NEWS RELEASE

International Surgical Health Initiative Joins the Relief Efforts in Haiti
January 24, 2010

(New Jersey – January 21, 2009) – Within just 72 hours of the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti, ISHI organized a team of six to travel to Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Working at Hospital Eleazar Germain, which sustained minimal damage in the quake and is still functioning, ISHI President and Co-Founder Dr. Ziad Sifri, along with volunteers Dr. Kevin Clarke, Dr. Diego Reino, cRNA Susan Walsh, Mae Tingson RN, and anesthesiologist Dr. Jean Daniel Eloy, will be working with teams French team Cellule de Crise du Ministère des Affaires Etrangère Française and Dr. Claude Surena, President of Haitian Medical Association. Over the course of the eight-day emergency mission, ISHI team members will visit the stadium-turned-tent city where thousands of injured people have gathered to identify patients to be brought back to Hospital Eleazar Germain for surgery.

Shortly on the heels of this first mission, ISHI already has plans for a follow-up mission with more than twice the number of volunteers. In collaboration with the New Jersey chapter of the Haitian Physician’s Association, ISHI will return to Haiti early in February, 2010, for another week-long mission in what it hopes will the second of many visits to Haiti in the coming months and years.

About ISHI
International Surgical Health Initiative (ISHI) is dedicated to improving the health of underserved people around the world by providing much-needed surgical care; working toward the prevention and treatment of the illnesses that bring about the need for surgery; collaborating with other like-minded organizations; building lasting relationships with patients, families, and communities; and empowering local medical professionals to be self-sustained through education and training.

ISHI is made up of surgeons, doctors, nurses, administrators, artists, and others who work together under the guiding principle of providing unconditional surgical care to those threatened by surgical disease around the world.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATON CONTACT:

Kimberly Riback, Board Secretary/Public Relations
E-mail: kim.riback@ishiglobal.org