Former director of Haitian center recovers from car crash

On Wednesday, March 4, Riche Zamor and two colleagues from Haiti’s University of Fondwa were in an automobile accident while traveling from Fondwa to the capital city of Port au Prince. Zamor was barely two months into his stint as university president. The former executive director of Columbia Road’s Haitian Multi-Service Center, Dr. Zamor had left that post to assume his new duties in Haiti in late December.

“We were driving to Part au Prince and the driver decided to pass a bus,” Zamor recalled in an interview this week. At the same time, a truck coming in the opposite direction also moved into the passing lane, and the two vehicles collided head-on.

“Both legs were broken at the knee,” Zamor said. The other men were less seriously injured. At first, Zamor was treated at a Physicians Without Borders medical facility on the island, and the next day he was flown to a Miami Hospital, where he was stabilized. His famiiy spoke with his personal physician at Beth Israel./Deaconess Hospital, and within days he was transported back to Boston, where on March 16 he underwent successful surgery.

“My family and I wanted to thank you all for your support and prayers during this terrible time,” he told friends in a May 4 email. “Thanks to you, I am now on the way to full recovery. I am pleased to inform you that rehabilitation is going well and that I am scheduled to be discharged on May 8th. I am finally going home, two months in the hospital was getting to me.”

For the time ahead, Zamor plans to recuperate at his home in Randolph MA, and will remain on medical leave from his university post.


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