Author Archives: Jennifer Loiseau

Postponed – 3rd Annual Meeting of GASHU

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As per the email below, the 3rd Annual Meeting of GASHU was postponed. A new date will be set as soon as the upheaval in Port-au-Prince settles.

November 20, 2018

On behalf of Dr. Angelo Gousse, I regret to inform you, that after consultation with Drs. Lanctin, Brutus and several of their colleagues and informants in Haiti, the GASHU Meeting scheduled to take place on Nov 30 to Dec 2  2018 is cancelled  due to significant political unrest and insecurity concerns in Haiti.

The meeting will be rescheduled in the future (Date TBD).

Deepest apologies for the inconvenience this rescheduling may cause. We hope you understand the safety of the participants is our main priority and that is what guided this decision. 

Sincerely,

Ellen

Ellen L. Molino

International Programs Manager | American Urological Association

1000 Corporate Boulevard | Linthicum, MD | 21090

Final Report of Dr. Gerard Christian Valme

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FINAL REPORT OF DR GERARD CHRISTIAN VALME

MULJIBHAI PATEL UROLOGICAL HOSPITAL, NADIAD GUJARAT, INDIA

Thanks to Project Haiti and the Endourological Society, I was very fortunate to come to India for a fellowship at Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital. Two years ago, I had the pleasure to meet Dr. John Denstedt during a PCNL workshop organized by Dr. Henri Lanctin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When I shared my interest and passion for stone management, Dr. Lanctin assured me that MPUH was the place to be and Dr. Denstedt personally contacted Dr. Mahesh Desai, making that dream become a reality.


MPUH is the first hospital in India that is devoted entirely to Nephrology and Urology. It provides optimal and affordable care to local but also to patients from around the world. It is also known for its residency, research and fellowship program.

Even though I came to India to learn PCNL, I soon realized that MPUH had so much more to offer. While my main focus remained on stone management, I was able to participate in most of the hospital daily activities consisting of ward rounds, outpatient clinics, operating theatre sessions and academic meetings. The latter included uropathology, transplant and tumor board meetings. In the outpatient department, I had the opportunity to work with the residents and be trained in urodynamics and genitourinary ultrasound scans.

JPAC which is the academic wing of the institution became my second home based on the amount of time spent there. I devoted a lot of hours learning and improving my endourological and laparoscopic skills on models and animals. With the help and dedication of Dr. Ankit Pal, I routinely worked on simulation models such as the Beatle trainer, the Apple TURP, the Uro Karl Storz TURP, the 3D printed kidney model and the percutaneous puncture simulation model. The last one was particularly helpful because of my interest in PCNL.

In the operation theatre I had the opportunity to observe a lot of cases such as laparoscopic, endourologic, robotic assisted and open surgeries. I observed but also scrubbed and participated in some PCNL cases. Watching Dr. Sabnis and Dr. Desai perform PCNLs and mini-percs was amazing and very instructive. During my stay in Nadiad, to my great satisfaction, I was able to observe and participate in approximately 1362 cases including 200 PCNLs and Minipercs.

From July 2nd to July 29th, I was fortunate to be trained in laparoscopy. Daily lectures were given by Dr. Ganpule, Dr. Abhishek, Dr. Sudharsan, Dr. Mohan and Dr. Gopal. Chicken pyeloplasties were done in wet lab under the supervision of Dr. Ankit Pal. Dr. Mahesh Desai also took some time from his very busy schedule to lecture us on percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Being able to listen and learn from Dr. Desai’s extensive knowledge and experience on PCNL was incredible and very enlightening.    

From July 28th to July 29th, I attended a conference on complications in urology: “Dilemmas and Solutions” at JPAC in Nadiad. In attendance were past presidents of SIU and some famous urologists like Dr. Sanjay Kulkharni from Pune, Dr. Shailesh Shah from Ahmedabad, Dr, Ajay Kumar from Patna, Dr. Ravindra Sabnis and Dr. Mahesh Desai from Nadiad. To attend such a conference and be among those distinguished surgeons was an honor. On August 11th 2018, I also attended a conference in Vadodara on “New Frontiers of Uro-Oncology” organized by HCG Cancer Centre.   

I’m very grateful to Dr. Desai, Dr. Sabnis, Dr. Denstedt and Dr. Lanctin for such a great opportunity. Special thanks to Project Haiti and the Endourological Society for enabling me to travel to India. It was a great experience to spend 6 months at MPUH, a state of the art hospital, to learn and to be trained in endourology and PCNL. Living so far, for so long away from my family was very challenging but at the end very rewarding.

