Legislature Honors Barth Green, M.D., for Efforts in Haiti
In the waning days of the 2011 legislative session, the Florida Legislature passed a state resolution recognizing “the selfless humanitarian efforts” of Barth A. Green, M.D., professor and chair of neurological surgery, and his colleagues at the University’s Global Institute for Community Health & Development and Project Medishare for providing medical care to the people of Haiti before and after last year’s catastrophic earthquake.
Sponsored by Senator Oscar Braynon, of Miami Gardens, and Representative Daphne Campbell, of Miami, the resolution was read on the floors of both the state House and Senate and adopted by members of each chamber on April 29, a week before the scheduled May 6 conclusion of the session.
Green, who co-founded Project Medishare in 1994 to deliver health care services to more than 85,000 Haitians, initiated the largest post-disaster emergency medical response undertaken by a university. Just 20 hours after the January 12, 2010, quake struck, he led the first outside emergency medical team to the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince, facilitating the establishment of a 240-bed critical care tent hospital at the edge of the airport eight days later.
As the resolution notes, medical volunteers treated more than 30,000 patients and performed more than 1,500 surgeries at the field hospital, which continues to operate at a more permanent community hospital, so far treating 45,000 more patients.
