Children’s physician volunteers in Haiti relief efforts

Dr. Jen Halverson arrived in Haiti on Sunday to be part of the relief work effort in the aftermath of last week’s earthquake. Halverson, who works in Children’s emergency department, will help patients at a newly established relief clinic.

Halverson, who first traveled to Haiti in 1998 and speaks Kreyole, is part of Children’s Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship program. She spent nine months volunteering as a pediatrician in Haiti in 2007 and 2008, working at a medical clinic in a small village about 30 miles north of Port au Prince.

Halverson writes on her blog: “We have a good stock of medical supplies here, as well as some medications (hoping to get a larger variety and number of meds as volunteers continue to come in). We're expecting to see a large number of orthopedic injuries. We're going on 6 days since the earthquake, so at this point, we will likely be taking care of patients with fractures that were never set back into place, wound infections, and the like.”

Providence Ministries provided the funding to send Halverson to Haiti. Halverson has worked with the nonprofit organization for more than 10 years. While in Haiti, she’ll work with World Wide Village and Heartline as they set up the clinic.

Read Dr. Halverson’s blog here, including an entry about her arrival on Sunday.

Read more about Providence Ministries here.