It all started Friday evening with an urgent phone call to Omaha from a Creighton University doctor treating Haitian earthquake victims.
Seven patients at a small hospital 30 miles from Port-au-Prince would die within days if they weren't evacuated to receive more extensive care.
More than two dozen others also were in dire shape.
Less than 48 hours later — after efforts that included a call from Sen. Ben Nelson to the general leading the U.S. military in Haiti — military helicopters began airlifting the patients.
Dr. Theresa Townley, a Creighton University physician, placed the initial call to Dr. Charles Filipi, a Creighton surgeon who has been helping to coordinate the university's relief effort from Omaha.
Townley, speaking from the village of Jimani near Port-au-Prince, told Filipi that help was needed in a hurry.
A 7-week-old baby girl was among the patients in the worst shape. She had multiple fractures and was found underneath her dead mother in the earthquake rubble. The baby's muscles were crushed.
Another patient had suffered severe spinal injuries and was on the verge of paralysis.
Another had a hip fracture that led to severe infections and possibly needed removal of one leg and half the pelvis.
Townley called Filipi after 7 p.m. Friday. Filipi knew he needed to get in touch with Nelson's office for help. Patrick Borchers, a Creighton vice president who knew a former Nelson staff member, helped make contact.
By 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Filipi and Nelson's staff were discussing the patients and what could be done.
Nelson's staff contacted White House legislative staff and the U.S. State Department early Saturday morning. The senator's staff determined that help was needed from the U.S. Southern Command, which is overseeing the U.S. military's support of the relief effort.
At about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nelson spoke by phone with Gen. Douglas Fraser, who heads the Southern Command, and told him that Creighton doctors believed an airlift was essential to save the patients' lives, a member of the senator's staff said.
U.S. military helicopters started airlifting 27 patients about noon Sunday and nine patients Monday morning. Most went to the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort off the Haitian coast, Filipi said. The rest were taken to other hospitals in Haiti.
Creighton officials thanked Nelson and his staff for helping to get the airlifts.
“It was like a 50-link chain,'' Borchers said. “If any link would have broken, it wouldn't have happened.”
Airlifts also helped patients treated at a hospital near Port-au-Prince where University of Nebraska Medical Center doctors worked. Those patients were transported by vehicles to locations where they were airlifted to the Navy hospital ship and other hospitals in Haiti.
Monday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the U.S. military would fly critically ill quake survivors to hospitals in several states to avoid overloading Florida. The flights had stalled for five days because of concerns over space and costs in U.S. hospitals, but resumed Monday.
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Contact the writer:
444-1122, michael.oconnor@owh.com
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