It Ain't Over Till the Zombie Diva Sings

Current Mood: proud yet humbled

Eric and I have known each other since we were fifteen. (He was the "BOUS" - bridesmaid of unusual shape - at my wedding.) Eric has always been a kind and generous person. Now, he's a physician assistant, and he's currenlty providing medical care in Haiti. With his wife's permission, I'm posting an email he just sent to his friends and family. I thought folks would be interested in reading a first-hand account of what's going on there.

hi all- this is my first access to a computer since arriving here 1/20. I am in port au prince haiti with a volunteer disaster medical team called nyc medics. we flew in to the dominican republic  and took a long ride into haiti on the 20th and ran a 3 day injury clinic in a part of p.a.p. called citie militaire and 4 of us with support staff saw around 1000 pts(amazing how fast you can go with no paperwork...). we then transitioned into a model in which we picked random tent cities in the hardest hit areas and treated multiple pts who had not yet received  care or been able to walk since the earthquake including multiple femoral and pelvic fractures.  we have been able to evacuate folks who really need ongoing orthopedic or surgical care to local hospitals established by the germans and cubans. a few days ago we made a contact with the army 82nd airborne and have been riding with them as they evaluate each tent city in a grid pattern seeing patients as we find them. the conditions here are slowly improving. water has been distributed to most areas but many areas have yet to receive adequate food.
we are basically living in an "urban camping model" . we are sleeping in tents in the driveway of a local lawyer and using our water purifiers and camp stoves.  we brought plenty of food with us as we knew up front that we would need to be self sufficient.
tomorrow we are heading into a part of p.a.p. called city soliel which has not yet received any care.
the people here are amazing. these people who live in poverty are going out of their way to help us with transportation, interpreters, etc
the degree of crime reported in the mainstream media is mostly hype. we feel totally safe here and have even before we joined up with the 82nd
speaking of transportation, jet blue is comping us for all of our airtravel. they have my business in the future.
 my team is great. 8 medics, 2 pa's, 2 docs, and 1 nurse. one of the medics on the team is joe connelly, the author of "bringing out the dead" which was made into a movie in which nicholas cage played joe. very intense dude......
I did a phone interview yesterday with reachmd on xm satelite radio. don't know how they found me here although I think some of my p.a. friends might have set me up..
we are hoping to get a helicoper flight back to santo domingo on the 29th and we fly home on the 30th. I may not have access to reliable internet again until 1/31 or 2/1 so it may take a while for me to get back to you. thanks again to all who took shifts for me.
hope you are all well.

Eric