Dr. Gerard Christian Valme

Urology Fellow

HUEH/HSFS

 

Dr. Christian Valme Returns to Haiti

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Dr. Christian Valme recently returned to Haiti after spending 6 months in Nadiad, India learning percutaneous kidney stone removal from Dr. Desai (pictured with him).


Upon returning home he met his son, Raphael, who was almost 3 months old. The India opportunity was made possible by Dr. John Denstedt and the Endourological Society as well as Project Haiti. We look forward to working with Christian and helping him to be a skilled endourologist so he can help his fellow Haitians with minimally invasive kidney stone removal.

 

Shipment of Supplies Heading to Port-au-Prince

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“David Weigel, director of Materials Management at Prairie Lakes Healthcare System with shipment of supplies for upcoming flexible ureteroscopy workshop at Hopital St. Francois de Sales in Haiti. David was instrumental in preparing the supplies for shipment and utilizing his contacts with Old Dominion to secure charity rates for trucking the pallet to Food For The Poor in Florida. The shipment will arrive in Port-au-Prince in time for the training session.
Thank you David!,
Henri Lanctin, MD”

Dr. Christian Valme – India

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“Dr. Christian Valme working in the “Wet Lab” and nearing the end of his 6 month fellowship in India, learning the highly specialized minimally invasive technique of “Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy”. Many Haitian patients will benefit from this procedure when Christian returns and is fully trained and equipped.”

REPORT: Haiti Trip Report, April 2018

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Haiti Trip Report, April 2018

I arrived at Cap Haitien, in North Haiti, on Saturday, April 21 with Drs. Joe Costa, Joe Babiarz and their team (they will submit their team report). I was accompanied by Dr. Phil Abbosh from Philadelphia. He was on his first trip to Haiti and wanted to become involved with teaching urology in resource-challenged countries.

We were greeted by Dr. Jean-Geto Dube (urologist and Executive Director, Hopital Universitaire Justinien) and urologist, Dr. Jory Desir.

  The afternoon was spent preparing OR’s, and organizing equipment and supplies. Among the abundant OR supplies brought by the team, Project Haiti also donated a desperately needed electrocautery machine (from Prairie Lakes Healthcare System in Watertown, SD), a Stryker camera box with camera (from Stryker, Inc.) and a flexible cystoscope.

An enjoyable dinner that evening with our Haitian colleagues was followed on Sunday by a day of patient evaluation and teaching to the Haitian residents.  They were instructed in the proper retrograde urethrogram and voiding cystourethrogram techniques for evaluation of male urethral strictures. Drs. Costa and Babiarz scheduled their cases for the week.

On Monday morning Dr. Abbosh and I flew by charter with Missionary Aviation Fellowship to Les Cayes on the south peninsula. There we were greeted by Dr. Gaby Nelson and after a quick stop at our hotel, we were taken to Hopital Immaculee Conception (the public hospital) in Les Cayes. Our objective was to proctor Dr. Nelson in the technique of transurethral prostate resection (TURP) over the next 3 ½ days. On my last trip to this hospital in the summer of 2016 I delivered the generous Karl Storz donation of urological instruments and a camera / monitor system. At the time we did TURP cases with Dr. Nelson which he continued under the tutelage of Dr. Aubourg, a senior urologist who works mainly in the Leogane area. They did a number of procedures together, however, Hurricane Matthew hit in October 2016 and the OR’s were devastated. Fortunately, the donated equipment was not affected as it was safely stored in the hospital administrator’s second floor office.

With the limited resources in Haiti it has taken until now for the OR’s in Les Cayes to be rebuilt. One of the new OR’s will be specifically designed for urology. Although the new OR’s are not expected to be completed for another 6 months, the administrator allowed us unlimited access to one of 2 functioning OR’s from Monday afternoon through Thursday. During this time we did complete 12 TURPs with Dr. Nelson doing the majority or entire resection in 10 and Dr. Joseph, a young and recently-trained urologist, doing some of the resection in 2. We were joined by Drs. Bernard Brutus, Youry Dreux and Global Philanthropic Committee-funded nurse Japhare Joseph on Monday evening. Dr. Aubourg was also present for most of the cases.

