Mount Sinai volunteers who returned from Puerto Rico saying goodbye to volunteers who joined them from other area health care providers
The first group of Mount Sinai Health System medical volunteers returned home from Puerto Rico on Thursday night, October 26, after completing their two-week deployment.
The 10-person team of doctors and nurses supported a hospital in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, where they were assigned a mission to help the Emergency Department. For many this was their first experience on a disaster recovery mission.
“The team worked long hours, without any days off, and saw more than 1,600 patients,” said Kevin Chason, DO, Clinical Director, Emergency Management, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Medical Director for The Mount Sinai Hospital Emergency Medicine Services. “Much of what they were treating was exacerbation of chronic conditions and illness due to the poor living conditions resulting from the destruction of basic infrastructure caused by Hurricane Maria.”
He added: “There were times when the local hospital lost power and the team would rush to the ICU to help maintain ventilator patients until the power returned. The conditions were slowly improving and the hospital was moving off generators and back on to the electrical grid. But the island still has a very long way to go to restore routine medical care.”
On Tuesday, October 24, a second Mount Sinai team, consisting of three doctors, two nurse practitioners, and five nurses, departed for San Juan. Both Mount Sinai teams were part of larger groups of providers from New York State coordinated by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, the New York State Department of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), the New York State Nurses Association, and 1199SEIU.
The two Mount Sinai teams met Wednesday, October 25, in Fajardo, where the first team briefed the team relieving them and then headed to San Juan to prepare for the flight home.
“We truly appreciate the departments and the staff at home who generously reorganized schedules and covered shifts to allow these volunteers to do this important work,” said Dr. Chason. “We are also extremely grateful for the sacrifices the team has made to help those in need in Puerto Rico on behalf of Mount Sinai and New York State.”
The second team from Mount Sinai preparing to leave for Puerto Rico. Front row, left to right: Tamairi Vildoso, RN; Madeline Hernandez, RN; Gail Haynes, RN; Stephanie Ortiz, MD. Back row: Samantha Rose, NP; Diego Giraldo, RN; Sarah Schaefer, MD; Trina Cosme, RN; Sam Kim, MD, and Annette King, NP.