FWIW

One place to donate funds for Haiti

http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf

Thanks John, my wife is staging in Miami for the flight to the Dominican Republic this morning.
She's a critical care nurse practioner who focuses on cardiology....however, she hooks up with Doctors Without Borders during a crisis....such as this...she also went to Indonesia after the tsunami....

Ohhhhhh

I'm blown away.

TX.............prayers for your wife.......my heart goes out to her and those she is with.

I'm hearing that they are turning away aircraft and there is no place for them to park once they land in Haiti.

First, the air trafic control tower was damaged...the USAF came in and set up one.
Secondly, fuel for the planes....not enough to get the planes back to where ever they came from....the sea port is damaged, so ships can't dock with the needed supplies...so it all has to come in by air..

She's there, it's a mess. Bad, bad, bad, roads are difficult, if not impossible to pass as you get closer to Port Au Prince
No medical supplies, no food for the population, filthy water...she took couple of cases of MRE's, her water filter and spare filters...she took masks, gloves...whatever we could grab and pack in a few hours....

They do have security..private security...a firm comprised of ex-French Foreign Legionnaires (sp?)..
I upgraded her phone so she can text and email from there...so I get updates every few hours..she has emailed me a couple of pictures..I debated whether or not to post them up, but I just can't look at them long enough, so I deleted them.

If anyone is so inclined, Doctors Without Borders, American Red Cross, the blood banks can use donations...

Thanks for asking about her...

Thank You so much TX for the update.

(I'm going to edit the title to this thread)

A Heart Rending report

(NP = Nurse Practitioner)

The Link to Doctors Without Borders donations ----> http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/

Oh my goodness! Thank you for the updates, I will tell DH and let him know as well. Please keep us updated as you can, on the ground information may be very painful but is very much needed. I had trouble sleeping last night when I made the mistake of switching channels just as the Dr. on CNN was being abandoned at the field hospital he had been working at. He did say he was protected by a security team, but watching him try not to cry, not because of his own situation, but because of the post surgical patients that were pretty much being left to die, was just something I had never expected to see on live television. He did say over and over again that the doctors and nurses were being forced to leave, they were not willingly leaving patients.

I have not even told DH about this yet, I was going to let him wake up a bit first. A doctor's son with a serious interest in herbal healing, he may be more upset than I was.

I'm sure you poor wife is likely to see a great deal more of this than any of us can imagine.

DC

Thats like volunteering for a stint in hell. A strong lady you have there TX.

Yes, well...she brought it up the night of the earthquake...I think it was the worst arguments we ever had, I'm not so proud to admit.

However...the next afternoon, I saw a video of a man, carrying who I assumed was his daughter...and she was hurt...looked bad...and I thought, if I was in his position, and my daughter was hurt, I would want someone like Melissa to take care of her....so I told her go, and I'd start packing up some supplies

It's bad...yes...the gangs are starting to form up, and roam, no security for distribution of food/water...supplies trickling in...she told me about that hospital being evacuated for security...the bodies...so many bodies...mass grave outside of town...

Her and another volunteer left the camp/hospital compound yesterday afternoon with suture kits, spray bottles of rubbing alcohol, triple anti-biotic and started helping the "little" wounds...the one that turn into raging infections in a place like that....she said they were quickly overwhelmed and security had to straighten out some things ( her words)..but they stayed for a couple of hours and did the best they could with what they had...

My parents are on their way here from Arizona...

Thanks TX

(Glad your parents are coming)

I'm glad your parents are coming too, I told DH and he is also following the updates.

bumping.

I'm going to "sticky" this, and move Ting's "first hand" report over from news and "sticky" it too. First hand info is the best! Thanks TX Protector!

Good Idea Jonas

Yep,

Last I heard, the were getting trucks in, she didn't now if it was food, medical supplies or what...
Lots of crush wounds, as would be expected...broken bones, crushed chests, etc...most too gory to relate...it's bad enough I have to read or hear about it, without putting out here for posterity.

Spent time again today out, away from the hospital and went to the makeshift camping area across from the Presidential palace to start caring for them and trying to prevent infections from getting out of hand.

She ran into Sanjay Gupta from CNN while there....he was spending more time just doing, than reporting...in fact, she said he looked annoyed having a camera crew around.

Mom and Dad got here about 2 hours ago...thank goodness....the kids are much calmer as they're smart enough to turn the TV off of Fox.

May your parents bring peace to the house.