Governor Commends WV Doctors and Philanthropists for Haiti Mission Trip 

Because of crumbling infrastructure and limited resources in Haiti, the U.S. government is coordinating U.S. aid to the country. However, not all missions can be supported at this time, and state-based aid is on hold while the federal mission is under way and until the federal government clears the way for that type of assistance.

Gov. Manchin has offered West Virginia’s assistance where available, but in the meantime, a group of doctors had contacted the governor to see if the state could find a way to get them to Haiti. The governor put the doctors in touch with a Pittsburgh philanthropist who, along with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, has chartered a private jet and is teaming up with the doctors to make a surgical mission possible now. 

Former Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel owner and Esmark Inc. founder Jim Bouchard and Huntington orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ali Oliashirazi are coordinating the doctors’ transport to Haiti. The team of about 30, including four surgeons, two anesthesiologists, additional medical doctors, pediatricians, and nurse practitioners, is expected to depart from Pittsburgh on Jan. 24. Many of the medical professionals on the flight are from West Virginia.

“Our original plan," Oliashirazi said, “was to depart from Ft. Lauderdale to the Dominican Republic with a Doctors Without Borders plane, and then take a seven-hour bus ride to Haiti, with almost 3,000 pounds of equipment. 

The governor quickly came through with a much simpler plan to fly us directly to Port-au-Prince with Mr. Bouchard's chartered plane." 

They will then take ground transportation to a hospital about eight miles south of Port-au-Prince.

The hospital, which has two operating rooms, was set up for mission work a few years ago by the charity organization Double Harvest Haiti. Oliashirazi said with the four surgeons he expects to be able to run both operating rooms 24-hours a day for seven days straight. Currently the hospital has about 500 patients, with every inch of space turned into patient care areas, including the kitchen.

The medical mission was planned with the help of Bradley Edmondson, director of Medical Mission Outreach of Ashland, Ohio, and Doug Hodges, director of Daystar Ministries, which is associated with Lewis Memorial Baptist Church in Huntington.

Bouchard, Esmark and Highmark are paying for the jet and providing security services for the group of doctors and their medical supplies. The supplies include desperately needed medication and antibiotics, which will help to enable more than 7,000 surgeries, Bouchard said. 

“One of the biggest challenges to recovery is getting the medications the doctors and hospitals in Haiti need right now,” Bouchard said. “We have worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration, donors and volunteers to get these invaluable supplies to Port-au-Prince and believe that many thousands of lives can be saved.”

Bouchard said the plane also will evacuate about 150 personnel after insertion of the West Virginia medical team and supplies. 

“We teach our residents that we owe others far more than we typically think we do,” Oliashirazi said. “We hope to affect the lives of these people in their time of most desperate need.”

Gov. Manchin said he’s proud that the people of West Virginia are volunteering and looking for all possible means to get to Haiti so they can assist.

“I really want to thank Dr. Ali for his expertise and the willingness to not just volunteer, but to step forward and lead the way so that our physicians can put their skills to use where they are most needed right now,” Manchin said. “All of these doctors, nurses and medical professionals are showing the best of West Virginia to the people of Haiti and I am so proud.

 “And I want to thank Esmark, Highmark and Jim Bouchard for doing everything possible to help them on their mission. Their work was already under way when Dr. Oliashirazi contacted me. It is wonderful they are able to coordinate on the same mission.

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