Abbott Laboratories is donating $2.5 million in cash and supplies to help Haiti recover from an earthquake that left tens of thousands sleeping in the streets.
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) and Kinetic Concepts Inc. (NYSE:KCI) are together donating $4.5 million in grant funding and supplies to humanitarian agencies struggling to help Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake that struck Jan. 12.
Abbott, the Chicago-based medical device and pharmaceuticals giant, said its initial shipment of pharma and nutritional products is already in use on the ground in Haiti, where thousands are sleeping in the streets with little or no medical care amid shortages of food and water. Abbott will donate a total of $2.5 million in cash, pharmaceuticals and nutritional products.
It’s part of Abbott’s ongoing efforts in Haiti, where the company has been working to expand access to healthcare since 2007. The American Red Cross, CARE, the Catholic Medical Mission Board and Partners in Health will split an initial grant of $150,000.
KCI said it will contribute more than $2 million worth of advanced wound care products to the Haiti relief effort, collaborating with the Surgical Implant Generation Network (SIGN) and Project Medishare to distribute the products. KCI is also developing a program to match donations made by its employees to the relief effort.
Abbott and KCI join Becton, Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) in pledging to support the relief effort. BD is donating $550,000 to support relief efforts in Haiti and pledged to ship another $500,000 worth of medical equipment to the island nation.
Writing after his first day on the ground in Port-au-Prince Jan. 17, Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health said the city is peaceful and quiet.
"Beyond the horror, one very striking reality is that things are totally peaceful," Lyon wrote "No UN. No police. No U.S. marines and no violence or chaos or anything. Just people helping each other."
At least 50,000 people are sleeping in the open in the city’s main central park, Lyon estimated.
"It was almost silent. People cooking, talking, some singing and crying. People are kind, calm, generous to us and others. Even with hundreds lying on the ground, open fractures, massive injuries of all kinds," he wrote. "There are few dead bodies on the street. Stench is everywhere. The city is changed forever."
MassDevice urges readers to join us in contributing to the relief efforts underway in Haiti. To make a donation to our friends at Partners in Health, please click here.
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