Dr. Farmer's Remedy For World Health

(CBS)  The great innovators of our time are said to be the titans of technology - the inventors of the microchip, the founders of Microsoft, the guys behind Google. But far from Silicon Valley another great thinker and innovator is changing the world with far less fanfare. His name is Dr. Paul Farmer.

As Byron Pitts reports, more than 20 years ago Dr. Farmer and a few other great minds created a charity called "Partners In Health." In the years since, they revolutionized the delivery of healthcare worldwide, saving millions of lives in places where no one thought there was any reason for hope.

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"The idea that because you're born in Haiti you could die having a child. The idea that because you're born in you know Malawi your children may go to bed hungry. We want to take some of the chance out of that," Farmer tells Pitts.

Farmer invited 60 Minutes to central Haiti, where he discovered his life's work 25 years ago. The invitation meant a three-hour, jaw clenching, teeth rattling ride on an unpaved road from the capital city to the hospital.

If the ride doesn't break your back, what you see when you arrive will break your heart: the squatter settlement of Cange is one of the poorest parts of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The desperate need Paul Farmer saw in central Haiti as a young man inspired him and four friends to create Partners in Health. They raised money and built what's become the largest hospital in central Haiti.

Asked how many lives he thinks Partners In Health has saved, Farmer says, "In medicine, we say 'TNTC,' too numerous to count."

What began as a small, understaffed and ill-equipped clinic in 1985, today has 100 inpatient beds, an array of specialists, and three operating rooms. They have nearly two million patient visits a year. And the medical care at the clinic is free. For Farmer, healthcare is a human right. He wants to show the world that children for example don't have to die of treatable illnesses like tuberculosis or malaria, diseases which they treat every day.

"Do you have any idea how many people around the world die from treatable diseases?" Pitts asks.

"Well probably about ten million a year," Farmer estimates. "Well, let me just give you some numbers. Just from AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and women who die in childbirth, I bet that's six million."

Haitians are so desperate for medical care that each night people sleep on the ground, outside the hospital, just waiting to get treated. 60 Minutes was there when Farmer got word that a woman dying in childbirth was being prepared for an emergency c-section.

The surgical team was made up entirely of Haitians. Partners In Health staffs its hospitals with as many locals as possible, so they are not dependant on Americans. In this case, the baby was delivered alive. For the mother who'd lost a lot of blood, it was touch and go.

Dr. Farmer checked on her after the operation. "She's gonna make it, thumbs up," he remarked later.

"That same woman, same circumstances, 25 years ago, what would have happened?" Pitts asks.

"Well, she wouldn't have made it," Farmer says.

Asked what that tells him about his work, Farmer tells Pitts, "It tells me that if you set your sights high and if you stick with it, you can make real progress. That's what it says to me."

In fact, Farmer has made astounding progress: Partners In Health has expanded and now works in nine countries, including Peru, Russia, Mexico and three countries in Africa. With 6,000 employees worldwide, their budget of $50 million dollars is barely enough to keep it going.

Farmer spends most of his time commuting between the hospitals in Rwanda and Haiti. One of his priorities is to train a new generation of doctors to follow in his footsteps, physicians like David Walton.

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[abena1]

wjwarrenca: In many third-world countries, people don''t realize the importance of seat belts and cars often do not have them because previous owners have taken them out or they just don''t work.

ladyharley05 and feya1: Dr. Farmer actually does some work in some of Boston''s poorest neighborhoods. Read "Mountains Beyond Mountains." Please do your research before you malign the man for providing invaluable service to some of those that the world has chosen to forget (both here in the US and abroad).

rockman107: I agree somewhat with your comment about birth control, but it is such a controversial issue in most of the countries that value children as social capital and "insurance" for old age. As I''m sure you probably know, children are a form of wealth in many cultures. I would imagine that PIH offers some birth control to those who want it, but pushing the issue would be detrimental in the long run: the organization would risk losing the trust of the people they work for. And having many kids is not necessarily the reason people die in childbirth: It''s most often the lack of adequate medical care.

