Kalispell surgeon heads for Haiti duty

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Albert Olszewski of Kalispell hopes to leave for Haiti Sunday or Monday to work with Hope Force International treating earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince.

Olszewski, a partner at Flathead Orthopedics, answered a request for volunteers made by Dr. Tim Browne, a Ronan physician who performs medical missionary work with the faith-based organization.

“It’s someone I trust who says it’s a legitimate and efficient organization,” Olszewski said Friday. “This is a huge disaster and they need help.”

Browne made the request at the annual meeting of the Montana Orthopedic Society in Big Sky last weekend. Olszewski checked in with his wife, Nancee, then began making arrangements to leave his practice for a week and a half.

He had a great desire to go since he acquired specialized training in the U.S. Air Force in rapid mobilization medicine as a member of a surgical team.

“My first deployment was to the Oklahoma City bombing,” he said. “I was there three hours after the blast.”

Departing for Haiti has taken considerably longer.

On Friday, he had feelers out to the military and other groups, trying to find a flight into the quake-torn country. He hopes to go to work next week treating trauma patients at King’s Hospital, a recently built facility in the capital that escaped major damage.

“We’re dealing with a tremendous amount of orthopedic injuries,” he said. “I’ll try and be creative, stabilizing fractures, cleaning wounds and providing comfort.”

Olszewski was thankful that anesthesia equipment was donated to the hospital, since he expects to perform a number of amputations and treat major bone fractures as well as burns.

“We’ll be triaging the most life-threatening injuries,” he said. “With limited resources, you try to save lives and limbs.”

Between phone calls looking for flights, Olszewski was gathering together trauma equipment, a one-man tent, mosquito net, an ultraviolet water sterilization light, MREs (meals ready to eat), a change of clothes and other bare necessities — all to go in one backpack.

He said he’s prepared to sleep on the ground and sustain himself for several days, eating an MRE every other day if necessary. Olszewski said he can make potable water using the light, then filtering it through any material such as a shirt.

“I’m trained to live out of a backpack and to live so that I can wait to be resupplied,” Olszewski said.

He expressed gratitude to his patients, partners, nurses and other staff who are making sacrifices so that he can leave town to help the earthquake victims.

“A lot of people had waited six to seven weeks for an appointment or surgeries,” he said.

Olszewski performed two joint replacement surgeries Friday afternoon on patients who could not put off their operations. His staff rescheduled the others.

Olszewski, who has five children, said his wife was anxious about him going into Haiti, but she has experienced it all before as a military wife when he left with almost no warning.

“In the past, I would call her and say I’m leaving and I don’t know to where. Check CNN,” he said.

He said he understands the risks but believes the benefit of what medical volunteers can provide outweighs those risks. Olszewski said he was focused on preparing to care for as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Although he hasn’t deployed to a disaster for 13 years, Olszewski knows what to expect when he arrives. He packed peppermint oil to cope with the smell of decaying bodies in 90-degree-plus heat.

“You put it right under your nose and it helps,” Olszewski said. “The stench of death is horrendous.”

He called it a humbling experience, anticipating leaving the medical resources here to practice in Haiti where shortages of supplies and equipment remain a daily reality.  

“I’m going from the Flathead Valley where I have state-of-the-art technology and no limits on providing the finest care at a moment’s notice to a country with minimum resources,” he said. “It’s like going back to the Civil War times.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.