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The U-M Health System (UMHS) has welcomed back its team of 10 volunteer medical professionals who have spent two weeks supporting the U.S. Navy’s medical mission in Haiti.

Hundreds of UMHS medical professionals volunteered to help after the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12. A 10-person medical team was deployed in mid-February to provide medical care on board U.S. Naval Ship Comfort, in the harbor near Port-au-Prince.

The “Wolverine Team” consisted of two physicians, seven nurses and one pharmacist. While on the Comfort, its members cared for a variety of earthquake victims. During the mission, Wolverine Team’s medical director, Dr. Marie Lozon, provided the following update from the Comfort:

“We are jumping in to care for patients all over the ship. We are everywhere — Emergency Department, Operating Rooms wards, units — and we have all cared for some of the same patients from intake to post-operation to ward. The U-M team was told by Navy leadership it is the most organized and cohesive group, and all of us were complimented for demonstrating that taking care of patients is most important despite the many distractions in an environment like this.” Lozon was asked by the ship’s commanding officer to join the Executive Committee of the medical staff for the duration of the mission.

The leader of the UMHS Haiti Task Force, Tony Denton, the chief operating officer of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, salutes the Wolverine Team’s efforts, and the willingness of many more UMHS clinicians to travel to Haiti to help earthquake victims.

He also notes the contributions of many throughout the university who gathered medical supplies for shipment to Haiti, and the Survival Flight crew that flew to Haiti soon after the earthquake to bring two patients to UMHS for advanced care as part of the official federal response to the crisis. One of those patients has been discharged but is still receiving follow-up care; the other is still hospitalized.

“All who have helped our effort to respond to this tragedy in any way should be proud to have made a difference,” Denton says. “We were privileged to be able to partner with the Navy for this mission. The recovery and restoration effort in Haiti will be very long-term. We will stay abreast of ongoing needs and continue to evaluate our Health System’s ability to assist.”

The following UMHS medical personnel served as part of the Wolverine Team: Lozon, who also directs UMHS Children’s Emergency Services; John Arkles, registered nurse, Trauma Burn Center; Adrienne Bell, pharmacist, Emergency Department Pharmacy Services; Kevin Dombrowski, registered nurse, Pediatric Surgery and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital Operating Room; Dennis Fish, registered nurse, Mott Hospital operating room education coordinator; Deb Koesler, registered nurse, Children’s Emergency Services; Patrick Nalepa, clinical nurse, Pediatric Surgery, Mott Hospital; Dr. Aasim Padela, Emergency Medicine; Janine Robinson, registered nurse and clinical nurse manager, University Hospital Operating Room; and Keenan Stonebraker, registered nurse, UMHS SWAT Team.