Surgical teams from MDM continue to operate at the general hospital in the centre of Port-au-Prince and at Cité Soleil.
"We expect to perform around 400 amputations over the coming days" Jacques Lorblanches, one of our surgeons from the emergency team, he said Haiti was the worst disaster scene he had ever seen. He worked in Iran after a massive earthquake in 2004. "It's much worse here,'' he said. "We have no radio, no electricity, no nothing.''
The surgical teams are carring out amputations with a hundred people waiting for surgery. As the news spreads that medical teams have arrived, people are being brought to the hospitals in makeshift stretchers and wheelbarrows. According to the team they are not dealing with those who died in the earthquake but now have people dying while they wait for medical carre. Treatment of those who are seriosuly ill and for children is being made a priority.
Madeleine - 4 years old:
Madeleine's parents were at work when the earthquake hit and it was a neighbour who pulled her out of the rubble. She lost her leg and has cuts on her face.
Katiana - 13 years old:
Katiana arrived at the hosptial with her Aunt. "A wall fell on top of me. I have no idea where my parents are and I can't contact them." She has had to have both her legs amputated.
Surgeon, Gerard Pascal says the work is very intense: "The are so many urgent cases, it is very hot here too. There is such a lack of infrastructure such as running water and basic commodities."
For the other non-surgical teams their challenge continues to be trying to reach the people on the outskirts of the capital where some are still awaiting aid. Our teams have already begun working in the rescue effort, distributing medicines, providing immediate medical care and setting up temporary mobile hospitals. Two emergency teams including specialist surgeons and 40 tons of materials were flown into Haiti, joining an additional team that has come in from Canada.