recordonline.com

GOSHEN — Some of the old equipment from Horton and Arden Hill hospitals is going to be used to rebuild orthopedic surgery in an earthquake-devastated country with a desperate need for it.
A barge full of equipment and supplies — enough for a fully equipped orthopedic suite at l’Hopital de l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti in Port-au-Prince — is in Haiti now, and will go to the hospital after it clears customs, said Dr. Ron Israelski, a local orthopedic surgeon who has been heavily involved with helping the people of Haiti since the 2010 quake and who got the shipment together. HUEH is the country’s largest hospital, and the center of medical education in the country.
Israelski, who is currently an orthopedic surgeon at Hudson Valley Ambulatory Surgery, a senior partner at Catskill Orange orthopedics, an assistant professor of orthopedics at NYU School of Medicine and director of medical education at Orange Regional Medical Center, has been to Haiti six times since the earthquake that killed more than 230,000 people and injured 300,000 others. He first went about three weeks after the quake, and helped treat all kinds of orthopedic injuries — performing amputations, fixing broken bones, treating infections and machete wounds.
After ORMC’s new hospital in the Town of Wallkill opened and the two other hospitals closed, ORMC auctioned off a lot of their old equipment, and let Israelski take equipment they didn’t sell, to send to Haiti. The equipment that is going over there now will be a “game changer” when it gets there, Israelski said.
Helping Haiti rebuild, and helping rebuild orthopedic surgery in particular, has been one of Israelski’s passions. Currently, Haiti has only 15 orthopedic residents, and 30 surgeons — this in a country of 10 million, with a huge need for orthopedic specialists of all types. Israelski’s needs assessment for building orthopedics in the country has already been approved by that country’s Ministry of Health. He has already procured and sent other equipment to Haiti; led teams of specialists to Haiti from New York University School of Medicine, Radiologists without Borders, the Aesclepius Medical Society, and other groups; and his charity, Orthopedic Relief Services International, recently got non-profit status.
Once this latest batch of equipment arrives, the country will have built a strong infrastructure for delivering orthopedic services, he said. Then, he will continue to lead American surgical teams from major medical schools, who will do surgery by day and help train Haitian orthopedic residents in the evenings. His long-term goal, he said, is to make orthopedic surgery self sustaining in Haiti, and find an American institution — a medical college, maybe — to partner with HUEH and provide mentoring and periodic visits and support for orthopedics there.
nbrown@th-record.com