Pocono News Section

Local Doctors Recall Healing Mission in Haiti

Local Doctors Recall Healing Mission in Haiti - Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 5:36PM EST

Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Thursday, Jan 28, 2010 @ 05:36pm EST
Lewisburg, Union County-

A volunteer team of doctors and nurses from Evangelical Community Hospital just returned from a relief mission in Haiti.

Here’s their story, in their own words.

Dr. Brad Moyer noted how it all began. "One of the nurses, Hannah McDowell, called up and says, 'Hey I need a doctor to leave for Haiti on Monday morning with me,' and I was already scheduled to be off and it just worked out," he said.

"Each of us took three suitcases plus carry-ons, so we arrived with a lot of bags. I think it was about 850 lbs worth of medications and wound care types of supplies," Moyer noted.

He continued, "As you're driving, you know, there'd be normal buildings and then all of a sudden there'd be blocks where there'd be four-story buildings absolutely pancaked to the ground. People just out on the streets, I mean absolutely fearful for their lives."

Dr. Jack Devine interjected, "When we first arrived, we turned a bible school building into a clinic."

"Fortunately the mission had running water and they had resources that they could supply food for them," Dr. Moyer added.

Dr. Devine recalled, "We had people who were burned during the earthquake with gas explosions, and even children that were burned."

"Broken legs, broken arms, broken backs, broken pelvises, huge open wounds which hadn't been attended to," Dr. Moyer continued.

Dr. Devine explained, "Basically every wound that we saw in Haiti was contaminated and infected. Antibiotics were a necessity there."

He remembers being touched by the appreciation shown by the Haitian people.

Dr. Devine concluded, "The people that we came in contact with were extremely grateful for us being there. And, through interpreters, they many times expressed that at the end of our encounters, saying, 'God bless you.'"

Dr. Moyer and Dr. Devine spent a week treating survivors in Haiti. Another team from Evangelical Community Hospital is there now continuing the healing process at the clinic they set up.