Community Service

The Division of Plastic Surgery is extremely involved in Project Medishare.

The goal of Project Medishare is to improve the quality and condition of human within life within the country of Haiti.

In 1994, Project Medishare was founded at the University of Miami and in 2003, Project Medishare Plastic Surgery program was established. Quarterly/bi-annual mission trips are organized and executed.

To visit the Project Medishare website, please click here.

Ten Years of Partnership: How Surgeons from the U.S and Haiti Save Lives in Port-au-Prince

December 2015

Port-au-Prince. On a hot November’s day in Port-au-Prince, 38-year-old Albert Mettelus is lying in a small bed at the Bernard Mevs Hospital. He is wearing a patient’s surgical gown and is about to have for an operation that he has wanted for more than 20 years. Albert was born with a cleft-lip, a condition that happens as the baby develops during pregnancy and causes a gap in their upper lip. Children born with this condition in the United States have an operation as soon as they are old enough but in Haiti there are only a few surgeons with the expertise to carry out this sort of procedure.

“I have known for about 20 years that it is possible to have an operation to heal my lip. I didn’t want to see myself this way anymore but I didn’t know where I could go and I didn’t have any money”, explains Albert. “Then I heard on the radio that I could come to Bernard Mevs Hospital to have my lip healed”.

Albert is one of many patients at the Bernard Mevs Hospital whose care has been provided with the support of surgical mission trips organised by the hospital and Project Medishare.

The first of these trips took place more than a decade ago, when specialised surgeons from the Unites States came to operate on children suffering from hydrocephalus- a condition caused by a build up of water on the brain- and Haitians in need to plastic surgery. Over time and after the devastating earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince in January 2010 decimated the capital’s medical infrastructure and maimed thousands of people, the partnership between Hospital Bernard Mevs and surgical mission trips became permanent.

The importance of continuous support and partnership

While surgical mission trips are important to help treat complicated conditions and save lives, visiting surgeons and physicians also offer intensive training for Haitian staff to ensure capacity for the future. This requires continuous follow up and long-term distance training between hospitals in the United States, Canada and Bernard Mevs.

Looking back at ten years of trips, surgeon and Project Medishare board member Dr. Vincent A. DeGennaro says, “ We started surgical mission trips as a way to save people with complicated conditions in Haiti. We soon realised that these trips were an essential part of building medical capacity. You can’t just train more surgeons, you must develop the abilities and expertise of those who are already in the medical system”. In order to ensure this regular contact, Dr Thaller, my partner in this program, has made a huge achievement by allowing American residents to obtain credit for the work they do in Haiti. This will open the door to American medical schools to expand the capacity building we have started”.

Today, Hospital Bernard Mevs is a wholly unique entity in Haiti. Thanks to support from the Haitian government and the continuous commitment of Project Medishare surgical teams from the U.S. and Broken Earth in Canada this public-private partnership has delivered a hospital that aims to give the highest standard of surgical and critical care to the people of Haiti.

This partnership has lead to a number of achievements over the last decade. The complex wound care program based in the Hospital Bernard Mevs that sees over 50 patient per day and is now operated by entirely Haitian staff and trained in Haiti. Haiti’s first neurosurgery residency is also currently on the horizon and will be established at Hospital Bernard Mevs. This position will aim to train twice the current number of neurosurgeons over the next decade in Haiti. On average there is a surgical team operating at Hospital Bernard Mevs one week out of every month. The hospital currently provides services to 60,000 patients per year and performs 1,300 operations.

For patients like Albert, what really matters is having access to the care they desperately need and spent a lifetime trying to find. Three weeks later, he is back at the hospital for a check-up. “The person I am most happy for is my daughter” he says, “She is four years old and she is so happy that her daddy is fixed. For me, I feel proud for the first time in life”.

But behind Albert’s new smile lies a decade of partnership and commitment that allows Haitian and U.S. surgeons to work together, save lives and pave the way for the future.

On Tuesday, December 17, 2013, the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital became the site of an innovative patient and family resource: The Samuel and Connie Frankino Cleft Resource Library. The library is located on the first floor of the Mailman Center for Child Development next to the location of our Interdisciplinary South Florida Cleft Clinic.

The origins of the clinic date from 1951 with a team of specialists interested in assisting cleft children and their families. This was the product of a study course conducted under the auspices of the Dade County Dental Research Clinic. This initial collection of dental practitioners then invited other health care specialists from speech, plastic surgery, and other areas to serve as a discussion group to review management of this congenital anomaly. Within a short interval, the clinic was developed to provide an interdisciplinary team to provide comprehensive diagnosis and management of cleft children. These members volunteered their time and set up the clinic at Variety Children’s Hospital. In 1954, the Soroptimist Club of Coral Gables, a service club initiated a project to assist in financing the clinic and continued this for about 7 years. In 1959, the clinic was incorporated under the Florida statutes with a Board of Directors composed of interested community leaders.

Eventually with the closure of Variety Children’s Hospital, the clinic was transitioned to the Mailman Center on the UM/JMH campus where it remains settled. Upon his appointment in 1963, the clinic thrived under the directorship of Dr. D. Ralph Millard. Under Dr. Millard’s stewardship, there were many innovative contributions to the field. In 1995, the clinic was placed under the directorship of Dr. Ron Haun from the UM Department of Pediatric and the Division of Genetics. Dr. Haun nurtured the clinic which continued to expand until his untimely death on March 1, 2000. Following this, a variety of pediatricians have taken the helm and fostered our clinic through challenging times. In spite, the clinic has survived and flourished under the current leadership of Dr. Stephanie Sacharow.

Our clinic has remained focused towards providing a friendly, courteous, professional atmosphere by addressing the concerns of each individual patient and family and develop comprehensive treatment plans that lead to optimal physiologic timing for growth and development, and associated psyhco-social concerns. Our mission remains steadfast: to enhance the patient’s life and provide support and guidance for both patient’s and their families who are involved in the management of individuals with clefts.

To further our educational resources and to continue to empower patients and family we have embarked on annual fundraising events. These have included: 5K Miles for Smiles and Spreading Smiles luncheon and Silent Auction. This was culminated with our first annual Dr. Ron Haun Lectureship which was given by Dr. Ian Jackson and the building and naming of the Samuel and Connie Frankino Foundation Cleft Resource Library. Dr. Jackson and his wife Margie gave their personal recollections of raising a son with physical deformities. The later resulted in our library which will provide educational resources for our patients and families.