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Meanwhile, Medical Director, Dr. Prévil, back on campus from his harrowing experiences in Port au
Prince, worked with visiting physicians to orchestrate a rapid expansion of hospital beds and services.
Dr. Prévil says, “The logistics could only be planned for up to a certain point. Then we had to rely on
our instincts.” In addition to the fourth and fifth operating room, three exam rooms were turned into
procedure rooms where limited surgeries could be performed. The once crowded patient waiting room
was converted into a preoperative area. Small tents and sleeping bags dotted the hospital grounds,
sleeping quarters for the 90 to 100 volunteers who descended on the hospital campus, week after week,
though few spent more than a couple hours a day at rest. Sacré Coeur cooks and laundry service workers
toiled round the clock to keep up with the washing of patient linens and scrubs and the feeding of 800
to 1,000 patients, family members and volunteers.