I can’t stop thinking about this lately.
As much as I talk and write and think about my daughter’s early years of severity, the way her breathing instability robbed me of time, peace of mind, and occasionally my sanity and has hurt and continues to hurt my career today, I never had to wonder – not once, not ever – where her nebulizer meds or inhalers were coming from.
In addition to the immediate, critical need to treat the injured and the massive organizational effort it’s taking for humanitarian groups to help provide food, clean drinking water, and shelter to the survivors, what happens if you have asthma in Haiti?
Even if patients can make their way to an intact pharmacy, what happens if the earthquake destroyed all its asthma meds?
Both asthma medications and antibiotics top the lists of needed medical supplies.
Even worse, asthma problems in Haiti will most likely deepen with all the quake dust in the air.
I’m not a doctor or a nurse. I can’t volunteer to treat patients in Haiti. I’m not a celebrity with millions to donate or enough fame to generate millions of donations from others.
What I am is a writer with an Internet connection and a website. Beyond the donation I’ve made myself, all I can do is keep spreading the word on Haiti and the groups that are doing good work there.
Last week, someone from International Medical Corps emailed me about the ability to text donations for their charity as well:
International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization, founded by volunteer doctors and nurses and dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through relief and development programs. Our emergency response team is in Haiti responding in force. . . . There are still thousands of patients seeking treatment of which approximately 80% are in need of surgery and are running out of time – especially with the tremendous aftershocks still devastating this country. The team is treating crush injuries, trauma, substantial wound care, shock and other critical cases with the few available supplies – And they’re in it for the long haul.
Text Haiti to 85944 to donate $10 to International Medical Corps, or click here:
And from last Friday’s Hope for Haiti Now benefit concert, the incomparable Mary J. Blige on Hard Times Come Again No More:
Something else I’ve been thinking about is that the level of asthma care in Haiti prior to the quake, the number of people that were actually getting treated for it, was probably pretty horrifying in itself.
I really, really hope that now we can get some proper medication and equipment down there to help all the people who are surely suffering from aggravated asthma.
I’m not huge fan of texting, but I LOVE that people have made text donations possible. I was all over that in a minute.
That’s the part I can’t get past, either. Look how bad Hurricane Katrina was to New Orleans, and my country HAS solid infrastructure and widespread healthcare (despite its problems). When I think about how difficult and stressful the first half of my daughter’s life was, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to deal with something like asthma in a third world country.
Thanks Amy for posting this! It sure is something to get people thinking about. What about other third world countries though? Is there any way to help people from other poor countries that haven’t been hit by a natural disaster?