A Message from the CEO

January 19, 2010

To the Stony Brook University Hospital family,

There is nothing I can say about the events in Haiti following the devastating earthquake there last week that hasn’t already been expressed eloquently by Dr. Stanley’s message (www.stonybrook.edu/sb/haiti). As healthcare professionals committed to the sanctity and preservation of life, human suffering and the loss of life grate at the very core of our beings.

Help is pouring into Port-au-Prince, albeit more slowly than any of us would have wished. However, even those of us living here, more than a thousand miles away, can impact the rescue effort, recovery, and rebuilding in a number of ways. As an individual, you can:

• Make an individual and direct contribution to an organization engaged in the rescue.
• Take it upon yourself to organize your friends and colleagues to contribute to charities and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) streaming to Haiti with help and support.
• Join with your church or community organization to provide help.

And, if it is appropriate for you, you can pray for the victims.

The Stony Brook University Hospital family is also responding to the disaster in the following ways:

• Donation collection containers are available in the cafeteria, the Gift Shop, Starbucks and at the Hospital Information Desk. Containers will also be available at our outpatient facilities. Your spare change can change the lives of those affected by this disaster. No contribution is too small.
• We are reaching out to the Haitian community in Suffolk County through the Haitian Americans United for Change organization.
• I met with concerned Hospital employees on January 19 to discuss what else Stony Brook University Hospital, as a healthcare provider, can do to help the earthquake victims. More information to come.

So far, our immediate response has been mostly personal with donations made by Hospital faculty and staff to the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, UNICEF, and other relief organizations. For a listing of some of the organizations involved in the Haitian earthquake relief effort, visit www.stonybrook.edu/sb/haiti.

Whatever you choose to do, the contribution you make will be more than repaid in gratitude from the people of Haiti, a nation that in its 200+ years of existence has suffered far more and far more often than any of us could expect to endure.

Please consider how you can help. Anything, everything, will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Steven L. Strongwater, MD
Chief Executive Officer