Baristaville Doc Heads To Haiti

Lamp Clinic in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, has been providing desperately needed medical care, medicines, water, food and legal services completely free to residents of Cite Soleil, one of the city's poorest slums for three years - well before disaster struck this week.

Montclair resident Dr. Jim Morgan, founder of Lamp For Haiti, a charitable non-profit that funds the medical clinic, is taking a chartered plane to Port-au-Prince today to "be on the ground with local staff and see if the clinic is still functioning."

He received only one call from Lamp's local manager after the quake; she survived and had heard from all but one of the clinic's five other staffers, but didn't know if the center was still standing.

Morgan, a former ER doc, now a practicing internist in Cedar Grove, said "I'm packing as many antibiotics, pain meds, antibiotic ointments water purification systems, and packages of freeze dried food as possible." Morgan said he'll be doing triage, seeing patients, trying to help with the post-traumatic illnesses and infectious disease.

When I spoke with Morgan yesterday, Lamp for Haiti directors were still trying to figure our the best way to get medical help to Haiti. "Lamp For Haiti is talking with other organizations and in the process of organizing a coordinated effort which will be accelerated in the next few weeks."

If you want to help, give money, not stuff, he says. You can make donations to Lamp for Haiti, and find out about future volunteer opportunities on their website. Morgan estimates 80% of contribution dollars go directly to patient care costs. And part of the 20% overhead pays six salaried locals to staff and manage the clinic.

"Lampa" as it's referred to by locals in Cite Soleil, Porte au Prince, is open three days a week, providing essential services that are not readily available to locals. In 2009, the clinic had 10,000 patient visits, 40% from children. "But we are a little organization, a drop in the bucket," says Morgan. "There are a lot of organizations there doing good, like Partners in Health, they are amazing!"