Former war surgeon's battle to treat Haiti quake victims

Help at hand: babies are among the wounded being treated by the British team

Cries of pain ring out as former British special forces surgeon Richard Villars strides around the improvised clinic.

A week ago it was a tennis court. Now victims of the Haitian earthquake lie there awaiting treatment, surrounded by piles of debris and mangled girders.

"It's exactly like a war without the worry of being shot at, even though the odd gun has been pointed at us," says London-based Mr Villars, who served in the military for more than 20 years.

He inspects a growing stream of injured patients at the makeshift field hospital where he and his team of British doctors and nurses have set up camp.

Among the wounded are babies and pregnant women. Many have multiple fractures and deep gashes inflicted by falling masonry, as building after building tumbled to the ground last week.

One of the most badly hurt is pregnant Sergline Rainvil, 22. She lies under a blue tarpaulin, wincing with agony as her wounds are inspected. She has a dislocated hip, fractured ribs, broken left leg and injuries to her right foot.

She has gone untreated since the day after the quake when a passing doctor found her on the street and attempted rudimentary care. Now she is at risk from infected wounds.

The medics, from London-based charity Merlin, have a major dilemma. Sergline requires treatment that could threaten her unborn child. For now, the team is forced only to clean her wounds in preparation for a potentially protracted operation over the next 48 hours.

There are many similar scenes at what was once Lope De Vega tennis club.

Mr Villars, 56, a father of three from Cambridge, is an orthopaedic surgeon at Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood. He trained at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth and in his time as a special forces surgeon he was in war zones in Central America, the Gulf, the Falklands and Northern Ireland. Explaining what his team found on arrival in Haiti, he says: "The initial stages were just like a military situation, with lots of amputations — some done badly and some done in strange circumstances.

"That is tailing off now and what we are seeing instead are the infections, especially where the initial treatment was not done well. We've just had our first cases of tetanus and typhoid and cholera could also be a problem."

He admits that some patients will never fully recover from their injuries, partly because of the often botched way they were treated in the hours immediately after last week's quake.

"Most people are here because their initial treatment was not done well," he says. "We can still help them, though, even if you wouldn't choose to have your operation done in a tent."

A huge tent has been erected to provide a ward for the additional patients expected in the coming days. Yesterday was the team's first full day of treating patients. Today operations begin in earnest when an operating table arrives. An ultrasound machine is expected at the weekend. "There is still a very valuable job to do," says Mr Villars. "Most of these people wouldn't walk again if we didn't do something."

The Merlin Clinic is in Delmas, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest districts and one of the areas worst affected by the earthquake. Buildings now resemble nothing more than a pile of rubble.

Among dozens of other patients is a badly dehydrated six-month-old child who was revived after being given fluids. Another, Emmanuel Etan, 21, spent two days buried under rubble. He has two deep, infected gashes to his right leg. He shouts in torment as the dressings are removed in preparation for a life-saving skin graft. For 13-year-old Cazi Ruth, the pain is intolerable. She lies on a stretcher and yells as her heavily bandaged left leg is inspected.

The team — including Amjid Ahmed, an accident and emergency consultant from West Yorkshire, and Waseem Riaz Saeed, a plastic surgeon from St James's Hospital in Leeds — are hindered by the absence of X-ray machines and a shortage of medical supplies.

As another young child with a broken right arm is inspected, however, there is great optimism. Even with the rudimentary conditions, they can save lives and help dozens of others. Without treatment these victims could be left permanently disabled. "It's good to get working," says Mr Saeed. "It's what we came for. We've had to change what we wanted to do. There are kids here with potentially lethal wounds, so we have to get on with it."

Working with the Merlin team at the clinic — which stands alongside a newly erected and ever-expanding camp of homeless Haitians now living beneath sheets and blankets stitched together — is the US aid group International Faith Mission.

Its staff includes 74-year-old couple Elwin and Wanita Zook. They travel regularly to Haiti to work in the mission's clinic and rushed back to help. "At our age and in this heat, by night time we're finished," says Mrs Zook, who supervises a team of younger medical helpers.

"But after sleep we're ready to go again next day. Most of these people haven't even been X-rayed. It's so sad but we are making progress." Also in the US team is Dr Mark Lewis, 36, of Boston, whose parents are Haitian. Even an 18-month spell helping US forces in Iraq did not prepare him for the devastation and suffering.

But he pays tribute to the resilience of the Haitian people in conditions that he believes Western patients would find intolerable.

"One guy in surgery had lost his three children, his wife and his home," he says. "He had a broken arm and parts of his belly and his face were cut off — but even then he was thinking of other people more than himself.

"The Haitians are very strong so I am optimistic."

Haiti emergency appeal

Merlin is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. You can donate to the DEC Haiti appeal online at www.dec.org.uk or by calling 0370 60 60 900.

For more information about Merlin's Haiti response please go to: www.merlin.org.uk or call 020 7014 1714.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in