TMC PULSE

TMC Pulse July 2016

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t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 6 24 Supplying Relief After a devastating earthquake, donors from across the TMC and beyond collect an unprecedented amount of medical supplies to send to Ecuador J ust before 7:00 p.m. April 14, Ecuador was rocked by a 7.8-magni- tude earthquake. The tremors were felt as far away as Colombia and Peru, but the bulk of the damage occurred in the Ecuadorian coastal regions of Manabí and Esmereldas. Within minutes, homes and commercial structures had collapsed to rubble, hundreds were killed and thousands injured. The final estimated death toll is believed to exceed 660. Nelson Maldonado, M.D., a profes- sor of neurology at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, was in the capital of Quito when the earthquake struck. Maldonado, who in 2015 became the first neurointensivist in the country of Ecuador following a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, said he first learned how devastating the quake was from friends in the United States calling to check on him. "We didn't have real news for about two hours," Maldonado said, "so in the very beginning it was really nice to know that there was this support." That initial outpouring of concern would soon turn into help on a far larger scale than Maldonado could and see how we could best use his training to help the population," Suarez said. "It became obvious that we prob- ably need to do two things. One was to set up an educational program in the country to train physicians and nurses in our specialty so that patients who are critically ill could be better cared for." The other program Suarez and Maldonado have been establishing is a high-altitude research center to study neurological disorders and how the brain adapts to high altitudes. Both the research center and the education program were recently approved by the government—firsts of their kind in Ecuador. When the earthquake struck, "we felt we had a social responsibility to help those affected," Suarez said, given their existing involvement in improv- ing the health of the country. Suarez and Maldonado began reaching out to friends and colleagues in the Texas Medical Center and beyond, explaining their desire to collect supplies and medications to assist in the relief effort. They advertised through the Neurocritical Care Society and set up a dona- tion page through CHI St. Luke's Foundation. In just a matter of weeks they amassed a collection of supplies and donations far beyond what they had anticipated. "The response has been truly over- whelming," Suarez said. "We have col- lected over 40,000 pounds of supplies. Truly, we've exceeded our expectation by a huge margin." have imagined. With tens of thousands injured, the need for medical assistance was overwhelming. "We were ready to go to ground zero with a group of physicians, because everyone who called said, 'If you need help, we will be there,'" Maldonado said. While he and his colleagues initially discussed the possibility of physicians traveling to Ecuador to offer aid, they soon determined the best and quickest use of their efforts would be in collect- ing supplies. "We don't have a lot of big hospitals, and the big public hospitals are just in the biggest cities," Maldonado said, adding that the coastal regions most affected by the quake are in dire need of supplies even in good times. "Before the earthquake we were already limited in our resources," he said. Maldonado joined forces with Jose Suarez, M.D., head of vascular neurol- ogy and neurocritical care at Baylor College of Medicine and stroke medical director at CHI St. Luke's Health–Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and The Woodlands Hospital, to begin col- lecting medical supplies. Suarez, with whom Maldonado worked as a fellow at Baylor, had already been deeply involved in medical care in Ecuador prior to the earthquake. "I traveled to Ecuador with Dr. Maldonado before he finished his fellowship to look at the situation there We have collected over 40,000 pounds of supplies. Truly, we've exceeded our expectation by a huge margin. — JOSE SUAREZ, M.D. Head of Vascular Neurology and Neurocritical Care at Baylor College of Medicine and Stroke Medical Director at CHI St. Luke's Health– Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and The Woodlands Hospital Jose Suarez, M.D., surveys the massive amount of medical supplies collected in response to the recent earthquake in Ecuador. B y S h e a C o n n e l l y

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