Over the past week, Rob Phillips, Relationship Coordinator, has been coordinating all flights for Clean the World in partnership with Corporate Aviators Responding in Emergencies (CARE). He works very closely with the pilots, passengers and other CARE personnel to ensure doctors, first responders, medicine and hygiene products are being flown into Haiti. Additionally, he works to ensure planes returning to the US are loaded with doctors that must return or Haitian residents that need to leave the country. Here is an email received by Rob Phillips at 5:00pm ET, Sunday January 24:
Rob,
We need you to help the pilots John Cunningham & Mike Magnus who flew myself Tom Larkin & my friend Gene Bates from Ft. Lauderdale today. They transported us on tail #N304SE. We got here fine. They are returning with two Americans a Haitian mother and baby who has burns and needs to be treated at Miami burn center.
They could use immediate transportation to the Miami burn center but they also need your help in clearing the Haitian mother & child through US customs. The mother is Dieula Poleon and her child is Michaelson. I do not know the nature of the burns but at least one of the extra American travelers is a doctor. If you can help clear them through customs in the USA &Providenicales Intl. (Turkos Caikos) the pilots would be very grateful.
Thank you for all your help in these matters.
Tom Larkin
Exhibit Consultant
Rob immediately sprung into action to assist. First, he established communication with William Lowry, on the ground in Cap Haitien to assess the situation. William confirmed that the girl indeed needed emergency medical attention as soon as possible.
One of the issues here was that the pilot did not have the appropriate paperwork for the Dieula and her child, Michaelson. At risk of losing his license, the pilot understood the situation and decided to fly the child to Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) anyway. Rob Phillips contacted US Customs and border control to alert of the situation and delver the appropriate information (which had been gathered by William Lowry in Haiti while the plane was in the air). Rob then coordinated with Jackson Memorial hospital to ensure emergency vehicles and medics were ready on the ground when the plane landed.
After a few brief, tense moments, the child was transported to Jackson Memorial. The child has very bad burn wounds. We will try to get an update today to let you know her status. Regrettably, those that saw the little girl were not optimistic.
Please stop to say a prayer for baby Michaelson and her mother right now.
To Rob Phillips and all our friends at CARE: Thank you for your tireless work over the past two weeks helping our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
