1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Haiti's Medical Crisis: In the Trenches
producer/videographer/writer: Jack Renaud correspondent: Dr. Jennifer Ashton sr. producer: Katie Boyle supervising producer: Pamela Auerbach videographers: Tony Furlow, Paul Lederman, Matt Tyburski
Jan. 16, 2010: Watch
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
January 16 through January 19, 2010 **Note: technical quality of the on-line entry is poor and incomplete. we are arranging to send hard copies on DVD. please do not send these uploaded files out for judging.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
When the devastating earthquake struck Haiti last January, CBS News quickly sent its medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton to Port-au-Prince. But, unlike the other medical reporters in Haiti, Jen was embedded with the University of Miami medical team, actually working in the emergency tents and in the field…her reporting was on the side. For days, she worked and lived in the makeshift clinic in a remote corner of the airport. She administered IV's, changed bedpans, but also participated in life-saving emergency procedures (and others that didn't end as well). It all gave her tremendous insight into the plight of patients and struggles of the medical community&along with her hands-on medical work, Ashton assisted doctors from the Israeli Field Hospital in their initial in-country crisis assessments, and was the first national reporter aboard America's floating hospital, the USNS Comfort. (Our viewers connected with many of the cases on which Dr. Ashton worked and we felt it important to update the conditions, including on the 6-month and the coming one-year anniversaries of the quake) For the first 48 hours on the ground, producer Jack Renaud was Ashton's sole producer and videographer.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
there were none…total in-field on-the-ground journalism.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
we obviously worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the medical team organized by the University of Miami.
6. Results (if any).
no.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
no.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
this was one of the most rewarding journalistic experiences of our careers..given the lack of communication and security, this was as pure as first-person journalism can get. there were difficult times, to be sure…food, water and sleep were scarce, but one of the more challenging aspects was the personal emotional trauma we undoubtedly suffered. hours on end of witnesses relentless agony, especially amoung the quake's youngest victims took its toll. fortunately, we knew to seek out the psychological experts there so we could maintain. and that would be my advice — in situations like this, make sure you take care of your own health so you can continue to tell the stories that need telling.