Suburban Orthodox Synagogue Delivers 15 Carloads of Donations for Haiti to St. Joseph Medical Center for Relief and Medical Mission

(Towson, MD) To help support a medical mission to Haiti organized by anesthesiologist Dr. Jean-Max Hogarth of St. Joseph Medical Center, members of Suburban Orthodox Synagogue of Pikesville, Maryland delivered more than 15 carloads of donations, including 3,720 bottles of water, formula for 2,500 bottles and 2,500 diapers on Sunday, January 24, 2010.

The synagogue’s generous donation was led by Rabbi Shmuel Silber. Several of the synagogue’s members work at St. Joseph Medical Center, including Dr. Michael Langbaum, head of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Dr. Hogarth, a native of Haiti, and the medical center will arrange for the shipment of the donations. Dr. Hogarth, along with St. Joseph staff Tony Chotikul, orthopaedic assistant, and Cheryl Clayborne, surgical technician, left for Haiti on January 21 and plan to be there for at least a week. They are part of a larger eight-person team including an orthopaedic surgeon, in conjunction with Partners in Health and support from the Paul Chester Children’s Hope Foundation (www.pcchf.org). They took hundreds of pounds of supplies with them.

Dr. Hogarth and his colleagues in his anesthesia group, which practices at St. Joseph Medical Center, plan to take turns rotating to Haiti to continue providing medical care and bringing supplies to earthquake victims. You can read his blog at: www.StJosephTowson.com. In his most recent entry, he wrote about a young girl for whom the team performed a partial amputation:

Children with amputation lead tough lives in Haiti and we really trying to save her limb. But today we had to perform a transmetatarsal amputation of her left foot and excision of bone on her right. Thankfully, a plastic surgeon arrived today and stated he thinks he could perform skin grafts on both feet so we decided not to perform bilateral below the knee amputations. Also our American colleagues have told us that they can get her prosthetics in the future. She is a beautiful loving child that has grabbed the hearts of everyone in the hospital. God Bless her. I will NEVER forget her. Never. Unfortunately, she is one of MANY. The emergency workers have ended their search and rescue missions. What remains is a nation in great need of long term help. God Bless my beloved Haiti.