A loud beeping sounded as the tractor trailer from Port Jersey Transport backed up towards the huge Royal Caribbean ship Empress of the Sea. The cold wind off New York Harbor whipped at the plastic covering the pallets inside the truck as another driver on a fork lift steered the forks toward the first pallet for the long trip south to the earthquake-savaged Haiti.
This is not the first shipment of aid Royal Caribbean has delivered to Haiti, said Anthony Caputo, port master of Port Liberty, but it is the first shipment to sail out of Bayonne – thanks to a combined effort of non-profits, public officials, private businesses, and even a rock-and-roll star.
“The burn trauma survivors in Haiti will be facing tremendous challenges for the rest of their lives.” – Sam Davis
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Port is near burn center
Sam Davis, founder of Burn Advocates Network of Teaneck, will accompany the shipment thanks to Royal Caribbean. The cruise line agreed to allow him to board the ship in Puerto Rico, and the first shipment of needed medical supplies is expected to reach the hands of healthcare people by Feb. 11, partly because Royal Caribbean docks at Labadee, Haiti, five miles from the only remaining burn clinic in the stricken country.
Much of the relief is bound for some of Haiti’s most desperate earthquake survivors – burn trauma patients, many of whom were street vendors who were cooking in the streets when the earthquake struck.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, which began shipping to Haiti from ports in Florida almost immediately after the earthquake struck three weeks ago, agreed to ship a total of 100 pallets of medical supplies to Haiti from the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne to Labadee, Haiti.
Many of the medical supplies – including 6,000 sets of crutches, 600 canes, and 400 walkers – were presented by Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Bayonne Mark Smith said former Department of Community Affairs Director Susan Bass Levin – who is currently employed at the hospital – was instrumental in the donation.
Teaneck-based Burn Advocates Network also collected donations from thousands of other New Jersey donors.
“The burn trauma survivors in Haiti will be facing tremendous challenges for the rest of their lives,” Davis said. “Our goal is to get necessary medical supplies to Haiti as quickly as possible in order to save lives. By teaming up with the citizens of New Jersey, we can achieve this goal.”
On to the hospitals
From the time the quake hit on Jan. 25, the For Haiti with Love Burn Clinic saw approximately 336 burn patients, many of whom traveled across the entire nation from Port Au Prince to reach it.
The majority of the burn victims appeared to have been street vendors cooking at the time the quake hit. They were either burned by flaming charcoal or boiling grease and/or the food in their cooking pots.
The supplies leaving Bayonne on Feb. 5 are expected to arrive in Haiti on Feb. 11 and will be within the hands of healers at the burn clinic, plus two area hospitals within hours of arrival.
Bob Russo of Port Jersey Transport, Smith said, arranged to have two tractor trailers available to transport the donated goods from the Camden hospital, Smith said, while other items were transported by Fair Mount trucking in Hackensack. United Rentals in Richfield supplied the fork lift.
“We made a lot of phone calls,” said Jordana Berger of Burn Advocates Network.
While not quite making the national splash as some of the high-profile rock concerts raising funds for Haiti, the Burn Advocates Network is not without its high-profile people, such as Jenni West, wife of rock and roll legend Leslie West – a former member of the 1970s rock band Mountain.
Leslie West and his wife
Jenni said she had become involved with the network because she wanted to help people with burn injuries, and both Jenni and Leslie West have been involved in fundraising efforts for the BAN.
“I got involved because my wife can get me to do anything,” Leslie said later, noting that Davis is also his attorney. “[Davis] got me to donate some Dean guitars to auction, and my pay from a concert at the Bergen PAC. My wife Jenni is operations director for BAN. I love doing things for kids less fortunate.”
During the loading of medical supplies, Davis talked about his work, saying he developed the network after he had seen victims during his legal practice.
“All serious burns can have devastating consequences,” he said.
This goes beyond the pain of the original wounds that often require multiple surgeries, lengthy rehabilitation, and psychological care.
“The victim is often left with physical and emotional scars, and needs more resources and follow-up than almost any other kind of injury,” he said.
He said the mission of BAN is to support burn survivors, and the key to recovery is access to medical, surgical and psychiatric care.
Local burn survivor helps out
On hand to help with the shipment on Feb. 5 was Keri-Ann Malo, who was 6 years old at the time she suffered burns over more than 50 percent of her body when a fire ripped through her North Bergen home in April 1992. Treatment included more than 21 surgeries.
Listed as a volunteer and an aspiring chef, Malo, a former resident of Jersey City, has been involved in BAN’s burn victim camps that help victims recover from the trauma.
“I just wanted to help other people who were burned,” she said.