Mass. aid teams bring care, equipment

Deb Clarke, clinical director of  Por Cristo, Caritas's program in Ecuador, reflected on her Haitian colleagues. "The one thing that has been so uplifting is to witness the tremendous outpouring of support from the Haitian people toward their countrymen. Not one staff member has complained about the stress or hardship working under extraordinarily difficult conditions."

Tom Curran, a Caritas nurse, commented on Haitian volunteers. "We have seen 15- and 16-year-old Red Cross volunteers running to helicopters to transport people – hand carrying them on stretchers for several blocks. The young high school kids from the Cap Haitian Royal Symphony are also transporting patients to and from x-ray down the street. Community women come each day in their Sunday best to bathe patients each day – people whom they have never met in their lives," he writes. "The amazing thing about the people is that even those who have almost nothing, try to give everything."

Dispatches are also coming from a group of doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who write about their experiences in Haiti on the blog Operational Medicine. Emergency doctors David Callaway and Sean Kelly, along with orthopedic surgeon Joe DeAngelis, describe their daunting days, but also one day worth savoring.
 
"Thankfully there are plenty of good news stories to report about. One woman needed an emergency cesarean section, not an easy task when operating in basically a field hospital environment," an unsigned blog entry says. "But the operation went smoothly, and a healthy boy 'Davison' was born. Adding to the celebration, the name Davison came from the last name of one of the aid workers who had been working closely to help the family." 

Veterans of other disaster relief efforts, including Hurricane Katrina and an earthquake that damaged central Ecuador, have gathered again to help Haiti.

The Harvard Foundation Haiti project, directed by Dr. S. Allen Counter, sent an experienced  team of four doctors and two assistants to bring medical care and supplies to Haiti, via helicopters from the Dominican Republic, according to a Harvard statement. They brought medications, bandages, antiseptics, and, at the request of the Haitian Embassy, body bags.