Twilight on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: about 40 seconds of chaos. 7.0 magnitude. Buildings begin to crack and the sound makes people think of the gunfire that is all too frequent in the downtown area. For safety, people run inside. Buildings, shoddily constructed, crumple, trapping those inside. One of the best hotels, the Montana, on a verdant hillside overlooking the steaming plain of lowland Port-au-Prince, pancakes entombing more than 300 people. The air is thick with heat and the dust of concrete.

Afternoon on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 in Oakland, CA: news on the car radio tells me I will make my fourth trip to Haiti sooner than planned...

It is the smell of the decomposing bodies of dead children at the collapsed school in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince and the knowledge that their remains may never be recovered that stays with me. Returning to our medical tent, I work with Cassandre*, who tells me that she was one of only three children who survived the destruction of her school. She is thirteen years old. When she was rescued after three days of being trapped in the rubble, she found out that her mother had been killed in the catastrophic 7.0 earthquake of January 12, 2010. We are the first medical team she has seen, now eight days after the quake. She may lose her leg, due to a fracture that has become badly infected. Gangrene has set in.

Listening to NPs and PAs talk about their experiences in disaster response following the devastating earthquake in Haiti is an endurance test for the tear ducts. Transcending the frustrations over delays in delivery of care, beyond the horror of severely infected wounds and partial amputations, mingled with the sense of wonder at the Haitian people's gratitude for the most basic care, there are stories of people — patients and providers — that would warm even the most jaded heart.

People screamed and wailed as the ground pitched and rolled underneath the makeshift tents at Haiti's Club de Pétionville country club. Alan Roth, RRT, MS, MBA, FAARC, felt the fear of the earthquake survivors around him.

"They didn't know what was going to happen next," he said, describing the 6.1 aftershock that mimicked the 7.0 upheaval of Haiti just one week before. "All the time we were there, there were tremors." ...

In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January, HHS responded with emergency medical supplies and treatment for the people of the island nation as part of a larger coordinated response.

Since that time, the HHS medical response efforts have moved from focusing on emergency acute care for those harmed in the earthquake to focusing on helping the people of Haiti rebuild their medical infrastructure, increase their capacity to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and secure the processes needed to ensure those who were injured can receive ongoing rehabilitative care...

The automated response system notified me of the deployment at 2:36 p.m., on Wednesday, Jan. 13. I confirmed the message and awaited orders. Since January was our on-call month, I already had my “ready bag” and my “24 hour bag,” which contains all the equipment and supplies I need to begin working immediately in any environment, in my car. I changed into my uniform and was ready to go...

SLAC Deputy Director of ES&H Brian Sherin recently returned from a deployment to Haiti with the U.S. Disaster Medical Assistance Team. He dealt with plenty of horror and disorder during his two-week stay. But somewhere, between setting up temporary medical centers, treating patients, and managing safety and security for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sherin and his fellow volunteers shared a few lighthearted moments, too...

Over the past few weeks, the world has seen countless images of the ongoing devastation and destruction in Haiti. But nothing, said Knightsen resident Aileen Hayes, can compare to the real thing...

A team of medical professionals from the Bay Area has returned from an assignment described as their most challenging and most rewarding, a two-week mission to Haiti...