It is with deep sadness that I share the sad news that Peter Johnson passed away on January 20, 2012, following a battle with kidney failure and cancer.
As the president of the European Alumni Association (EAA HAS), it is my great pleasure to announce the upcoming European Alumni Association Reunion in 2012in Switzerland.
This mother and her child shown here are survivors in 2011, when they might not have survived a decade earlier. Mom is recovering from peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), new heart failure associated with pregnancy. When mom survives, so do her babies have a much better chance for good health. Haiti appears to have the highest incidence of PPCM in the wor
Dr. Mellon recognized a kindred spirit in Dr. Miller when Dr. Miller arranged to bring over a young man from Japan to study in the USA. The young man had been his shoe shine boy while Dr. Miller was stationed in Japan with the US occupation forces. The student went on to become a leading Japanese educator.
A few years ago I interviewed a young man who was then in charge of Information Technology at HAS. He had been born in Deschapelles. His single mother supported him and his siblings by selling peanuts in the hospital’s vicinity. He was later befriended by the family of the hospital’s administrator.
Thirteen years ago, our youngest child had been out of college for one year. The others had settled into stable lifestyles. My wife, Ann Marie, and I made a decision to leave my very busy practice of cardiovascular-thoracic surgery and to spend two years at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS). This was a decision we have never regretted. The time in Deschapelles was very busy but productive.
There is an urgent need for Rotarians and others to help HAS combat cholera which has increased dramatically due to the recent rainy season. Cholera is rapidly being spread through contaminated water, lack of latrines and lack of safe sanitation measures.
On June 21, I returned to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti (HAS) with orthopedic surgeons Dr. Danny Guy and Dr. Obinwanne Ugwonali. Our last visit took place three weeks after the earthquake. While the effects of that disaster will be felt for many years to come, now it is cholera that is gripping the Artibonite Valley as well as the rest of the country.
