION TO SERVE: APPLETON SURGEON FINDS JOY IN BRINGING SKILLS TO HAITIANS IN NEED
(Appleton Post Crescent) - By Kara Patterson

Decades ago a teenaged Terry Dietrich read the book “In the Valley of Seven Cities” by Stanley G. Sturges, a doctor who opened a hospital for patients in the Himalayan country of Nepal.

“I did have an experience that awakened me to the needs of poor people in developing countries,” said Dietrich, now an Appleton-based orthopedic surgeon with ThedaCare Orthopedics Plus who in November left on a yearlong medical mission to Haiti with his wife, Jeannie, a retired nurse. “That story really had an impact on me and I decided at that time that (medical missions) was something I wanted to do, too.”

Like Sturges, Dietrich followed his Christian faith to a life steeped in overseas medical service.

Dietrich’s friend and orthopedics colleague, Dr. Scott Nelson, had developed Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti (HAH), which the Seventh-day Adventist Church runs in Carrefour near Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, from a small general hospital into a specialized center for orthopedic care after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean island nation. When Nelson needed to depart, he asked Dietrich to come on board as the hospital’s director of surgical services.

Since Nov. 19 the Dietrichs have been caring for Haitian patients with severe injuries and deformities. The husband and wife are leading an initiative to raise funds so HAH can afford to make a long-term practice of accepting orthopedic patients regardless of ability to pay for services.

“Initially all of the earthquake victims were given free medical care,” Dietrich said in late February during his first of five scheduled short trips back to Wisconsin to check on his Fox Cities patients. “And then of course other patients would filter in and mix in with those patients.

The farther we get from the earthquake, which is more than a year ago now, are we really operating under earthquake relief conditions any longer? Some would argue that no we’re not, although upwards of half of the patients that we take care of in any given week received their injury in the earthquake. Many of the patients we see now are patients that for whatever reason got inadequate treatment at the time of the earthquake, and that’s understandable too. … Even hospitals that were not badly damaged, like HAH, weren’t open because they had to be checked by engineers to determine if they were safe to be used.”

The Dietrichs are part of a volunteer team behind the publication of a book to generate fundraising dollars and showcase Haiti’s spirit of recovery. “Haiti: Together We Move,” a 108-page, pictorial work, tells the post-earthquake story of HAH, its volunteers, and the people and places of Haiti.

Jenny Redman-Schell, ThedaCare’s system vice president for orthopedics, said Dietrich’s longstanding commitment to medical mission work is an integral part of who he is as a physician and a person.

“He’s very much about trying to bring his care, the care that he can provide, to those underprivileged individuals,” she said. “Terry is just not concerned about status. He’s very grounded and a very morals-values-based individual, which makes him so perfect for that work.

He is going to make sure that when he leaves in November to come back to Appleton, that the program can continue to meet those needs of those patients in Haiti.”

The Dietrichs and their team see about 35 to 70 patients a day at HAH’s orthopedic clinic, and perform 10 to 30 operations per week.

“The single most important thing that needs to happen at Hopital Adventiste d’Haiti is to develop a system that works for the hospital so that orthopedic services can be provided to indigent patients on an ongoing basis without turning anyone away,” said Dietrich, who has spent almost 40 years contributing time to medical missions in countries including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, African nations, Romania and El Salvador, usually with his wife at his side.

“If the hospital and administration make the decision that everyone has to participate in their medical care in some way, that will turn some patients away. I don’t want that to happen. My desire and my goal are to establish a program that will make it possible for every patient, regardless of their financial situation, to come to HAH.”

The couple has created the Dietrich Haiti Indigent Patient Fund. They hope donations will build up an endowment to pay for orthopedic surgeries that Haitian patients can’t afford.

Pre-book fundraising efforts brought in at least $10,000 of the couple’s goal of at least $500,000. Then, during a period of expatriates’ forced evacuation from Haiti in winter during election turmoil, the Dietrichs and others planned out the book project.

The book, due out in June, is available on pre-order for the general public for a minimum $50 donation. Dietrich said pre-ordered copies already number in the several hundreds.

Professional photographers, including Paul Sebring and Cosmin Cosma, participated to fill the book’s pages. Charles Prospere of the nonprofit Project Hope, which conducts medical and humanitarian assistance in more than 35 countries, has contributed text.

Dietrich, a hobby photographer, also has taken pictures for the book. Among them are shots of Haitians going about their daily lives: women selling barbecued chicken and popcorn outside; young girls with beribboned hairdos leaving school; mill workers processing sugar cane.

“I want this book to really, truly reflect the beauty of Haiti,” Dietrich said. “The coastline itself is very rugged and very mountainous and very picturesque. The people themselves are very interesting people. They have a lot of character.”