Humanity First: 'Obligation to humanity' drives doctor to Haiti

Butler, who is once again working with the Europeanbased aid group Humanity First, does not expect the conditions to have improved significantly from when the medical team slept in the open.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Windsor Star
By Don Lajoie | February 19, 2011

Sometimes Dr. Geoff Butler questions his own sanity, but never his sense of obligation.

The family physician, from St. Clair Beach Health Centre, is preparing, once again, to exchange his immaculate, sterile and well-equipped practice for a stifling hot medical tent, poor hygienic conditions and a back-breaking patient load treating the sick and injured in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. He leaves Monday.

"When I look back on my first trip now, it was harrowing," said Butler, who travelled to the shattered capital of Portau-Prince 10 days after the Jan. 12, 7.0-magnitude earthquake ripped through, leaving more than 250,000 dead and hundreds of thousands injured. "I can't believe I'm going back.


"But this is something I felt I had to do. You have an obligation to humanity if you have an ability. For me, having a skill set to offer, I've got to make the effort to do something."

He said he expects the work this time, mostly in the capital, to focus on the outbreak of easily treatable but potentially deadly cholera, which has killed more than 4,200 and left 120,000 hospitalized.

On his first trip he saw countless trauma victims who had suffered horrific flesh wounds, broken bones, amputations and infections. He said he expects there will still be some work to do in those areas because many of the injured may not have been getting proper medical care since.

"But we're going to attend to the cholera victims," he said. "There are pockets of people who still haven't seen anyone. I believe cholera is widespread and we've got to get water (purification) tablets to these groups to keep things from getting worse."

Butler, who is once again working with the Europeanbased aid group Humanity First, does not expect the conditions to have improved significantly from when the medical team slept in the open.

"There really is no state control," he said. "The lack of order and mayhem is something to behold."

dlajoie@windsorstar.com



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