In response to the earthquake that ravaged Haiti’s capital on January 12, 2010, Partners In Health helped to send hundreds of volunteer nurses, doctors, and other medical and logistics professionals from around the United States and Europe to help support their roughly 5,000 staff on the ground. The following essay is from one of those volunteers, Deb Pitts, RN from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. Although not specifically pertaining to Hopital Adventiste, the volunteer experience is remarkably similar throughout the quake zone.
I wanted to go to Haiti as soon as I heard about the earthquake. I remember watching TV and wanting to run over and help pull people out from the rubble. I can’t imagine what the people there felt like, hearing voices calling for help and not being able to get to them. As soon as I heard PIH was going to send nurses to Haiti, I volunteered. I’m an operating room (OR) nurse, I was an autopsy diener—a morgue assistant—in the army, I have lived in a tent and eaten next to nothing for weeks at a time. I knew they needed people like me, someone who can deal and help at the same time. My chance to go arrived on a Wednesday afternoon. I called my husband and he said, “go.” The next day I got my shots and precautionary medicine and left for Haiti.
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