Local physician helps quake victims

Dr. Pany DeCossard puts a short cast on a girl’s injured ankle while treating Haitian earthquake victims. Photo courtesy of Dr. Pany DeCossard UPPER THUMB — Dr. Pany DeCossard spent a week in his native Haiti treating victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake, and while there learned that some of his own family were injured or dead.

DeCossard and his wife, Michelle, who also is a doctor, live in Bad Axe with their two elementary school-age daughters. The family moved to the Thumb from Chicago after he completed his geriatric fellowship in Loyola University Health Systems. He grew up in a small town on the southern Haitian peninsula southwest of Port-au-Prince.

He left Jan. 17, arriving in Haiti the next day to offer his medical skills to survivors of the quake that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

His brother, who is a priest in Haiti, was not injured, however a half-brother, who was working in an insurance company when the building collapsed, suffered a broken pelvis.

“One hand was sticking out (of the rubble) so the rescuers could see him,” stated DeCossard.

A cousin of his suffered the loss of his wife and infant daughter; a family friend suffered the loss of two high school-age daughters.

It was a week of working non-stop, except for occasional naps. DeCossard treated people in the emergency room, did triage and post-operative care at the Adventist Hospital of Diquini, in a town near the quake’s epicenter in Port-au- Prince.

“We transferred them out in the field after post-op because the patients were afraid to be in the building with the aftershocks,” he said.

"They stayed there, some in tents, and we gave them fluids and antibiotics. They did not have anywhere to go,” DeCossard stated.

The patients weren’t the only ones leery of aftershocks. DeCossard recalls looking for an escape route before taking a nap in a third-story room open to the outside.

“There was a big aftershock while I was there. It was 4 a.m. and I had taken a nap. I was rolling up my sleeping bag and felt the building shake, and people were falling,” he said.

He jumped onto a roof about 12 feet below, hurting his knee.

“After that. I slept outside, I slept on the roof; there was no more room in the field, and it was dirty,” DeCossard explained.

Most of the injuries he treated were from being crushed - compound fractures and paralysis, as well as a lot of amputations.

“There is a dire need for rehab materials, crutches, wheelchairs and walkers,” he noted.

Because he speaks the native language, DeCossard also did a lot of translating for the medical teams.

One day he went on a search and rescue to a school.

“The locals said they heard children crying. There was no sign of people (alive), but we did save two dogs that were trapped,” said DeCossard.

He added, “After we gave them food and water they tried to go back into the house because their people were there.”

Originally, DeCossard was going to just catch a flight on his own and offer his medical services, but there were no commercial flights to Haiti at the time.

“A friend in Orlando knew about this mission and called me,” he said, referring to ACTS World Relief of Florida, a group of doctors on their way to Haiti with medical supplies, thereby giving DeCossard access to a flight.

“I am grateful to the communities of Bad Axe (where he lives) and Deckerville for supporting my mission; My patients have been very gracious about it,” he stated. DeCossard has been practicing since January 2005 at Deckerville Community Hospital, specializing in internal medicine and geriatrics.