Hanover — Many of the Haitians in the Hinche hospital, bed-ridden since the Jan. 12 earthquake with fractured or amputated limbs, had not felt the sunshine in more than a month.

Some of them had not even moved much during that time.

A Dartmouth medical team -- including a nurse practitioner, three physical therapists and an occupational therapist -- changed that. They got people moving. » Read more

Port-Au-Prince — About an hour before dawn, we awoke to loud and joyful singing in the streets.

It was, at first, an annoyance: First, a night’s sleep interrupted by wailing roosters and snarling dogs - and now this?

But we were curious and began fumbling with the tent door zippers in the dark. We had been camped out on a concrete slab in the front courtyard of the Haitian family’s home where the Dartmouth medical team was staying on a relief mission to the earthquake-ravaged capital. A tall wooden fence divided the street from the tent I shared with Valley News photographer Jason Johns. The fence gate was locked from the inside with a padlock, but it was not completely shut, so we eased out onto the street. A nearly full moon lingered in the night sky.

The sight illuminated by that moon was startling. A group of about 60 Haitians stood on a street corner and sang gospel hymns. Women sang a graceful chorus that reminded me of slowly falling leaves. A hand-drum and a tambourine made a simple, steady beat. A man, wearing a tie and carrying a book, chanted over the beat in a powerful voice, driving the song forward. After a moment, I realized he was preaching. » Read more

Hanover — The 11-year-old girl lay in the hospital bed with a fractured face and a crushed torso. She was writhing in pain and had tubes sticking out of her chest.

It was one of the first days in Hinche, a town on Haiti’s Central Plateau, for Dr. Rajan Gupta and his team of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center doctors and nurses. Newly arrived to the hospital, they didn’t want to take over. But they were concerned about the girl and attempted to coordinate care for her with Haitian doctors.

Two days later, they found her bed empty and the chest tubes lying on the ground.

“At first, I wondered ‘Where did she go?’” said Chris O’Connell, a flight nurse and educator for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team. “Then suddenly, I realized she was dead. It was very sad.” » Read more

Hanover — Another plane carrying Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center staff is scheduled to leave for Haiti from the Lebanon airport today, marking the next phase of the response to the Jan. 12 earthquake - rehabilitation.

The fifth team of Dartmouth/DHMC personnel consists of three physical therapists, an occupational therapist and a nurse practitioner. They will work at the Sainte Therese Hospital in Hinche, a town on Haiti’s Central Plateau, helping patients with rehabilitative needs. The team also will conduct a needs assessment to assist Partners in Health in helping patients through physical and mental health rehabilitation. » Read more

Picture trying to put together a puzzle with a dozen strangers - blindfolded. Few of you share a language. Many of the pieces are missing.

That’s how one doctor described the ongoing aid effort in Haiti.

One organization among the many trying to make sense of the madness is International Medical Corps, a global nonprofit humanitarian organization, founded in 1984, that provides health care assistance and medical training to poverty-stricken areas around the globe. » Read more

Hinche, Haiti - Josette Fameux rested in her cot, her legs now bandaged stumps. Her 18-year-old daughter sat beside her, fanning her with a towel to cool her in the sweltering air.

She had lost so much in the Jan. 12 earthquake. But at least she was alive. » Read more

Port-Au-Prince - For the nurses entering their second week in Haiti, the early morning drive had become a welcome daily ritual - a last chance to compose themselves before the chaos.

“It’s really important we have this time, as we descend into the noise and the dust and the smells, to get our game faces on,” said Dr. Jim Geiling, who led the team of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center nurses in their work to relieve some of the misery caused by the Jan. 12 earthquake and its aftershocks, as their bus rumbled toward the city. » Read more