More than 200 patients admitted to MSF's Port-au-Prince trauma hospital with violence-related injuries

In order to help more patients MSF doubled the hospital’s capacity shortly after opening, expanding to 50 hospital beds. Ever since, the hospital has consistently remained at near-full capacity, with sporadic peaks in admissions following major incidents of violence or accidents. The most recent peak occurred last week around the period of carnival, when the hospital had its highest number of admissions in a single week with 37 new hospitalized patients.

During the same period, after a deadly shootout between the army and protestors from the police force resulted in armed road barricades and a citywide curfew, we organized escorted transport for our staff to and from the hospital in order to ensure 24-hour service.

Over the last three months the trauma hospital team has treated patients from many neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, with most coming from Port-au-Prince (20 percent), Croix-des-Bouquets (13 percent), Delmas (13 percent), Cité Soleil (11 percent), and Carrefour (11 percent). The most common causes of injury were gunshots (50 percent of admitted patients) followed by road traffic accidents (31 percent) and other violence-related injuries, including potentially fatal knife wounds (12 percent).

Our team at the Tabarre trauma hospital is working daily to help address the needs of the population. In addition to providing lifesaving surgery and emergency care, we began offering follow-up monitoring and physiotherapy to discharged patients in January.