Local MD Brings Haitian Cancer Patient to Pgh.

A local pediatric doctor helped transport Haitian teen Kenson Jean to Pittsburgh for emergency cancer treatment this weekend.

Dr. Mark Sangimino of Allegheny General Hospital examined the child in a field hospital outside the Port-au-Prince airport, before overcoming many bureaucratic obstacles to fly him to Pennsylvania.

He says the plane was leaving at seven o’clock, with or without the doctor and child.

“It took me almost 45 minutes to determine that the boy wasn’t even there. I ran to the airport trying to figure out where he was, and he was still back at the tent community because the medical director there didn’t think there was any hope,” says Sangimino.

“We got caught right up to the point of seven o’clock.”

Sangimino says the first medical step is surgical reconstruction of the 15-year-old’s swollen left leg, which is stricken with bone cancer. He says after that, chemotherapy is likely.

The orthopedic doctor says although it was a miracle to bring Jean to Pittsburgh, there were many other children in similar situations that should also have come.