Here is an Article I wrote that was published in Thursday's paper/Fort Bragg Advocate-News

Why did I go to Haiti?
I have to admit, though it may sound cheesy: I was called. For the first time in my life. It was just obvious to me that there was something I could really do to help the people there who had clearly suffered a devastation far beyond my imagination. I had waited all my medical career thus far to do something like this. I can't explain it any better. It wasn't completely selfless. I needed to go.
When I arrived on the island, we drove from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince by van in the middle of the night. When dawn came, we saw very gradually, the increasing destruction as we crossed over into Haiti. A house here, a broken house there. A pile of rubble.
As the miles fell away and we entered Port-au-Prince, the piles of rubble gradually began to outweigh the intact structures by far. Or, the homes were shifted on their ground, at half-mast, tilted, swaggering, as if unable to go on.
The people, however, were another story.
Though they lived on the streets, in former soccer stadiums, city parks, medians between major thoroughfares-- on any open piece of land available that did not fall in the shadow of a teetering building, in 4x4x4 tents made of anything available--corrugated tin, sheets, medical drapes, plywood, chalkboards from a school with the math lesson still visible--they were nothing other than RESILIENT. If there was one word that you will hear over and over again when discussing the survivors of this disaster in Haiti, that is it. I wondered how we, as Americans, would handle the same degree of devastation in our society. I don't see how we could. they never showed their suffering except on deep gaze into their eyes. They returned to work, they swept the streets, they moved the stones of rubble with their bare hands. They had nothing else to do but move forward into the unknown.
Medically, it was challenging. Resources were scarce. We worked in the same tent cities in which the people lived, under the same circumstances. It was hot. Humid. People were malnourished, even after only 2 weeks. Water was just beginning to be distributed in large quantity to areas outside the city, areas which, such as Leogane, where I worked, were closer to the epicenter and far more devastated than even the city.
Those who did not suffer acute loss of limb or serious injury suffered loss of family and friends; anxiety, depression, diarrhea, fever, stomach pain, and had nothing to eat or drink for days at a time. What could we do to fix them? Their hearts? There were wounds that had gone 2 weeks without care, infected, at risk of requiring amputation--teenagers, children and adults alike. There were long bone fractures that had yet to ever have eyes laid on them by a medical professional since the day of the "Tremblement du Terre", or "L''Evennement", as they referred to it. "The Event"... a recurring reference point in many interviews to come.
But despite the austere environment, the lack of any modern comforts that we here are used to and expect as patients, they were grateful, satisfied and able to persevere with just a little medicine and a little personal comfort.
What could we have used? Everything. Asthma medicine, baby formula (mothers had no milk) , better antibiotics, more wound care supplies, more hydration materials, any vitamins, iron, and even just local anesthetics. How much of my medical training did I employ? Depends. But do I feel I made a difference? Absolutely.
Should you try to help, even now at this 'late' date? By all means.
And if you can't go, and feel you've nothing to contribute, trust me when I say: Not true! You can help. Send money, send food, send love. Use your unique expertise to help rebuild this poor country in whatever way you are able. Support someone else who can help. This is a situation that will take years to improve. There is hardly a way NOT to help. Don't forget Haiti. I know I won't.


Jennifer Surber, MD
Mendocino Coast District Hospital
Emergency Department
2/12/2010

Time in Haiti: a short 7 days 1/23 - 1/31/2010
NGO: Heart to Heart International