Hydrocephalus is a congenital disease that affects 2 out of every 1000 births. In most places, shortly after birth, a somewhat simple operation allows a child a greater chance at a normal life. That is rarely the case in Haiti; instead the cerebrospinal fluid CSF which flows normally through a healthy baby is blocked or unabsorbed creating pressure on the brain causing severe damage and eventually death.

During the last few days some of the best pediatric neurosurgeons and an assembled team from Miami arrived at a hospital in Village Solidarite, in Port-au-Prince ready to operate on 14 severe cases of hydrocephalus. With the coordinating efforts of Project Medishare, the outreach program of Healing Hands of Haiti and the logistical support from Norwich Mission House the team successfully performed all the operations within 3 short days. The initiative headed by Project Medishare and by Dr. John Ragheb, Director of the Neurosurgery Department at Miami Children's Hospital is an ongoing program intent on building awareness and a Haitian medical community capable of identifying the disease in its early stages.

Project Medishare and Dr. Ragheb have formed numerous relationships with their Haitian counterparts and during this visit worked side by side in the operating room lending their years of expertise to able Haitian surgeons. Without the efforts of these small grassroots organizations, the will of Dr. Ragheb and his team and the concerned mothers of these children who came from all over Haiti looking for care this disease would have taken the lives of all these children at too early an age.

To view Project Medishare programs looking for funding click here.

Matt Marek
Haiti Innovation