Surgery

ER Doctors Leave Haiti

While thousands of surgeries need to be redone.

Survivors of the January 12 Haitian earthquake are still in dire need of medical care, although emergency medical teams are packing up and leaving, The Wall Street Journal reports. Haitian and U.S. medical officials estimate that 25 to 30 percent of the surgeries performed after the earthquake will have to be redone because the initial surgeries were done in makeshift operating rooms that weren't sterile and many wounds are dirty. Diarrhea, malaria, and other diseases are also beginning to spread through crowded tent communities, threatening to overwhelm medical professionals bracing for the second wave of patients. According to the U.S. health emergency coordinator, medical aid is moving to a second stage to ensure that "people who are displaced don't suffer from indirect consequences."