  The cases went well. Dr. Nelson demonstrated very significant improvement despite very intense (often conflicting!) teaching of those present. It was felt after the last 2 cases (which he completed without help) that he was almost ready to start doing small prostate resections without proctors. Dr. Aubourg has committed to 2 days in May 2018, and Drs. Dreux and Brutus have also made a commitment to return.

A devastating occurrence was the sudden passing of one of the patients the morning after his surgery when he got up to wash in the bathroom. He had an uncomplicated procedure, had been very stable overnight with clear urine, stable vitals and normal temperature. The team assumed pulmonary embolus was the cause of death, and there was discussion about the lack of sequential compression devices and the need for them in Haiti where they are not available. We do utilize subcutaneous low dose heparin after most of our lengthy reconstructive procedures, however, we feel that with the risk of bleeding and significantly shorter resection times, this would not be appropriate following TURPs.

  The highlight of our stay in Les Cayes was an evening at Drs. Sahmonde and Leno Myril’s home for a terrific Haitian meal followed by Haitian folk songs accompanied by Leno’s guitar. They are a wonderful couple who cherish their family, friends and Haitian heritage.

On Thursday afternoon we drove to Port-au-Prince with Drs. Brutus, Dreux and Japhare. We made a stop at Hopital Lumiere in the village of Bonne Finn. It is a 120 bed primary care hospital located high in the mountains of southern Haiti and has been supported by Apostolic Christian HarvestCall.  A recent urology graduate from Port-au-Prince, Dr. Garçonville gave us a tour of the facility. He has attended a number of Project Haiti workshops in Pignon and has been working there several days per week. The hospital is very well-equipped and managed. After a meeting with several representatives from administration, we agreed to see what could be done to organize future workshops there. Specifically, TURP and urethral reconstruction were discussed as needs.

  On Friday morning Dr. Abbosh and I helped Dr. Dreux with a radical prostatectomy at Hopital St. Francois de Sales. All went well and it was a pleasure to show Dr. Abbosh the great teaching facility that we are in the process of developing there. Japhare Joseph continues to grow and impress in her role. She was well-received by the nurses in Les Cayes and has a natural ability to teach and be adored by her peers, physicians, and other health team members. Her organizational skills and pride in accomplishment are evident in the functioning of the urology service at HSFDS.

Once again, I was humbled by the commitment of our Haitian colleagues with Drs. Bernard Brutus and Youry Dreux unhesitatingly taking time away from their families and practices to accompany us to Les Cayes. Their comradery and assistance was a reminder of how little we would have accomplished in Haiti without this valuable partnership. We also continue to foster good relationships with the administration of the hospitals visited and this is essential for our ongoing success.

We have made new friends and colleagues as Dr. Bill Cleary and his organization, Citizens of the World Foundation, provided professional and competent anesthesia support for the team in Cap Haitien. Their mission aligns perfectly with Project Haiti as they are committed to teaching and supporting anesthetic care in Haiti. They have worked in the north for many years forging close friendships. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with them.

The trip proved to be beneficial for Dr. Abbosh who after this diverse visit to Haiti has expressed an interest in getting involved and sharing his talents with Haitian urologists. Several options for him are in discussion. He has clearly demonstrated that he is a team player with a great sense of humor. He has a wonderful gift of effective teaching and most importantly, understands our mission of improving urologic care in Haiti by teaching and supporting our less fortunate Haitian colleagues.

Respectfully submitted,

Henri Lanctin, MD, FACS

REPORT: Cap Haitian April 2018

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Cap Haitian April 20-27, 2018

Dr Jory Desir greeted a portion of our team at the airport in Cap Haitian. Our team included Dr Joe Costa MD, Dr Henri Lanctin MD, Dr Phil Abbosh MD, Dr Chip Carnes MD (HO4), Dr Sabine Nguyen MD (HO 4), Statia Smith RN and Dr Joe Babiarz MD.  After a short lunch we traveled to the University Hospital Justinian where Dr Dube, hospital director, greeted us as well.  After a tour of the facilities and Dr Lanctin delivered the anxiously anticipated new Bovie machine and the Olympus flex cystoscope and the Stryker camera and light source.   We began an evaluation of facility needs including space in the operating theater for urology equipment to assist with efficiency as physicians are currently having to transport all equipment across the campus to the operating room on the day of cases.

Dr. Lanctin and Dr. Desir test donated equipment on arrival.

