News

Beverly Hospital medical team off to help in Haiti

By Paul Leighton
Staff writer

BEVERLY — A quickly assembled team of doctors and nurses from Beverly Hospital is scheduled to leave this morning for a weeklong mission in Haiti after an "overwhelming response" to a request for help from people around the North Shore.

The medical team, which includes three surgeons, has assembled enough donated supplies to fill a 737-size airplane.

"It's not just about a couple of docs and nurses going down to operate," Dr. Henry Frissora said. "It's about a whole community saying, 'How can we jump in?'"

The mission got its start when Manchester-by-the-Sea resident Sam Byrne got a phone call from Peter Simpson, a friend from Beverly who is also a pilot. Simpson had flown a doctor and a seriously injured child from Haiti to Miami for medical attention, and the doctor told Simpson that a small hospital in Haiti was in desperate need of doctors.

Burns, the managing partner of a real estate investment firm, CrossHarbor Capital, has been sponsoring private flights into Haiti to help with the relief effort ever since the earthquake hit.

"The doctor got in touch with Sam and said, 'If you have any doctors you know, we'd love to put them in our rotations (at the hospital),'" Frissora said.

Byrne contacted Frissora and Jonathan Jaques, Beverly Hospital doctors who are sailing partners of Byrne. Within a week, they had assembled a team of eight doctors and nurses, six of whom are affiliated with Beverly Hospital.

Tracy Byrne, Sam's wife, set up a drive to collect supplies such as children's clothing, shoes, tents, crutches, walkers and dozens of other items.

"The donations have been so huge we may not be able to get it all down on one flight," Frissora said.

The medical team, as well as Byrne and three other support people, are scheduled to fly out of Hanscom Field in Bedford this morning on a chartered airbus from the Yellowstone Club, a private ski and golf community in Colorado owned by Byrne.

The doctors and nurses will work at Pierre Payen Hospital about 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Frissora said the hospital has been overwhelmed not only by earthquake victims, but by other Haitians who are now coming forward with chronic medical conditions that have been left untreated.

"Patients have literally come out of the hills with really advanced conditions that normally, in our neighborhood, would be taken care of in a heartbeat," Frissora said. "We're going to have our hands full, but it's a very gratifying thing."

The Beverly Hospital medical team includes Frissora, a general vascular surgeon; Jaques, an anesthesiologist; Beverly Shafer, a plastic surgeon; Debbee Carter, a nurse anesthesiologist; Jim Sullivan, an orthopedic nurse; and Amy Alexander, a pediatric nurse.

Orthopedic surgeon Brian McKeon of Essex, who is the team doctor for the Boston Celtics, and pediatric emergency room specialist Kevin Schwartz, who is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, are also making the trip.

Frissora said the team hopes to develop a long-term relationship with Pierre Payen Hospital that will enable them to help beyond this particular mission.

"All parts of our support system have supported this to the hilt," Frissora said. "It's become an incredible community effort."