Received: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 @ 23:32

To All,

Today was an eventful day that started with a beautiful sunrise over this devastated country. A moment of beauty to cause a pause of reflection at the start of a day. It is a bit overwhelming to see all the destruction that has occurred as the result of a natural disaster that in less than a minute of time the entire world that you have known around you changes and beyond your wildest dreams. It looks like an A-bomb hit this city as you can see from the pictures with entire areas without a house standing and people all living in the streets. Some out of fear that an aftershock will hit and finish the job and others because their house is already destroyed. I drove thru the city again today by a different route and saw the National Hospital where so many volunteer medical personnel are present with a facility that is minimally functional. This includes our friends from Mount Sinai Hospital who we are sharing accommodations. Many patients died in the hospital as the walls and ceilings collapsed on top of them. Hundreds of patients are seen daily at this facility and by the medical team there and most are followed in their temporary quarters in the city parks. CNN, FOX and others have been there and daily, the celebrities walk thru with the photographers in tow. Please don't believe the negative news reports that highlight any of the negatives that are presented or the questions of where are the Americans and why aren't they doing more. I am proud to be an American and Proud to be here representing my country caring for those in need. We all are doing the best that we can with what we have and no one at any time could have planned for this devastation and the extent of injuries that have occurred and our news networks are doing such a disservice to the world for the sake of a "interesting" story to highlight something of relative insignificance. They just get tired of telling the truth and all the good that is being provided. As long as we all work together we can all rest at night that we have done the best that we can do. It is impossible for anyone to step into a country that has little healthcare infrastructure in place in the first place and are light years behind where we are in the USA and add to that the destruction of what little they had left and then have this type of disaster that requires tremendous resources to address. This is impossible task at any time, at any place and anywhere.

Next I drove by the Univ. of Haiti Nursing School next to the National Hospital and was overwhelmed with the story that All the nursing students died in the earthquake while in class that day. This is Incredible especially at a time when nursing care and support would be so critical and now they are gone. This is also true of the Universities that had a similar occurrence with entire generations of the brightest and best of Haiti have been wiped out. Most families here cannot afford to send more than one of their children to the University and therefore select the brightest of the bunch to go. This loss will take a generation to repair.

Next we went to the main Soccer field to drop off 3 of our team members to triage patients in need and refer those we could help back to the hospital. They saw 60 and referred 15. Next I went by the Parliament and the Palace both of which were destroyed. Along with the cultural history of the country.

My day took a turn for the better though when I got to the airport and found that our palate of supplies had arrived and my driver and I loaded up the goods to the brim. I felt like Christmas in January because these needed supplies would allow us to continue in our mission to serve. We then went by the food supply and loaded up with MRE's (meals ready to eat) for our team and the patients at the hospital. No space was spared. I felt like Santa Claus when I arrived back from the trip as we looked thru the boxes to see what surprises were within. Many small wonders brought us great joy like the presence of a old manual hand drill that would help us tremendously. Today our team efficiency continued to improve and what a great job they are doing. We completed 9 surgical procedures, followed up on wound care and dressing changes and delivered all those fancy new crutches that we received yesterday to get our patients up and moving. Lots of progress was made. Everybody is doing a great job and doing their part, however big or small. They are all going beyond their normal routines with one focus in mind: the patients.

Our day ended with the Christmas celebration continuing when the Mount Sinai team brought us their large fragment fracture repair set which we were in desperate need of to do even more. The day ended as it began with a little ray of sunshine amongst the devastation. Tomorrow a new day will dawn.
Love to all.

Brian
Dr. Parsley