Bay area doctors land in Haiti to help kids

A group of local doctors who left for Haiti early this morning to provide additional medical aid to some of the country's most seriously injured victims of the earthquake just landed in Port-au-Prince.

Three orthopedic surgeons and an obstetrician/gynecologist headed to the devastated country at 4:45 a.m. from Tampa International Airport and landed in Haiti at 10:30 a.m. The trip was organized by Help Brings Hope for Haiti. The locally run group has organized medical mission trips to Haiti with area doctors for the past seven years.

Hillary Frank Aubin, who works with the group, recently was contacting people about food donations and found someone willing to donate a plane to send medical supplies and personnel.

"We decided to gather needed items and put some physicians on it and send them out," she said.

Four doctors and two emergency room nurses will be traveling to a small town about 20 miles east of Port-au-Prince, Haiti where a hospital is located. They will turn two surgical units into four.

"We're now 11 days out and there are quite a number of people who have seen no physicians who have crushed limbs and are going to die or be permanently maimed without care," Aubin said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was supposed to be aboard the flight, but problems with plans for a return flight forced the senator to cancel plans for visiting the earthquake-stricken country in an effort to speed up the evacuation of Haitian children for life-saving medical procedures, according to his office.

More than 200 children are eligible for quick passage to the U.S., according to Nelson. The children, he said, have treatable injuries, but will likely die because of a lack of equipment or supplies.

"We must help the most vulnerable among us and that includes our neighbors in Haiti where children are in dire need right now," Nelson said before his trip was called off.

Nurse Eunice Laborde is glad to have the opportunity to help people of the country where she grew up.

"I've been sitting by, watching, thinking I need to do something," she said. "It's good therapy for me that I can do something."