Dr Barth Green Urges Haiti To Adopt His Project Medishare As Nations Model Drives Miami Project To Cure Paralysis

When Dr. Barth Green started the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis almost 30 years ago, people said he was nuts. Fast forward to today and the organization has raised nearly $300 million to support cutting-edge research, including live-saving hypothermia therapy administered to patients immediately after sustaining brain or spinal cord injuries.

He doesn’t mince words and isn’t afraid to comment on the importance of his work and how the state and nation’s priorities need to be realigned.

"The impact of spinal cord injury is billions of dollars every year, and we spend a pittance [compared] to the cost of one wing of a fighter plane to try and cure paralysis," Dr. Green said. "We’re trying to get everybody to screw their heads on right."

Though he heads the neurological surgery department at the University of Miami and Jackson and has operated on thousands of patients in nearly four decades, he may be better known as a founder of Project Medishare, which is working to provide a sustainable health delivery system to Haiti.

Project Medishare opened and ran the first field hospital in Haiti after the earthquake killed thousands in early 2010.

Today, he says, there’s extreme donor fatigue, and few are paying attention to Haiti outside South Florida. He’s been meeting with the country’s new president, Michel Martelly, to see if he’ll adopt Project Medishare’s model as the national health plan.

"I want to see Project Medishare put itself out of business in Haiti and turn Haitian programs over to Haitian health care providers, industrialists, agricultural and agronomists," Dr. Green said.

He discussed Project Medishare, his fight to cure paralysis and why he thinks oversight of the embattled Jackson Health System should be taken away from Miami-Dade government with Miami Today staff writer Zachary Fagenson.Find valuable, local Miami business and community news that you’ll find nowhere else. Read all of Miami Today. See if you qualify for print subscription delivery or subscribe now to e-Miami Today. and read the entire issue of Miami Today online and receive access to over five years of archived issues. To read this profile article in its entirety, subscribe to e-MiamiToday. With the e-MiamiToday you will be able to read the entire contents of Miami Today online exactly as it appears in print. Or order this issue, to receive a regular printed copy of this week’s Miami Today. You may also subscribe to the printed edition of Miami Today to receive the newspaper every week by mail. If you are reading this in Miami Today’s “Online Archive” as an archived web page and would like to see the entire article that was published, call Miami Today, 305-358-2663 and ask for the Circulation Department.   Top Front Page About Miami Today Put Your Message in Miami Today Contact Miami Today © Copyright 2011 Miami Today designed and produced by Green Dot Advertising and Marketingvar gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-4990655-1”);pageTracker._initData();pageTracker._trackPageview();