Four Corners med teams heads to Haiti

BAYFIELD, Colo. (KREZ-KRQE) - The images of suffering and desperation following the earthquake in Haiti that has claimed nearly 230,000 lives, prompted Mission Outfitter, an organization out of Bayfield, Colorado to put together a team to help.

The 12-member team took off from Durango’s airport Thursday morning on an eight-day trip to the quake-ravaged country. It’s a trip that has been in the works for some time.

“The day after the earthquake we started this process and it’s taken this long to just logistically figure things out,” Mission Outfitter founder Paula Redding said.

The team made up of six doctors, three nurses and three coordinators packed as many medical supplies and medications as they could onto a private plane donated for this trip. They fit about 1,500 pounds of medical equipment and supplies onto the plane, all of which was donated.

Each person going on this trip volunteered.

“Once you’ve done it a few times, you see the utter need in these places, that it just compels you to go,” said Dr. Robert Desko, a general surgeon and the medical coordinator for the trip.

“My hope is that I’m able to help as many children as I can,” added Dr. Kelly Miller, a Durango-based pediatrician.

Once on the ground the team will go straight to work helping hundreds of people who survived the quake only to be faced with new and potentially deadly problems.

“You have public health issues like cholera, typhoid and that kind of thing that is starting to be an issue in these refugee camps, these tent cities,” Desko said.

Besides the medical outreach and work the teams plans to do, the three coordinators are also using this trip as a scouting opportunity so they can bring additional teams in the future.

"Logistically we need to go in, find a safe place for our teams to land and sleep and eat and then figure out with the organizations that are already established on the ground, how we can plug our teams in to just come along side them and assist the work that's already in progress," Redding said.

Mission Outfitter has taken volunteers on aid trips to countries such as Peru, Guatemala and Romania.

The group also has some experience with disaster relief after taking five teams to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which Redding says will help with their efforts in Haiti.

“This is a different scenario, but it’s still disaster relief and working with those on the ground to try and help the people the most effective way that we can," Redding said.

The 12-member team will return on March 5. Mission Outfitter is hoping to take its next round of volunteers beginning in April and plans to continue the effort well into the fall if needed.