One doctor and six nurses have taken leave of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for a two-week relief mission to Haiti, where they will treat victims of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck the island nation on Jan. 12.
The team was transported to Jacksonville, Fla. on Sunday, and from there was flown to the USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed ship-turned-hospital operated by the U.S. Navy that is currently docked outside Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
“I feel very blessed to be going to Haiti. … I have a specific set of skills, and I hope to give back what I’ve received (from medical training),” said pediatrics nurse Jessica Kubish.
Kubish said she did not know what conditions would meet her on the ground in Haiti.
“I don’t think there is any way to gauge the need (for medical care),” she said. “It’s vast.”
As of Feb. 11, Haiti government officials had placed the death toll between 217,000 and 230,000 people.
An estimated 1.2 million more people are displaced and living in temporary camps, according to the Associated Press.
Pre-existing medical conditions and common diseases are bound to get much worse under these conditions, said David Feinberg, CEO and associate vice chancellor of the UCLA hospital system.
“Right now, it’s less about pulling people from buildings,” Feinberg said, adding that medical efforts will instead be focused on providing pediatric care and tending to physical trauma injuries.
The pilot UCLA team will be in Haiti for two weeks, after which a second team of seven physicians will take its place for an additional two-week shift.
UCLA is working alongside the Navy, which is providing the team of physicians with transportation, room and medical supplies.
Feinberg praised the relief mission’s solid organization, comparing UCLA’s response to efforts the university made in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Getting the team to Haiti, however, was a logistical nightmare.
“This has been an extremely challenging program to put together, and it’s fluctuated by the hour,” said Shannon O’Kelley, associate director of clinical services for the hospital system who organized the mission.
UCLA had originally planned to send 12 physicians to a field hospital in Port-au-Prince, but last-minute changes by the Navy caused the university to reevaluate arrangements.
An initial goal to send the team to Haiti by the end of January was also delayed.
In the meantime, UCLA has sent a disaster kit ““ described as a mini emergency room packed with medical supplies ““ to the region.
The hospital system is also allowing UCLA faculty who wish to go to Haiti through outside organizations to use vacation time that has been donated by other personnel. So far, 80 hours have been donated, said UCLA spokeswoman Roxanne Moster.
Feinberg said he does not know how many physicians have gone to Haiti through the program.
“We have 2,000 physicians and about 10,000 staff members. If someone is on vacation and decides to go there I wouldn’t know,” he said.
More than 50 people initially applied to join the UCLA team, O’Kelley said.
Many of those who were eventually chosen for the mission have had previous disaster or military experience.
The team leader, Patti Taylor, previously served in the U.S. Army for 38 years.
“The is our “˜A’ team,” O’Kelley said.
UCLA is not partnering with any other UCs on the relief mission, and O’Kelley said he is unsure whether other universities are making similar efforts to send medical teams to Haiti.