From the Angels of Milot website …
Dr. John Lovejoy Jr., a retired orthopedic surgeon from Florida, has graciously volunteered at Hôpital Sacré Coeur for over 10 years. Immediately following the quake, he enlists his son, Dr. John Lovejoy III – an orthopedic surgeon at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC – to help him organize a U.S. response team. Efficiently, but not without difficulty, they find private transportation and pull together another surgeon, two nurses and a physician’s assistant to arrive in Milot only four days after the quake.
The documentary, filmed from unique camera access to the hospital, volunteers and patients through four separate trips, will delve into the logistics of converting an overloaded hospital into an expanded M*A*S*H unit and using a nearby school for triage and post operative treatment. In just one week the medical team performed over 180 surgeries and saw over 400 injured patients. Methodically, examination rooms were transformed into surgical suites and eventually six operating rooms were up and running concurrently. Meanwhile, a 40-foot shipping container was outfitted as a mobile
prosthetic unit and shipped to the hospital to provide post-operativecare, physical therapy and artificial limbs necessary for recovery, but almost impossible to obtain in Haiti.
The film will also introduce you to some of the most amazing Haitian people you would never have met otherwise. For the most part, they are not despondent or mournful – but uplifted and grateful for their lives having been saved. And their lust for life is contagious.
The filmmakers hope to increase public awareness of the hospital, the hardships facing the country and the funding needs of the CRUDEM Foundation to continue to provide medical treatment to the sick and injured so that as a generation of amputees grows up, they can be adequately cared and provided for. This commitment is without a doubt long-term. Most importantly, Angels of Milot, Haiti’s Aftershock, tells the story of an appropriately named hospital, amazingly in tact after a devastating event. This special place of healing was and is positioned for greatness – thanks to the help of an expert medical team with a heart for healing – and the resilient and generous spirit of the people of Haiti.
