2016: The Year in Quotes

“If it weren’t for this hospital, I would be dead.”

Isemelie Bazard, a 64-year-old street vendor who underwent surgery and chemotherapy at PIH’s University Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. The cancer center at University Hospital performed free biopsies for 1,600 patients and delivered chemotherapy to roughly 15 patients per day in 2016. The full story.

“Looking back and realizing it’s been a year makes me so happy to see them running around the house and doing well.”

Manoucheca Ketan, a mother of conjoined twins whom PIH clinicians successfully helped separate at University Hospital. The surgery was a first in Haiti. A year later, in May 2016, the family remained healthy and happy. The full story.

“Health is not a privilege. It’s not something that should be reserved for people who can pay for it or live in the cities. Health is a human right and it should be universal.”

Dr. Martha Arrieta on what she learned while working with PIH in Mexico. Four years after beginning to work in Chiapas, PIH surpassed 50,000 patient visits in 2016. The full story.
 

“I ran to the car and I cried and I held my son.”

Vanessa Colchado, whose infant son was diagnosed in Lima, Peru, with a rare and complex form of tuberculosis, XDR-TB. After months of treatment and thousands of pills, Hans fully recovered in 2016. The full story.
 

“Without a strong health system, the ability to respond effectively to epidemics is sharply limited.”

Co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer, during a public discussion with philanthropist and software magnate Bill Gates on the website Reddit. The full story.
 

“One goal we have, now more than ever, is that every woman in Haiti has access to family planning if she wants it.”

Dr. Louise Ivers, senior health and policy advisor, on PIH’s multipronged response to the Zika epidemic, which erupted in Haiti in early 2016 and was found to cause birth defects. PIH serves 32,000 pregnant women in Haiti each year. The full story.
 

“I have a lot of them around here who are even having their own children now.”

Nurse and Midwife M. Hnede A. Kondy, aka “Mommy Mary,” on the hundreds of babies she has delivered over four decades in the town of Pleebo, Liberia. Since PIH refurbished and began working in the Pleebo clinic, the number of monthly deliveries has increased three-fold, to 100. The full story.
 

“I can honestly say this is one of the worst things I have ever seen.”

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joia Mukherjee on the destruction caused when Hurricane Matthew hit southern Haiti in October 2016. Mukherjee and other PIH staff supported a hospital that serves 1 million people. The full story.
 

“It's going to save a lot of people.”

Infrastructure Manager Steve Mtewa on Dambe Health Center, a 13-room clinic that PIH opened in 2016 to serve one of the most remote parts of Malawi. The full story.
 

“This is tragic and unthinkable, and it can be prevented.”

CEO Dr. Gary Gottlieb on the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone, where 1 of every 90 births proves fatal for the mother. Out of roughly 30 deliveries per month at PIH’s Wellbody Maternity Center, not a single mother or infant has died since the Center opened in April, 2015. The full story.
 

“The opportunities that this new partnership opens are amazing.”

Evelyn Espinoza, health director for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, on the unique collaboration, forged in 2016, between her tribe and PIH’s program in the Navajo Nation. The full story.
 

“There hasn't been any real TB drug development for a very long time.”

Dr. KJ Seung on why he’s excited about bedaquiline and delaminid, the first new tuberculosis medicines in 40 years. In 2016, PIH began using the drugs, which are more effective and less toxic than the alternatives, to treat patients in six countries. The full story.
 

“When you enter the ER, it is almost like you are in Europe.”

Physician Assistant Paul Geah on PIH’s $1 million renovation of J.J. Dossen Hospital in Liberia, which includes the addition of the first x-ray machine since Geah began working at Dossen in 1981. The full story.
 

“Try as we might, PIH can only touch a tiny fraction of the world’s population. The university is a way to reach infinitely more people.”

Jarrett Collins, director of university operations, on PIH’s University of Global Health Equity, a private institution in Rwanda that teaches master’s candidates how to build health care systems. Construction on the 250-acre campus began in 2016. The full story.
 

“These are the best problems to have.”

Program Officer Emmanuel Kamanzi on increasing demand for breast cancer screening in Rwanda, where PIH clinicians and colleagues trained hundreds of women to spot signs of the disease. In response, PIH set up a clinic dedicated to breast cancer in 2016. The full story.
 

“All of them have been called to step beyond the traditional bounds of medical training.”

Co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer on the graduation of residents trained in internal medicine and global health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The full story.
 

“We would spend our evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. cutting tablets.”

Anatole Manzi, director of global learning and training, on the lengths needed to treat HIV-infected children in Rwanda in the mid-’90s. Few others treated pediatric HIV, and the medication was only available in adult dosages. The full story.
 

“I fell in love with TB.”

Dr. David Omotayo on working with tuberculosis-infected patients as a young trainee. He now works at a PIH-supported hospital in Lesotho. Botšabelo is the only hospital that treats advanced forms of TB in a country that has more TB per capita than any other. The full story.

“Nails work, but screws are very guaranteed.”

Woodworker Daniel Kakpo on a technique he learned in the PIH woodshop, which helps renovate PIH facilities in Liberia. In 2016, the PIH woodshop began to fund its work by selling furniture on harperwoodshop.com. The full story.