Medical teams going to Haiti that need their surgical supplies brought up to snuff might just have a helping hand.

Instruments of Mercy, a charity that refurbishes equipment at no cost for medical missions, announced it was looking to help teams going to Haiti to assist in relief efforts.

"We're currently in contact with two medical teams, but we also expect to hear from others in the next days and weeks to come," Toney Peer, director of IOM, tells DOTmed News.

The need for working tools there is great, according to the Birmingham, Alabama-based organization. After the 7.0 earthquake devastated the island's nation's capital city of Port-au-Prince, IOM saw reports of doctors forced to perform surgeries with rusty instruments and "having to amputate limbs with hacksaws."

To help, the charity is offering to fix flexible endoscopes, rigid endoscopes, power equipment, laparoscopic and specialty instruments. In general, the group will repair up to $6,000 worth of goods for free per medical mission, though the financial limit appears to be more flexible for Haitian teams.

"At this point, with the Haitian mission, we didn't want to set a limit," she says. "We're willing to refurbish what the surgeon physically needs to help the people of Haiti."

WORKS WITH IMS

Founded in 2004 by Gene Robinson, CEO of Integrated Medical Systems, a surgical instrument management and consultancy company, IOM has assisted in 36 missions in 26 countries, Peer says.

Once medical missions give IOM their damaged instruments, they're sent to IMS' refurbishing plants in Birmingham, Ala. or Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"[Equipment is] evaluated thoroughly to find any faults, then visually inspected and cleaned, to determine what repairs are needed," explains Rodney Robinson, a technical coordinator at IMS. "It can be as simple as sharpening scissors or replacing a screw in the instrument, to putting new inserts in needle holders used for suturing."

For the Haiti trip, Robinson says most instruments are coming from functioning sets, so they usually just need cleaning and lubrication. "It's normally not as extensive of a repair, but they're checked, their condition is 100 percent usable," he says.

IOM regularly fixes instruments for Mercy Ships, a Christian non-profit whose boat, the world's largest hospital ship, has performed thousands of on-board operations. Last year, IOM refurbished 4,700 tools for the floating health center, according to Peer.

Surgeons or surgical teams heading to Haiti can reach Toney Peer at toneypeer@instrumentsofmercy.org or 205.913.6032.

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