Medical Mission to Haiti Begs our Support
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Dr. Peter
Cataldo with a group of children in Milot, Haiti
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On the weekend of September 22 & 23, we heard from one of our parishioners, Dr. Peter Cataldo, about a special medical ministry to our needy brothers and sisters in Haiti. Dr. Cataldo and Dr. Steve Shackford, also of Shelburne, will lead a team of caring medical professionals from our area to Haiti for the fourth year in a row. The two Shelburne doctors are part of a humanitarian mission of doctors, nurses, medical students and other medical professionals from the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
The team will spend one week at the Hopital Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Hospital) in Milot, Haiti and will perform hundreds of operations during their stay. This year, they will be bringing one child back to the United States for life-saving surgery that cannot be performed safely in Haiti. The team also brings with them a cache of drugs, medical supplies and equipment.
We can help!!! We can go with them through our contributions which will be multiplied abundantly and will bring life, healing and hope. Please support this most worthy cause! Your check for $25, $50, $100 or more will be tripled in services and supplies. Why not consider a gift of $225, which incidentally, is a full year's salary for a typical haitian wage earner.
If you have the resources, please mail a check to Saint Catherine of Siena Church, P.O. Box 70, Shelburne, VT 05482 and mark it to the attendtion of the Haiti Medical Mission Fund. Whether or not you can affort to send a check, you can send your prayers with them. God will bless you sevenfold.
The CRUDEM Foundation, directed by Knights and Dames of Malta of the American, Federal, and Western Associations, operates a superb hospital, Hôpital Sacré Coeur, that serves the people of northern Haiti, regardless of their religion, economic status or disease. There is an Executive and Medical Director of the hospital who is also one of three fulltime Internists. There are also 2 General Practitioners, 2 full-time Pediatricians, 2 full-time and 1 part-time Obstetrician, 1 Dentist, 1 parttime Ophthalmologist, 2 part-time Surgeons, and 3 full-time Residents. Nursing staff totals 68, of whom 53 are full-time and includes the Nursing Services Director, 5 Nursing Service Managers, 32 Staff Nurses, 12 Nurse Auxiliaries, and 3 Nurses’ Aids. In addition, three sisters of the Daughters of Charity have worked in Haiti at CRUDEM since August 1998. The staff is augmented by over 100 volunteers from out of the country who travel to Milot at their own expense each year to provide specialty services.
Hôpital Sacré Coeur, located in the village of Milot, is the only hospital in the region. It has 64 beds, a pediatric wing, specialty outpatient clinics, maternity services, and a modern laboratory. For the 12 months ending December 31, 2005, Hôpital Sacré Coeur served 60,463 people on an out-patient basis. It had 3,675 hospital admissions and 1,257 newborn deliveries, performed 1,096 surgeries, filled 158,030 prescriptions, completed 73,015 laboratory tests, and performed 3,865 other diagnostic tests (EKG, Radiology, Endoscopy). In addition, it served on average 40 children per day in its Nutrition Center program.
A Mobile Clinic project was initiated in 2003 to better serve the needs of the 225,000 people living within a 12 mile radius in smaller hamlets and rural communities.
The Nutrition Center provides two free meals daily to malnourished preschool children. CRUDEM also supports the primary school education of 1,000 children in four Catholic schools in the Milot region.
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Saint
Catherine of Siena Church |
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