Several patients were then evaluated including some with vesicovaginal fistula and some men with urethral stricture disease.  The day ended with a dinner hosted by Dr. Desir and Dr. Dube at the LaKay.

On Day 2 our team along with our Haitian colleagues evaluated additional patients with fistulae and urethral obstruction.  Both residents and staff physicians from the US and Haiti participated in this hands on interactive session.  Preparation in the operating room occurred as well for upcoming surgeries to begin in the morning.  Patients were then jointly reviewed and the physicians created a plan for the operations to be accomplished by Haitian surgeons assisted by US surgeons.  In addition, the remainder of our team arrived.  This included Dr. Bill Cleary, Lura Spears CRNA and Kelly Joe Gabel who will assist in teaching of the anesthesia providers from Haiti.  The focus of the trip is in expanding the knowledge and skills of our Haitian colleagues in both urology and anesthesia.

On Day 3 through 6 the team assisted the Haitian urologists and anesthetists in performing complex bladder fistula repairs and complex urethral repairs not only improving patients’ quality of life but developing local team operative skills so that these repairs are available locally through native surgeons and under the anesthetic care of local providers in the future.  US resident physicians Dr Cheeps Cairnes and Dr Sabine Nguyen and Statia Smith were critical to the success of the workshop working with local operating room staff including circulating nurses, surgical techs and recovery room staff to build efficient team work.   The skills of the local providers were excellant but their outcomes and future success will depend on continued infrastructure support including equipment, facilities and operations.  The equipment delivered by Dr Lanctin was used throughout the week including the Storz endourology equipment, the Stryker Camera, the bovie machine, suture and equipment provided by Project Haiti and the flexible cystoscope. An additional future needs assessment was carried out with the assistance of local urologists, anesthesiologists, residents and administrators. 

Left:  Dr. Tellusme Jolius, a Haitian urology resident, performs a urethral repair with his attending, Dr. Desir Jory and calm US urologist Dr. Joe Costa, as residents and medical students look on.  Right: Dr. Bill Cleary teaching Haitian anesthesia students and staff. 

  

Top: Dr. Joe Costa delivers state of the art lecture to staff, residents and medical students. Bottom: Culmination of trip when Haitian staff urologist Dr. Desir leads Haitian resident urologist through case with Haitian anesthesia students and staff providing anesthesia as Dr. Costa looks on. 

Left: Dr. Joe Babiarz directs Haitian Urologists while performing a complex vesicovaginal fistula repair. Medical College of Georgia (IVU Med sponsored resident) Chip Carnes in background assists with teaching surgical assist/tech skills.
Right: Dr. Joe Babiarz and Dr. Jory Desir after another successful case.

   

REPORT: Urethral Reconstruction Workshop

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Project Haiti Urology:

Urethral Reconstruction Workshop,

Hopital St. Francois de Sales, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

April 1-7

 

Team members:

  • Frank Burks, MD (Royal Oaks, MI)
  • Jonathan “Nick” Warner, MD (Pasadena, CA)
  • Maxx Gallegos, MD (Albuquerque, NM)
  • Joe Pariser, MD (Minneapolis, MN)
  • Will Sikes, CRNA (Plainwell, MI)
  • Justin Lendhardt, CRNA (St. Cloud, MN)
  • Claudie Williams, NP (West Palm Beach, FL)

Preparation for our trip began many weeks before we arrived and included a Zoom video conference with Dr. Youry Dreux and other Haitian attending urologists and Haitian residents. The conference included a short didactic session reviewing the management of Pelvic Fracture Urethral Injuries (PFUD) and a presentation of 7 cases. The cases were presented by Dr. Youry Dreux and included relevant history, imaging and planned management. This conference and the presentation of cases with management plan represents a significant advance in the knowledge base of our Haitian colleagues and is a testament to the efforts of the IVUmed and Project Haiti teams that have built capacity within the country of Haiti.

The 6 members of the team arrived by air on March 30 and checked in to Le Plaza Hotel, near Hopital St. Francois de Sales (HSFDS) in downtown Port-au-Prince. Claudie Williams arrives on April 1st.  A team dinner/meeting was held that evening.

The next day we visited HSFDS, toured the facility and OR’s. Time was spent organizing equipment, meeting staff and verifying that all anesthesia equipment was operational and necessary anesthesia medication was available.