Dr. Farmer spoke at my college graduation and he is the most humble, unassuming man. He''s one of my personal heroes and I can only hope to achieve half of the things he has accomplished in my own future career.

[louise1945]

I WAS SO TROUBLED BY THE POOR WOMAN WHO NEARLY DIED HAVING HER 11TH CHILD. IT SEEMS THAT THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE FOR WOMEN''S HEALTH ( AS WELL AS THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS OF HER FAMILY) IS GOOD ACCESS TO BIRTH CONTROL.

[hahnse]

While I am impressed with Dr. Farmers altruism I find it amazing that with all of those sick and starving people the words "birth control" never came up. Without birth control how can he ever hope to get ahead, obviously he can''t. As he is one of eight children himself is it possible his religion is clouding his judgement, he is a phony saint.

[werners4]

Byron Pitts: your great coverage brought tears to my eyes....redemptive journalism....60 minutes at its very best!....a lone flickering light in the interminable darkness that is 2008 TV.

[cronopi0]

"Family planning is an integral part of the model of comprehensive women%u2019s health care that was developed at Zanmi Lasante in Haiti and emphasized as one of the ''four pillars'' of PIH''s HIV Equity Initiative. Each of ZL%u2019s clinical sites has a full-time nurse trained in *** education and reproductive health counseling. ZL has been offering free condoms and other contraceptive methods for over 15 years. In 2003, Zanmi Lasante began training and mobilizing community health workers who specifically promote family planning and women%u2019s health. These ajans fanm (women''s health agents) travel throughout the countryside, teaching women and men about sexually transmitted infections (including HIV) and contraceptive methods, distributing condoms and oral contraceptives, and referring pregnant women and others to the clinics. This successful model is being replicated at PIH sites in Rwanda and Lesotho."

--- from http://www.pih.org/issues/maternal.html

It''s important to understand -- as PIH clearly does -- that availability of family planning is not the only barrier to its use; others include severe inequality of rights between men and women and the interplay of crushing economic conditions with the *** trade. By pursuing a broad-based approach including education, empowerment of women, and economic justice, PIH will accomplish far more than "abstinence" models or even simple contraceptive distribution could ever hope to do.

[larsz-2009]

there is still hope for this world with people like dr farmer.

[ringading3]

Howard Dean, who could not win on his run, has now decided that your votes don''''t count! He and his hand picked "SUPERDELEGATES" will decide what is best for you. Now shut up and be good little DumboCraps! Florida and Michigan have been "Bad", so now they get to sit in the corner! YeeeeHaaaaa

[hoffju02]

there is actually a book written about him called Mountains Beyond Mountains by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder. It goes into Pual Farmers life story with great detail.

[eznzo]

I take issue with each person who criticizes another for doing good work out the US. I don''t understand why being born inside these borders is thought to entitle anyone to better resources than anyone else anywhere in the world. There are people in this coutry who are sick and struggling. But conditions are so much worse in other places. Compassion should be global.

That this man''s work would elicit so many criticisms is appalling. First, a twelve minute story on TV can''t possibly explore the scope of the work of PIH. Secondly, Dr. Farmer has done more good for the world than most of us can imagine. From Mountains Beyond Mountains, I learned of some of his beliefs, and have adopted them. Poverty is violence, an abuse of human rights, and needs to be addressed as such. People who want to help a community need to respond to what that community wants, not what the helpers think they should have. People born in the US who have relative privilege have an obligation to use that privilege to help others. Just because something is hopeless is no reason not to try. This last one accounts for why the PIH model of community healthcare is now an international model for aid. At first they were laughed at. Now they''re emulated.

Finally, I personally know of several people who have been inspired by Dr. Farmer and are now doing or planning international humanitarian work. They may have done so anyway, or maybe not.

[nonayabiness]

Nice story. How selfless this man and his staff are.