Haiti Case Study - The Department of Global Health and Social ...

RESPONSES TO THE CHALLENGE
Overview
10. Hundreds of health worker volunteers from all over the world arrived to help at Haitian
medical treatment facilities or set up extra facilities to augment the overwhelmed Haitian
system. Military units responded both to provide security at existing Medical treatment
facilities, such as the support provided by 22 Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 82nd
Airborne Brigade Combat Team (BCT), and with their own deployable medical treatment
facilities.
11. Several of the temporary medical treatment facilities established to augment local
capacity were military medical treatment facilities including field hospitals from the Canadian
Army and Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and military hospital ships from Mexico, the United
States, Colombia, France, Spain and Italy.
12. The 22 Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 82nd Airborne BCT, the IDF field hospital
and the hospital ship USNS COMFORT are the focus of this narrative which will consider the
challenges these highly capable early military responders faced. Together the stories of
these different contributions illustrate the potential as well as the challenges of deploying
military forces to protect and provide medical treatment facilities in the immediate aftermath
of a natural disaster and offer insights regarding how direct aid may impact the indigenous
health system generally.
Providing security at existing Medical treatment facilities
The 22 Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 82nd Airborne BCT
13. Military forces were asked provide security at existing Medical treatment facilities. One
example of this occurred at the General Hospital. The hospital director, preoccupied with
patient care and service delivery, but mindful of the increase in tension in relationships with
both the population and NGOs, asked a representative from Partners in Health to liaise with
the military to provide security. A major security concern came from the intimidating number
of people desperately seeking access to treatment facilities in order to get treated
themselves or to try to save their injured relatives. Also, there were concerns existing
frictions between resident medical staff and NGO personnel might get worse. 121 As, one
hospital manager reported:
“The main reason we called for the military was I was threatened by the NGOs. They
wanted to take over and have control. We needed to have authority re-established
because it was a public hospital. Groups came and tried to paste their signs on the
outside of the hospital…I was worried if we didn’t improve security many staff people
would leave when they heard about the kidnapping”
14. The marines and soldiers of the 22 Marine Expeditionary Unit and 82nd Airborne BCT
arrived six days after the earthquake 122 and helped secure access to the hospital entrance
and organize food distribution to patients. They also restored the electricity inside the
building through a power generator, and broke some locked doors so as to gain access to
additional stored equipment. US troops remained to support the hospital for about two
months. 123
Direct care in military-provided medical treatment facilities
IDF Field Hospital
15. The IDF field hospital was the first military medical treatment facility to arrive and also
the first to leave on completion of its 10-day mission, arriving on 14 January 2010 when two
Israeli planes with 230 people (109 for search & rescue and support and 121 medical
personnel) landed in Port-au-Prince and established a functioning field hospital a short
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