Drs. Burks, Gallegos and Warner working with Dr. Sean Elliot’s fellow Dr. Joseph Pariser performed, taught and proctored a total of 11 urethral reconstruction procedures. Three of the procedures were repeat procedures. Two excision and primary anastomosis procedures were performed for short mid-bulbar strictures. Four PFUD repairs were performed and 2 first stage Johansen urethroplasties were performed. Buccal mucosal graft (BMG) was harvested in 4 cases and this is a skill that Dr. Lemause and Dr. Kedex are developing. One of our more complex cases was a patient with intersex disorder who had a urethra cutaneous fistula from prior urethral surgery and was currently voiding from a scrotal urethrostomy with significant penile chordee. After reviewing the case and available imaging we performed a closure of his urethral fistula and first stage Johansen urethroplasty with BMG for advancement of his urethral out to the distal phallus as well as correction of his chordee. On our last day of the work shop a patient with a very complex pelvic fracture (significantly malpostioned pubic bone from non-operative management of his pelvic fracture) had an attempted PFUD repair that was aborted because of concern for failure to progress and an inability to identify the proximal prostatic urethra despite aggressive resection of the boney pelvis. There was also concern for a possible rectal injury if we proceeded to remove additional scar and bone. After much discussion Dr. Warner and I made the decision to abort the case out of concern for the patient.  There were no complications encountered at the time of team departure from Haiti. Average estimated blood loss was 200 cc. Detailed postoperative instructions were left with Dr. Dreux regarding catheter management and recovery.

With these cases, this team has now taught and performed 79 urethral stricture cases in Haiti. Haitian urologist in attendance were Drs. Youry Dreux, Joe Kedex (junior attending), Billy Lemause (senior resident) and Bernard Brutus. Each of our cases had a Haitian urologist scrubbed in and participating in key portions of the cases such as urethral dissection, excision of scar associated with PFUD injury, urethral anastomosis and harvest of buccal graft. Dr. Dreux’s operative skills and clinical judgement have progressed such that I would consider him at the level of a newly fellowship trained reconstructive urologist. He reports doing 2-3 urethral reconstructive cases a month at HSFDS and other hospitals in Port-au-Prince. He is also receiving referrals from other urologists throughout the country and makes every effort to include the referring urologist in the management plan and the eventual operation.

While at HSFDS our team verified that the fluoroscopy machine was in working order and that the ultrasonic lithotriptor was operational. Over all the facilities at HSFDS were adequate and safe for performing the complex and routine urethral reconstruction. Anesthesia staff and residents were available and helpful. The PACU staff could use some development in standardized postoperative recovery protocols.

One of the highlights of working at HSFDS is interacting with the Urology nurse Japhare Joseph. She has done an excellent job at organizing the urology equipment and supplies and has developed significant expertise in handling and maintaining the urology equipment. She is a true asset to the Urology Department at HSFDS.

In summary we had a very productive and educational trip. Verbal feedback from Drs. Dreux, Kedex and Lemause expressed appreciation of the didactic teaching and proctored surgical procedures. Members of our team have expressed to me that they found working at HSFDS enjoyable and interacting with our Haitian colleagues as a highlight of the trip. We hope that our efforts will continue yearly. We are looking forward to updates regarding the patients’ recovery and encouraged our Haitian colleagues to reach out to us by phone or email for any concerns.

Respectfully submitted,

Frank Burks, MD

April 20, 2018

 

Thank you e-mail to Drs. Joe Costa and Joe Babiarz

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Thank you Joe and Joe,
I talked to Junelle and she is happy for the surgery.She is going to have her smile back as she was depressive after a disaster like this in her life. She has been admitted in a teaching hospital and stayed in for more than 20 hours in obstructive  labor and she lost the baby – she had nerve compression – Finally she has been referred to another hospital because there were no materials for her C section and  her Hysterectomy done because of uterine rupture.
Many thanks because what you did is priceless – May God continue to bless you all.
Looking forward to meeting you soon.
Best regards to you and your family Guys.
JEAN – JUMEAU Batsch,MD
Family Practice/Obstetrique – Gynecologie
Colposcopy – Laparoscopy – Cure de Fistules VV
Cell Phones : (509) :3632 – 4324 / Contact
Home Phone : (509) :3733 – 5178
Office in P-A-P : 86 Chemin des Dalles CTM

E-mail : jjbatsch09@yahoo.fr

<To Serve,you only need a Heart full of Grace,
a Soul generated by Love > “Martin L. King Jr”